Orange Hair, Living Dead

Maya felt like a zombie. Not the cool, brain-eating kind from Netflix binges—the high school senior, running-on-three-hours-of-sleep, surviving-on-iced-coffee kind. Third period AP Calc had become a blur of derivatives and suppressed yawns.

"You look like you died three days ago," whispered Jordan, sliding into the seat beside her. His chaotic curls bounced as he rummaged through his backpack. "Here."

He tossed something at her. A bright orange gummy vitamin shaped like a dinosaur.

"What is this?"

"Vitamin D. You're practically vampire pale, and it's gloomy as hell outside." Jordan winked. "Plus, it's orange. Citrus energy, you know?"

Maya stared at the gummy. Something about his casual attention made her chest feel weird—not bad weird, but like when your phone buzzes at 2 AM and you hope it's Them.

That afternoon, she found herself at the drugstore, standing before an aisle of hair dye boxes. Electric Orange. Sunset Copper. Neon Dream. Her mom would literally murder her. Her dad would give her that disappointed quiet thing that was somehow worse.

She grabbed the brightest box.

The transformation happened in her bathroom with old towels draped everywhere. When she rinsed out the dye and caught her reflection, Maya barely recognized herself. The orange was loud. Unapologetic. It screamed I'M HERE instead of can I please disappear into this locker?

Monday morning, the hallway went weirdly quiet as she walked to her locker. Stares. Whispers. Someone actually gasped.

Jordan appeared from the crowd, his eyes going wide. "Whoa."

Maya's stomach did that nervous flip thing. "Too much?"

"Nah." He grinned, and it was different from his usual joking around. More real. "It's... you're not a zombie anymore."

She laughed, and it felt like the first genuine laugh in months. "Still need that vitamin, though."

"Naturally." He reached into his pocket and produced another orange dinosaur gummy, placing it in her palm. His fingers lingered for like, a second longer than necessary.

Maya's heart did something genuinely embarrassing. Maybe she wasn't the living dead anymore. Maybe orange hair and weird vitamins with a cute boy were exactly what she needed to finally feel alive.