The Dead Pool Party

Maya's crush sat exactly three **palm** trees away from her at Tyler's end-of-summer bash. The Hawaiian-shirted trees swayed over the **pool**, casting weird shadows on the water where half the sophomore class was already splash-fighting. Maya adjusted her beanie—the same black **hat** she'd worn every day since seventh grade—and tried to look invisible.

"You okay?" her best friend Kai asked, flopping onto the lounge chair beside her. "You've been scrolling for an hour."

"Fine," Maya muttered, though her brain felt like actual mush. Three weeks of high school had already turned her into a **zombie**—first period geometry to last period cross country, then homework until her eyes burned. She was just going through the motions, a total NPC in her own life.

Then it happened.

Tyler's older brother stumbled out of the house, face gray-tinged, making this low groaning sound. Someone joked he was "dead drunk" until he lunged at the volleyball net and tried to bite Sasha's shoulder. The scream sliced through the party music like glass.

Maya's phone buzzed: ACTIVE SHOOTER ALERT - SHELTER IN PLACE.

But this wasn't a shooter. Tyler's brother was clawing at his own skin now, and suddenly there were three more of them—gray-faced, jerky-moving, impossibly wrong—shuffling through the back gate. Real actual **zombie** zombies.

Chaos erupted. People bolted toward the house, but Maya saw the back door was blocked. She whipped off her **hat**, shoving it into Kai's hands. "If we get separated, my phone's in the pocket."

"Maya, what—"

"Get in the **pool**. Now."

They weren't the only ones with that idea. Maya, Kai, Tyler, and like six others were treading water in the deep end while things that used to be people paced the deck, making those terrible hungry sounds. Maya's crush was there too, clinging to the concrete edge, hyperventilating.

"They can't swim," Maya said, her voice weirdly calm. "We just... wait."

She treaded water under the **palm** trees as the sun went down, watching the worst night of her life turn into something else entirely. Kai was crying but also laughing maniacally. Tyler kept saying "this is literally so sick" every five minutes. And her crush looked at her like she'd personally invented oxygen.

Three weeks of feeling like a **zombie** in high school, and it took actual zombies to make Maya feel alive. She'd lost her lucky **hat** and her entire concept of normal, but floating there in the **pool** under the swaying **palm**s, watching the world end, she finally felt like the main character.