The Social Zombie Smoothie

I'd been living on three hours of sleep and caffeine for three weeks straight. Midterms were absolutely brutal. I was basically a zombie at this point—shuffling through the hallways, eyes half-lidded, responding to "hey, what's up" with vague grunts.

My best friend Maya took one look at me in the cafeteria and slid a Tupperware across the table. "Drink this before you actually die."

I peered at the green sludge. "What is it? Toxic waste?"

"Spinach smoothie. My mom's recipe. It's got literally every vitamin known to humankind. You look like you haven't seen sunlight since 2019."

I took a tentative sip. Surprisingly? Not terrible. Actually kind of good. "Wait, why does this taste like... hope?"

Maya laughed. "That's the B12 talking. Or possibly the fact that you're finally consuming something that didn't come from a vending machine."

I'd been crushing on Tyler from my history class for months, but I'd been too zombie-fied to even attempt flirting. But that afternoon, fueled by whatever magical vitamins were in that smoothie, I actually asked him if he wanted to study together.

He said yes. MAYA'S SMOOTHIE WAS LOVE POTION.

The next day, I marched up to Maya with grave seriousness. "I need the recipe. My life depends on it."

She raised an eyebrow. "For the smoothie or for talking to Tyler?"

"Both. But mostly the smoothie. I think it cured my undeadness."

"You were never a zombie, you dramatic gremlin. You were just sleep-deprived."

"Same difference."

I started making the smoothies every morning. Soon half the soccer team was asking for the recipe. Apparently I wasn't the only one operating on zombie mode. We became this weird little smoothie cult, all shuffling into first period with our green drinks, feeling vaguely superior to everyone still chugging Red Bull.

Tyler tried one and made a face. "It tastes like... grass?"

"It tastes like SUCCESS, Tyler. It's got every vitamin ever invented."

"Sure, Jan. Can I have the recipe though? I have calc test tomorrow and I'm dying."

And that's how I accidentally became the smoothie dealer of sophomore year. Sometimes the weirdest things become your thing. Whatever. It beats being a zombie.