The Zombie Padel Summer

I felt like a total zombie as I dragged myself through July, my dad's oversized Padres hat pulled low to hide the rat's nest on top of my head. The humidity was straight-up disrespectful, and my social battery had been dead since finals week.

But today was different. Today was the first day of padel camp, and I was actually lowkey hyped. Mostly because Maya was gonna be there. Maya, with her perfect smile and the way she laughed like she was in on some cosmic joke that the rest of us were too clueued to understand.

"You got this, bro," Leo said, tossing me a racquet as we walked toward the courts. "Just don't do that thing where you overthink everything and trip over your own feet."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, man. Really feeling the love."

We were five minutes into drills when my phone started buzzing like crazy. My dad. The emergency cable installation at his office had gone sideways, and he needed me to come fix it. Like, NOW.

"Bro, are you serious?" I groaned, staring at the screen. "There's a zombie-themed charity tournament next week. I need this."

"Go," Leo said, already knowing my dad couldn't handle tech stuff on his own. "I'll tell Maya you had a family emergency. Make it sound mysterious and cool."

I spent the next three hours crawling under desks, splicing cable, sweating through my shirt. My dad's office building felt like a tomb, silent except for the hum of servers and my own frustrated muttering. By the time I finished, I'd missed the whole practice.

I showed up to the zombie run charity event the following weekend running on two hours of sleep and pure determination. My hat was back on, doing its job of hiding the hair situation. Leo was there with Maya, both of them decked out in fake blood and torn clothes.

"Hey, survivor!" Maya called out, grinning as she ran—actually RAN—toward me. "Leo told me you had to handle some family stuff. Everything good?"

"Yeah, just had to save my dad's whole network infrastructure, no big deal," I said, trying to sound casual instead of admitting I'd been tangled up in cable management for days.

Maya's eyes lit up. "Wait, you know about networking? That's actually kinda cool."

I stood there, fake blood dripping down my forehead, surrounded by teenagers dressed as the undead, holding a padel racquet like it was a weapon, and finally felt something shift. Maybe being a little different wasn't the worst thing in the world.

"Wanna join our team?" she asked. "We need a fourth."

I pulled my hat down tighter and smiled. "Bet."