The Zombie Pyramid Scheme

Maya's older brother's baseball cap sat backwards on her head, brim flipped up like it knew something she didn't. The lucky hat had seen him through varsity championships and college applications. Now it was seeing her through sophomore year and the absolute worst that high school could throw at her.

The social pyramid at Northwood High had Maya stuck somewhere near the bottom—definitely not zombie level, but definitely far from the apex where Jordan and his perfect smile reigned. Jordan played baseball, obviously. Everything about him said varsity jacket and effortless confidence, while Maya said "have you seen my cat? I need emotional support."

Speaking of—Mr. Whiskers stared at her from her bed, judgmental as always.

"You're wearing the hat again," he seemed to say with his yellow eyes. "The zombie walk is in two hours and you're still not ready."

The zombie walk. Homecoming week's most unhinged tradition. Everyone dressed as zombies and shambled through the halls between classes. Last year Maya had "forgotten" to dress up and spent third period hiding in the library.

This year would be different. This year she'd actually participate. This year she'd talk to Jordan, whose locker was three down from hers, who'd laughed at her joke in English yesterday, who she'd been crushing on since September.

"You've got this," she told her reflection. The lucky hat stared back. "Zombies are basically just people without coffee. You can do dead. You can do undead. You can do Jordan."

The bell rang. Time to shamble.

She applied the green face paint with shaky hands, added some fake blood, and stumbled into the hallway where already a dozen zombies were moaning over their phones. And there was Jordan, looking annoyingly good even as a zombie, his baseball uniform peeking through the tattered clothes.

"Nice hat," he said, and Maya's undead heart definitely didn't skip a beat.

"It's lucky," she managed, sounding surprisingly chill.

"Cool." He grinned. "Hey, want to walk to fourth together? I could use the luck. Trig is gonna murder me."

They walked together, two zombies navigating the pyramid that had suddenly seemed a little less steep, a little less impossible. Mr. Whiskers would be proud. The lucky hat had done it again.