The Zombie Spy Protocol

Maya caught him stuffing raw spinach into his mouth during third period lunch. Nobody ate the cafeteria spinach—that was like, social suicide central. But Leo, the kid who sat in the back of AP Bio with his hoodie always up, was straight-up inhaling it like it was gourmet.

"Dude, are you a zombie or something?" she whispered, sliding into the seat across from him. "That stuff is gross."

He froze. Then, casually: "It's full of vitamin K. My... condition requires it."

Maya raised an eyebrow. Condition? Leo looked fine—except for the perpetually exhausted eyes and the fact that he disappeared every Friday afternoon like clockwork. Freshman year curiosity kicked into high gear. She'd been feeling like a zombie herself lately, drowning in honors classes and extracurriculars her parents had signed her up for. Maybe that's why she did it.

Maybe that's why she followed him after school.

She trailed two blocks behind, keeping her distance like a spy in a detective movie. Leo ducked into the old community center, the one everyone said was abandoned. Maya's heart hammered against her ribs as she crept closer, peeking through a grimy window.

What she saw made her gasp.

Leo stood in the center of a converted gym, surrounded by like twenty other teens. They were all stretching, yawning, moving with that slow, heavy-limbed walk that looked—no way. No actual way.

He grabbed a smoothie from a table. Maya could see the spinach, the protein powder, the vitamin supplements lined up next to it.

"Welcome back, sleeper agents," someone called out. "Remember: we're not zombies. We're just chronically awesome."

The room erupted in tired laughter.

Maya's phone buzzed. A text from Leo: *You gonna come in, or keep spying?*

She stepped inside, face burning.

"It's a narcolepsy support group," Leo explained later, handing her a spinach smoothie. "We all have it. The spinach joke was my way of coping. People think we're lazy or on drugs, but... yeah."

" sleeper agents," Maya repeated, grinning. "That's actually lowkey genius."

"Wanna join? We take vitamins, we nap when we need, and we don't let the zombie jokes get us down."

Maya thought about her own exhaustion, the pressure to be perfect, the way she'd been zombie-walking through her own life. She took the smoothie.

"Teach me the protocol."