Thunder at Zombie Falls

Marcus pulled his dad's vintage baseball cap down low. It was his security blanket—a shield between his awkward face and the world. Senior year was supposed to be epic, but mostly he just felt like a zombie stumbling through AP classes and shift work at Zombie Falls, that cheesy mini-golf place with the undead theme.

His iPhone buzzed in his pocket. Probably his group chat blowing up about Jake's party tonight. The one he wasn't cool enough to be invited to. Marcus glanced at the screen: 12%. Perfect. Just enough battery to doomscroll through Instagram watching everyone have lives way more interesting than his.

The first rumble of thunder made the animatronic zombies glitch out. His boss, Gary, yelled something about closing early. Marcus grabbed his backpack and bolted toward the bus stop, but the sky opened up before he made it halfway.

He ducked under the awning of a closed bodega, water sheeting down around him in rivers. This was fine. This was totally fine. He'd just wait out the storm alone, like he did everything else.

Then Maya appeared.

She ran through the downpour, that perfect laugh cutting through the thunder. Maya Chen, who actually sat at his lunch table sometimes, who made his brain short-circuit when she asked to borrow a pen. She ducked under the awning next to him, shaking water from her hair like a wet dog.

"Marcus!" she grinned, wiping rain from her eyes. "Small world, huh?"

"Yeah," he managed, suddenly hyper-aware that his hat was probably ruined and he looked like a drowned rat. "Small."

"I was gonna ask you something at school today," she said, and lightning cracked so bright it turned everything white for a split second. "But you left before I could catch you."

Marcus's heart did something embarrassing. "You were?"

"Jake's party," she said, like it was obvious. "I wasn't gonna go if you weren't gonna be there. He's kinda sexist and his house always smells like vape smoke." She stepped closer, her shoulder brushing his. "So I was thinking we could zombie-walk to the 7-Eleven instead? Get slurpees, make fun of terrible movies at my place?"

The rain kept falling, the thunder kept rumbling, but Marcus suddenly felt the opposite of dead.

"Yeah," he said, finally pushing the hat back and actually looking at her. "I'd really like that."

Maya smiled, and Marcus thought maybe senior year wouldn't be so bad after all.