When the Bear Ate My Papaya

Marcus stood in front of his bathroom mirror, adjusting the orange zip-up hoodie for the third time. First day at Northwood High, and he was already low-key spiraling. At least his mom had packed his favorite papaya in his lunchbox—some normalcy in the chaos.

The cafeteria hit him like a wave of noise and smells. Marcus scanned for a seat, clutching his tray like a lifeline. That's when he saw her: Chloe, the girl with the dark purple streaks in her hair, sitting alone and sketching in a notebook. His heart did this weird flutter thing that made him feel like a total simp.

He slid into the seat across from her. "Hey."

She looked up, unimpressed. "Hey."

Smooth, Marcus. Really smooth.

"What's that?" Chloe pointed at his papaya with her pencil.

"Papaya," he said, then immediately wanted to die. Obviously it was papaya.

She raised an eyebrow. "Who brings papaya to school? That's wild different."

Before he could explain that it was actually fire, his elbow knocked his milk carton. It spilled everywhere, soaking his orange hoodie. Marcus jumped up, flustered, and his foot caught the backpack of the guy behind him—a junior who was apparently the school mascot.

The backpack ripped open. The guy's bear mascot head rolled onto Marcus's tray, landing face-first in his spilled milk and papaya chunks.

The cafeteria went SILENT.

Then someone shouted, "It's a zombie bear! It's eating his papaya!"

Chloe burst out laughing. Not mean-girl laughing—like, actually losing it. Marcus met her eyes, and instead of wanting to vanish, he started laughing too.

"You good though?" Chloe asked later, as they walked out of the cafeteria together. "That was literally the most chaotic thing I've ever seen."

"I'm good," Marcus said, orange hoodie still damp but somehow it didn't matter. "You wanna hang after school? I could show you where to get the best papaya in town."

She grinned. "Bet."

Maybe Northwood High wouldn't be so bad after all. Sometimes the worst moments became the best ones—and sometimes a zombie bear eating papaya was exactly how you made your first real friend.