Zombie at the Deep End

I looked like a zombie. No joke—three hours of sleep because my cat decided 2 AM was the perfect time to practice her parkour skills across my face. Now here I stood at Tyler's massive pool party, dark circles under my eyes that said I'd rather be anywhere but here.

"You coming in or what?" Tyler called from the pool, doing that backflip thing that made everyone lose their minds.

I froze. My hair was doing something weird today, and I'd already caught three people staring. Probably because it looked like a bird had nested in it overnight.

"Just... gotta find my towel," I mumbled, even though it was literally in my hand.

This was it. The moment. Social suicide or actual participation in life.

I noticed Sophia—the girl I'd been lowkey crushing on since September—sitting by the snacks table, scrolling through her phone like the party was actually boring. My chance.

I walked over, grabbed a handful of chips, and started to say something smooth like "having fun?" when Maya from my history class burst out laughing.

"Oh my god, you have spinach in your teeth!" she practically shouted. "Like, a LOT of it."

The whole table went silent. I could feel my face burning hotter than the sun.

I hadn't even eaten spinach today.

But then Sophia looked up, saw my face, and started laughing too—but not, like, mean laughing. She pointed at her own braces. "Last week I had broccoli stuck in these for three whole periods before someone told me. I literally wanted to die."

She shrugged. "High school's embarrassing for everyone. We're all just zombies trying to survive."

Something in my chest unlocked. Maybe it was the cat that finally let me sleep last night. Maybe it was the fact that Sophia Velasquez had just admitted to being mortified in public.

I smiled, spinach and all. "Well. Want to jump in the pool and wash away the awkwardness?"

She stood up. "Absolutely."

We jumped in fully clothed, phones and all, and for the first time all year, I didn't feel like a zombie at all. I felt alive. Sometimes that's enough.