Zombie at the Plate

Marcus dragged himself to the baseball field like a literal zombie, thanks to staying up until 3 AM watching esports tournaments. His brain felt like it had been replaced with mush, and his mom's healthy breakfast experiment hadn't helped.

"You need brain food!" she'd insisted that morning, forcing him to eat some weird papaya-orange-spinach smoothie that tasted like grass and regret. Now his stomach was doing backflips.

The team was already warming up when he arrived. Coach Miller pointed at the batting cage. "Hernandez, you're up. Tryouts end in thirty minutes."

His crush, Jasmine, was watching from the bleachers. Of course she was. She looked amazing in her orange hoodie, casually scrolling through her phone while Marcus's entire life hung in the balance.

First pitch: swing and a miss. His bat felt like it weighed fifty pounds. Second pitch: another miss. The smoothie was definitely making a comeback.

"Looking a little dead there, Zombie," called Jake, the varsity shortstop. A few guys snickered.

Marcus adjusted his cap, remembering his older brother's advice: "Own it, bro. If they call you a zombie, be the scariest one out there."

Third pitch came - a fastball right down the middle. Marcus connected perfectly. The ball sailed over the left field fence, clearing the portable toilets by a good ten feet. Perfect swing.

Dead silence. Then Jasmine actually looked up from her phone. Jake's smirk vanished.

Coach Miller nodded slowly. "Hernandez."

Afterward, as Marcus packed his bag, Jasmine wandered over. "Nice hit, Zombie," she said, smiling. "My little brother plays baseball. He drinks those gross fruit shakes too. Something about antioxidants?"

Marcus grinned, feeling suddenly alive. "Yeah. Totally worth it."

"Hey," she said, "my friends are getting boba after school. Want to come?"

Baseball tryouts. Crush talking to him. Potential friend group. The zombie apocalypse was over, and Marcus had survived to tell the tale - mostly because sometimes, being undead was exactly what you needed to finally feel alive.