Zombie at the Pool Party

I felt like a total **zombie**—three hours of sleep, finals week brain fog, and here I was at Jessica's legendary pool party. My snapback **hat** was pulled low, hiding the disaster that was my hair. Social suicide was basically guaranteed.

"Hey! You made it!" Jessica materialized, radiating that effortless energy I'd been trying to fake for years. "Grab some food!"

The snack table was my safe zone. I loaded a plate with **spinach** artichoke dip and chips, anything to avoid standing alone by the **pool** like the awkward loser I secretly was.

That's when I saw him. Tyler. The same Tyler who sat behind me in bio, whose handwriting looked like actual art, who I'd been lowkey crushing on since September. He was shirtless. Of course he was.

He walked over, and I panicked. Choked on a spinach chip. Started coughing like I was dying.

"You okay?" His voice was deeper than I remembered. He reached out, steadying me with a hand on my shoulder, and suddenly I was hyperaware of everything—his other hand, the **palm** lines visible, his fingers still slightly wet from the pool.

"Yeah," I wheezed. "Just... great."

We ended up talking for an hour. About AP Bio horror stories, how both of us felt like zombies 24/7, how we hated pool parties but came anyway because FOMO was real. He was funny. Like, actually funny—not performing-cool funny.

"Your hat," he said suddenly. "It's crooked."

My hand flew to my head. "Oh, yeah. Thanks."

"No, I meant—" He reached over, straightened it, and our faces were inches apart. "There. Perfect."

My heart was doing backflips. But then disaster struck.

"You have a little—" He gestured to his teeth.

**Spinach**. I had spinach in my teeth. The entire conversation. The entire hour.

I wanted to evaporate. Actually become a zombie. Die again.

But Tyler just smiled, all genuine and everything. "It's cool. I had broccoli stuck in my braces for like, all of seventh grade."

"Wait, you had—"

"Don't tell anyone. I'll deny it."

We both cracked up. And in that moment, feeling like the biggest dork on earth, with spinach in my teeth and pool water dripping everywhere, I finally didn't feel like a zombie anymore.

I felt alive.