Zombie in the Corner

Maya stood by the snack table at Jordan's Halloween party, feeling like a total zombie. Three hours of sleep and enough social anxiety to fuel a small apocalypse would do that to you. She adjusted her fedora—part of her "vintage detective" costume that she thought was clever but now just felt extra.

The school's social pyramid loomed large tonight. At the top: the varsity crew, naturally tricked out as some coordinated superhero squad because of course they were. Then the middle layers—band kids, theater kids, the ones who actually put effort into their costumes. Down at the base: people like Maya, just trying to survive.

"Hey, nice hat," someone said.

Maya jumped. A guy in a crude zombie costume—green face paint, fake blood dripping from his mouth—stood there. Leo, from her English class. She'd never actually spoken to him before.

"Thanks," she managed. "Yours is... thorough."

He shrugged, wiping some fake blood from his chin. "My sister did the makeup. I'm basically her canvas."

An orange tabby cat wound around Maya's legs. Jordan's family's cat, Barnaby. She'd been feeding him pieces of her churro for twenty minutes.

"That cat has better taste than anyone at this party," Leo said, crouching to scratch Barnaby's ears. "No offense to you or the churro."

"None taken." Maya laughed despite herself. "I was literally just thinking the same thing."

They ended up on the back porch, sharing lemonade and making up backstories for everyone inside. The varsity captain was secretly a robot sent to test their pep rally endurance. The quiet girl in the corner was documenting human behavior for her home planet.

"You know what's weird?" Leo said suddenly. "We're both at this party, but we've been hanging out on the porch like it's detention."

"Detention with better snacks," Maya pointed out.

"And a cat."

"And a cat."

Maybe zombies weren't the living dead. Maybe they were just people waiting for someone to see through the costume. The fedora suddenly felt less like a disguise and more like something she actually kind of liked.

"Next party," Leo said, "we're going as actual detectives. No face paint required."

"Deal," Maya said. And for the first time all night, she didn't feel like pretending at all.