Zombie Mode

Leo moved through the hallway like a **zombie**, three hours of sleep and finals week turning his brain into something that definitely used to be functional. He'd meant to study until midnight, but somehow fallen into a TikTok hole at 2 AM and emerged at dawn, disoriented and slightly unhinged.

Worse, he'd made a questionable decision at 3 AM.

"Your **hair** looks... different," Maya said, tilting her head at their usual lunch table. She said it carefully, the way you comment on someone's questionable life choices.

Leo self-consciously touched the half-buzzed side of his head. "Thanks. It's edgy."

"It's certainly something."

He'd buzzed the left side on impulse. He didn't know why. Maybe because everything felt the same lately — same classes, same routine, same feeling of being slightly behind everyone else. Maya had blue hair now. Jamal had come out over spring break and started dressing like he'd walked off a Pinterest board. Everyone was changing, figuring out who they were, and Leo was still... Leo.

He pulled his **vitamin** gummies from his backpack. His mom had started buying them after he'd gotten sick twice in one month. "You need to build your immune system, mijo," she'd said, pressing the bottle into his hands like it was his only hope.

"Still on the gummy kick?" Jamal asked, sitting down with his tray.

"They're vitamins, Jamal. Not a crime."

"No judgment. Just wondering when you're gonna make a real change."

The words hit harder than they should've. Leo swallowed the orange gummy with more aggression than necessary.

That afternoon, he stopped at the nutrition shop near school. The clerk — older, with kind eyes and a half-shaved head herself — noticed him staring at the vitamins.

"First time?" she asked.

"No. I just..." Leo gestured vaguely at nothing. "I'm tired of being tired."

She smiled. "I buzzed my hair the day after I turned sixteen. My mom cried. I felt like I'd finally started becoming who I was supposed to be."

Leo blinked. "Really?"

"Really. Sometimes you have to **zombie** walk through life for a while before you figure it out." She handed him a small bottle. "These won't fix everything. But they're a start."

He texted Maya later: Come over. We're dyeing the rest.

She showed up with temporary dye in six colors. "Let's go full chaos mode, Leo."

By midnight, his hair was a disaster and he'd laughed harder than he had in months. Being a teenager was weird and messy and nobody knew what they were doing — not really. The zombies were the ones pretending they had it all figured out.

Leo took his **vitamin** gummy and grinned at his reflection. Edgy indeed.