Zombie Mode

Maya dragged herself into third period chemistry, brain fuzzy from staying up until 2 AM scrolling TikTok. Again.

"You look like a actual zombie," whispered her best friend Kiana, sliding a vitamin-C packet across the lab table. "Girl, you need to stop doom-watching those conspiracy videos at midnight."

"I know, I know," Maya sighed, ripping the packet open. "But my algorithm is feeding me straight FIRE right now."

Their lab partner, Jay, snorted without looking up from his phone. "Bet."

Maya's phone buzzed. Her older sister had sent another photo of the family dog, Buster—a rescue Golden Retriever who looked like a muppet but acted like he owned the entire house. The caption read: "This good boy got into your stash again."

"NO WAY," Maya groaned, dropping her head into her hands. "Buster ate my melatonin gummies AGAIN."

Kiana nearly fell out of her chair laughing. "Not Buster going full zombie on your sleep aids!"

"He's literally unstoppable," Maya said, but she was already smiling. That dumb dog had become her emotional support animal without anyone planning it—especially after her parents' divorce last year. Some nights when she couldn't sleep, just burying her face in his golden fur made everything feel 10% less terrible.

"You okay though?" Kiana asked, her voice softening.

Maya looked at her friends—Kiana with her perfectly braided hair and matching acrylics, Jay with his skateboard sticker collection and that ridiculous chain wallet. They'd been her people since seventh grade, back when she was still figuring out who she even was.

"Yeah," Maya said finally. "Just tired. But like, in a good way? Me and Jay pulled an all-nighter finishing our history project about urban legends, and it actually didn't suck."

Jay finally looked up, grinning. "We got an A-minus. Worth the zombie life."

The bell rang. Maya grabbed her bag, feeling weirdly okay with being exhausted. Some nights you stayed up too late. Sometimes your dog ate your vitamins. But you had people who showed up to chemistry with emergency supplements and inside jokes.

"Wanna come over after school?" Maya asked. "Buster probably hasn't moved from my bed all day. We can do that TikTok trend you've been obsessing over."

"Bet," said Kiana and Jay in unison.

Maya walked into the hallway, zombie-mode fully engaged, but somehow, she didn't mind.