Zombie Mode

Maya's iPhone screen glowed at 3% battery. Her thumb hovered over Leo's text—*want to come over?*—as she mentally replayed their hallway encounter that morning. He'd actually noticed her new highlight. Progress.

"You look like a zombie," her little brother pronounced, slurping his cereal.

Maya flipped him off without breaking eye contact with her screen. Three weeks of finals season would do that to you. She was operating on pure stress and iced coffee.

Her mom breezed in with her latest health kick phase. "Green smoothie time! Kale, spinach, apple—"

"Hard pass." Maya grabbed her backpack. "I have a film project due."

"What project?"

"Zombie movie. We're filming at Leo's."

Her mom's eyebrows practically jumped off her face. "Leo? The Leo?"

Maya's cheeks heated. "He's in my film class. We're partners."

"That's all?"

"That's ALL, Mom. Stop making it weird." She reached for the smoothie anyway. "Whatever. Give me the spinach water."

It actually tasted decent. Maya gulped it down while checking her reflection—green teeth? No, she was good.

At Leo's, four other film kids clustered around the storyboard. His house was huge, like *why is your garage bigger than my entire apartment* huge. Leo caught her eye and grinned.

"You survived the green smoothie?"

"Barely. I feel like I've been poisoned by health."

"That's the spirit." He handed her a fake gore packet. "You're zombie number three. Don't choke on the fake blood."

They filmed for hours. Maya forgot about being cool, forgot about her dying phone, forgot about everything except hitting her marks and not ruining the shot. When Leo accidentally knocked over a light stand and everyone laughed, she actually laughed too. Not her polite fake laugh. Her real laugh, the one her friends said made her sound like a dying hyena.

Around sunset, Leo collapsed next to her on the grass. "You're actually really good at this."

"At acting like a zombie?"

"At everything." He was watching her, really watching her. "I like hanging out with you."

Maya's heart did something stupid in her chest. Her phone buzzed—1% battery—but she ignored it.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. We should do this more."

"Filming zombie movies?"

"Or whatever." Leo smiled, and it was different from his usual charming smile. Realer. "Maybe we can study for finals together. You look like you need it."

"Rude."

"True, though." He checked his phone. "Hey, want to get food? I'm starving."

Maya's stomach chose that moment to growl loud enough for everyone to hear.

Leo laughed. "That's a yes, then."

She didn't even care that her phone died before she could text her friends the update. Some things were better than likes. Some things were better than screens. Some things were just real.