Zombie Mode Activated

I shuffled into third period feeling like a complete zombie. Three hours of sleep will do that to you. Between the baseball playoffs, AP history prep, and Maya's texts keeping me up until 2 AM, my life had become a glorious mess.

"Dude, you look dead," Jay whispered, sliding into the seat next to me. "Rough night?"

"Rough life," I muttered, popping a gummy vitamin from my pocket. Mom had started leaving them everywhere with sticky notes like 'Fuel your brain!' and 'Champions need vitamins!' Embarrassing, but I was too tired to argue.

Coach Miller had threatened to bench me if I didn't get my act together. The whole baseball team was counting on me to pitch Friday's game against North Valley—our rivals since forever. No pressure or anything.

At lunch, I stared at my tray like it was radioactive. The spinach salad looked suspiciously healthy. "Since when do you eat leaves?" Kayla asked, sitting across from me.

"Since my mom decided I need to 'optimize my performance' or whatever." I poked at a spinach leaf. "I miss junk food. I miss freedom. I miss when the biggest decision was which video game to play."

"Welcome to high school," she said. "Where everything feels like the end of the world and nothing actually is."

After school, I went running. Coach said conditioning would help, but really, I just needed to escape. My feet hit the pavement in a rhythm that felt like the only real thing about my day. No expectations. No judgment. Just me and the sunset and the sound of my own breathing.

I slowed to a walk near the old baseball field, where Maya was sitting on the bleachers. She smiled when she saw me, and suddenly I wasn't so tired anymore.

"Zombie mode deactivated?" she asked.

"Temporary ceasefire," I said, sitting beside her. "Hey, about last night—"

"Don't worry about it," she said. "We've got time. Besides, I hear zombies make the best boyfriends. They're already dead inside, so nothing can hurt them."

I laughed. Maybe she was right. Maybe everything would be okay.