Zombie Mode: Activated

Maya's phone blared at 6:45 AM. She groaned, rolling over to smack the snooze button, but her hand met empty air. Right—she'd knocked it off the nightstand during her third attempt to drag herself out of bed for AP Chem study prep.

"You look like a zombie," her little brother Leo commented from the doorway, munching on cereal. "RIP."

"Literally me," Maya muttered, dragging a brush through her hair. Finals week had her running on two hours of sleep and pure anxiety. Her mom had launched Operation Healthy Child yesterday, which meant—

"Spinach smoothie!" her mom chirped, sliding a suspiciously green glass across the kitchen counter. "Packed with iron for that big brain of yours."

Maya eyed it. "Did you put, like, actual spinach in this?"

"And kale. It's basically a salad in a cup. Your body needs fuel, not just vending machine visits."

Gross. But Maya's mom had that determined look, so she took a tentative sip. Actually... not terrible? Probably the banana masking the veggie taste.

"Also," her mom continued, pulling out one of those massive vitamin supplements. "You're low on D. Doctor's orders."

Maya swallowed the horse-pill vitamin with a grimace. "Great. Now I'm a health zombie."

But here's the thing—by third period, Maya wasn't falling asleep during Mr. Harrison's lecture. By lunch, she actually had energy to help her best friend Chloe rehearse for tryouts. And when her crush, Jordan, asked if she wanted to study together at the coffee shop after school, she didn't even panic about the spinach green tongue situation.

Maybe Operation Healthy Child wasn't total torture. Or maybe she was just delirious.

"You're glowing," Chloe whispered in the hallway. "What's the secret?"

Maya grinned, feeling weirdly okay for the first time in weeks. "Vitamin D and spinach smoothies. And apparently, sleep helps. Who knew?"

Chloe snorted. "Okay, zombie queen. Whatever works."

Walking toward the coffee shop, Maya's phone buzzed—a good morning text from Jordan. Her mom was right about one thing: survival wasn't just about enduring the grind. Sometimes it was about letting yourself be fueled properly, even if the spinach part was still pretty mid.

Baby steps.