Zombie Mode and the Spinach Incident

Marcus was operating on approximately three hours of sleep and a prayer. The homecoming dance was in six hours, and he was currently sitting in the cafeteria, feeling like a total zombie. His brain was mush, his eyes refused to focus, and he'd almost walked into a wall twice already.

"Dude, you look like death warmed over," said Jamal, sliding into the seat across from him. "Rough night?"

"Rough night," Marcus agreed, poking at the mystery meat on his tray. He'd somehow ended up with a side of spinach, which he hated, but he was trying to be healthier since basketball tryouts were coming up.

He took a bite of the spinach anyway. Big mistake.

What happened next occurred in slow motion. Across the cafeteria, Sarah—the girl he'd been lowkey crushing on since September—was laughing at something her friends said. She looked up, caught Marcus staring, and actually smiled at him.

Marcus smiled back.

Jamal's eyes went wide. "Bro."

"What?" Marcus asked, still smiling like an idiot.

"You have spinach in your braces. Like, a lot of it."

Marcus froze. His life was over. This was it. The absolute peak of his sixteen years on earth, and it was all downhill from here. He'd officially become that guy—the spinach-in-your-teeth guy. People would still be talking about this at their ten-year reunion.

Then his dog Buster—yes, THE Buster, who had somehow escaped their backyard AGAIN—came tearing through the cafeteria doors, having been let in by some seventh graders who thought it would be funny. Buster made a beeline for Marcus's table, jumped up, and knocked his hat off in excitement. The hatMarcus had spent twenty minutes styling this morning because he'd heard Sarah liked guys who wore hats.

"BUSTER!" he shouted, but it was too late. The dog was now happily eating the spinach off his tray while his hat lay on the floor, brim-side down, collecting dirt. Half the cafeteria was watching. Sarah was watching.

And then Sarah started laughing. Not mean laughing, but actually laughing—like, the doubled-over, can't-breathe kind of laughing.

Marcus wanted to disappear. Fade into the linoleum. Become a literal zombie.

"That is the most chaotic thing I've ever seen," Sarah said, appearing beside his table with her friends. She was still grinning. "Your dog just ate your lunch."

"Yeah, that's Buster," Marcus managed, face burning. "He's... escape-prone."

"And you have spinach in your teeth," she added, like it was the most normal thing in the world.

Marcus covered his mouth with his hand. "I know."

"It's fine." Sarah looked at Jamal, then back at Marcus. "Are you going to the dance tonight?"

"Yeah."

"Save me a dance? Since your dog already ruined our first official meeting and everything."

Marcus's brain short-circuited. "Wait—what?"

"Your dog," she said, pointing at Buster, who was now being wrangled by the principal. "He basically just introduced us. I'd say you owe him."

Jamal was practically vibrating beside him. Marcus couldn't tell if he was hallucinating from sleep deprivation or if this was actually happening.

"Yeah," Marcus said, finally letting himself smile. "Okay. Yeah, I can do that."

Sarah winked and walked away. Marcus looked at Jamal, who was grinning like crazy.

"Zombie mode," Jamal said. "But make it fashion."

Marcus grabbed his hat from the floor, dusted it off, and actually laughed. Some days, somehow, everything went wrong in exactly the right way.