Zombie Mode On

The first week of junior year hit me like a freight train. I'd been waking up at 5:30 AM for swim practice, moving through school hours like a straight-up zombie, my brain barely functioning beyond basic survival protocols. My mom, bless her neurotic heart, had started leaving these daily vitamin packs on the kitchen counter with sticky notes like "For immune support! Love, Mom" as if orange gummies could protect me from the existential dread of AP Chemistry and whatever nightmare scenario my social life had become.

Friday afternoon found me at the town pool complex, clutching my iphone like it was a lifeline to sanity. The juniors were throwing what everyone was calling the party of the year, and I hadn't been invited. Not officially. But Maya—the girl I'd been lowkey flirting with since seventh grade—had told me in the locker room that "people were talking about it" and that I should "probably come by."

So there I was, hair still damp from practice, standing by the water fountain, trying to hype myself up. My friend Eli swiped his phone open, showing me the evite. "Dude, you're not on the list."

"Maya said—"

"Maya's being nice, bro. That's different."

The school's biggest jerk, Braden, walked by with his crew. He looked me up and down, smirked, and muttered, "Nice hair, wet dog." Then louder: "Someone forgot to invite the scholarship kid, huh? Classic."

I felt my face burn. I wanted to disappear, to literally dissolve into water molecules and float away. Instead, I fumbled with my phone, dropping it on the concrete. Screen cracked.

"Nice one, scholarship," Braden called back.

I knelt there, humiliated, staring at my shattered iphone screen. Maya walked by, stopped, and actually looked at me. "Hey, you coming tonight?"

I looked up, ready to say something smooth, something that would redeem this entire garbage afternoon. Instead, I heard myself say: "I, uh, have to take my vitamins."

She smiled. Actually smiled. "Weird flex, but okay. See you at eight?"

"Eight."

She walked away, and Eli shook his head. "Did you just get invited to a party by playing the vitamin card?"

"I think I did."

"You're not a zombie," he said. "You're a wizard, Harry."

I wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic, but for the first time that week, I felt something like hope.