Zombie Mode on the Padel Court

Monday morning hit like a freight train. I was operating on full zombie mode—three hours of sleep because, you know, *Apex Legends* ranked matches don't play themselves. My mom literally had to pry my phone from my palm at 2 AM.

"You're going to be a walking corpse today," she'd said, dragging me out of bed. Moms always see the future.

By fourth period PE, I was definitely that zombie kid shuffling through the gym. Coach announced we were playing padel, which I'd never even heard of. Apparently it's tennis's cooler cousin from Spain. Everyone seemed to know except me.

That's when I saw her. Chloe. The fox of Northwood High. Cunning, sharp, always three steps ahead of everyone socially. She was already on the court, padel racket in hand, looking annoyingly awake.

"You're up, new kid," someone yelled. That was Tyler. The biggest bull at our school—not just built like one, but stubborn as hell too. He'd been giving me side-eye since I transferred here last month.

Great. My first padel match ever: me versus Tyler. Chloe was watching from the sidelines, probably evaluating my social worth in real time.

The game started and I completely ate it on the first serve. Tyler laughed, that mean jock laugh that echoes in your head for days. But then something weird happened. I stopped overthinking. Maybe it was the zombie brain not working properly, but I just started playing.

My body remembered the tennis lessons my dad forced on me back in middle school. I returned everything. I anticipated Tyler's moves before he made them—bull-headed players are predictable like that. The guy telegraphed his smacks from across the court.

We went to deuce. Then match point. My palms were sweating through my grip. I looked at the fence—palm trees swaying in the wind beyond the court—and just swung.

Game point. I won.

Chloe actually smiled. A real one, not her usual fox-like smirk.

"Not bad, zombie," she said. "You can be my partner next time."

I stood there, clutching my racket, suddenly feeling way more awake than I had all day. Being a zombie wasn't so bad if it meant surprising everyone. Even myself.