Zombie State of Mind

I looked like a zombie. Not even a cool Netflix zombie—just the gross kind with purple circles under my eyes and hair that had given up somewhere around third period.

"You alive, bro?" Marcus asked, spinning a basketball on his finger like it wasn't 7:30 AM.

"Barely," I mumbled, pulling my beanie down. The hat was my security blanket, my shield against the terrifying reality that I was the new kid at Oak Ridge High and everyone already had their friend groups locked in like puzzle pieces I'd never fit into.

First Friday. The social pressure cooker. And apparently, everyone was going to Tyler's house after school for padel. I didn't even know what padel was—some tennis-squash hybrid that rich kids played while discussing their college plans and secretly vaping behind the shed.

"You coming?" Marcus asked. He'd actually been decent to me all week, which made it worse because I'd probably say something awkward and ruin it.

"Yeah," I lied. "Sure."

But first, I had to survive swimming class. Coach Rodriguez—aka The Bear because the man was literally built like a grizzly and had zero patience for anyone who couldn't butterfly like an Olympian—blew his whistle.

"New kid! You're up!"

The pool looked like a mouth waiting to swallow me whole. I'd forgotten my trunks at home because my brain was operating at 30% capacity. That's when Jasmine—a junior with impossibly long dark hair and roots that screamed she hadn't dyed it in way too long—whispered, "Just say you forgot your stuff. He'll make you swim in your underwear, though. It happened to Carlos last month."

I laughed. Actually laughed. And something clicked.

"Coach, I left my gear in my locker," I said, standing up straighter. "Can I grab it?"

The Bear stared at me for three eternities. Then grinned. "Hurry up. You've got three minutes."

I didn't make it to Tyler's padel party that afternoon. Instead, Marcus, Jasmine, and I ended up at the convenience store, sharing chips and talking about everything and nothing until the sun went down. My zombie state was real, but maybe—just maybe—I was finally waking up.