Zombie State of Mind

The bell rang, but Maya felt like she was moving through molasses. Three hours of sleep playing Zombie Apocalypse Survival until 3 AM will do that to you. She trudged to her locker, practically a zombie herself, still wearing her headphones from blocking out her mom's lecture about "finding balance."

At lunch, the usual table drama was already kicking off. Tyler was being extra loud about his new orange Dyed buzz cut, claiming it was "a whole vibe" while everyone either roasted him or pretended to be impressed. Maya just wanted to disappear into her phone.

"Earth to Maya!" Keisha waved a hand in her face. "You good? You've been spacing out all day."

"Just tired," Maya mumbled, fishing through her backpack for her phone charger. Instead, her hand brushed something soft and fuzzy. Her old Build-A-Bear from seventh grade.

Her face burned. She'd grabbed the wrong backpack this morning - the one from when she and Emma were still best friends, before Emma got popular and started hanging with the cheer squad.

"Is that... a bear?" Tyler's voice carried across the cafeteria. Great. Now everyone was looking.

Maya's chest tightened. This was it - her social death, final stage. But then she caught Emma's eye from the popular table. Emma wasn't laughing. She had that same bear - the matching one they'd made on their twelfth birthday, before everything changed.

"Actually," Maya found herself saying, surprising even her own voice, "this bear has seen me through worse than middle school drama. He's basically an emotional support animal at this point."

A few people chuckled, but not mean ones. Keisha nodded. "Real talk. We've all got stuff we're carrying."

After school, Emma texted her. "Still have mine too. Coffee this weekend?"

Maybe, Maya thought as she finally cracked an orange soda that had been rolling around her locker since September, zombie-mode wasn't the worst thing. Sometimes you have to feel half-alive to remember what actually matters.