Zombies at the Pool Party - Every Minute a Story

The orange sunset painted everything in streaks of gold and pink as I stood by the pool, clutching a warm soda like it was my only friend. Maya's summer parties were legendary, but that didn't stop me from feeling like I'd crashed the wrong universe.

There he was. Tyler from the baseball team, currently dominating a game of chicken fight in the shallow end like he owned the place. His varsity jacket lay draped over a lawn chair, a golden throne marking his kingdom. I'd been secretly crushing on him since seventh grade, which was basically pathetic at this point.

"You look like you're contemplating murder," said Jordan, sliding up beside me with a smirk. "Or maybe just contemplating Tyler's arms."

I flipped them off. "Shut up. I'm just... observing."

"You've been observing for two years, Lena. At some point you gotta actually talk to him."

Before I could defend my excellent stalking skills, Tyler climbed out of the pool, water dripping everywhere, and somebody threw a bottle of green zombie face paint at him. Apparently the guys had decided to zombie up for reasons nobody quite understood - something about a TikTok challenge or just general end-of-school chaos.

Tyler now had streaks of green across his forehead, looking like a baseball-playing undead creature, and somehow he was even hotter. This was fine. Everything was fine.

Then a fox darted through the backyard, causing everyone to scream and scatter. It was just a fox - a scrawny, confused urban fox probably wondering why all these teenagers were losing their minds. But in the chaos, my soda got knocked everywhere, splashing orange all over my favorite white shirt.

I wanted to die. Instead, Tyler just laughed and said, "Now you look like you survived something."

He waded back into the pool, clothes and all, and held out a hand. "Come in. The orange actually kind of works."

So I jumped in, zombie-faced boys and fox chaos and all, and for the first time all night, I wasn't observing from the sidelines. Sometimes you have to crash your own party.