Zombies of the Social Pyramid

Maya stared at her reflection, finger-combing the tangled mess that used to be her hair. The dye job had gone wrong—nowhere near the sunset ombre she'd hoped for. More like dried blood orange.

"You look like a zombie," her little brother observed, leaning against the doorframe with his phone. "In a cool way, though."

Maya sighed. Three hours of sleep would do that to anyone. Between the honors bio project (she'd built a model pyramid out of sugar cubes that kept collapsing) and her goldfish Bubbles developing what looked like swim bladder disease, she was running on empty.

"Thanks, Leo." She grabbed her backpack. "Make sure you feed Bubbles the peas. NOT the regular flakes."

"I know, I know." He rolled his eyes. "You're the one who bought the fancy goldfish."

The walk to school felt like a zombie apocalypse movie. Everyone shuffled along, heads down, faces illuminated by phone screens. Maya joined the procession.

At her locker, Jenna and her crew held court like they were atop the social pyramid. Which they basically were. Jenna flipped her perfect beach waves—Maya had spent two hours trying to recreate that look last night—and laughed too loud at something.

Maya's stomach did that familiar twist. She'd been invited to Jenna's party tomorrow night. THE party. Everyone was going. But she'd rather eat glass.

"Hey, Maya!" Jenna called out. "You coming tomorrow?"

The whole group turned to look. Thirty eyes. Thirty expectations.

"Yeah!" Maya heard herself say. "Wouldn't miss it."

Her voice sounded strange—distant, like someone else was speaking for her. A zombie autopilot.

"Awesome!" Jenna beamed. "Wear something cute!"

They turned back to their conversation, dismissing her. Maya leaned her forehead against her locker. What was she doing? She didn't even like these people. She liked old movies and her weird goldfish and building stupid sugar-cube pyramids.

But the alternative was sitting at home alone again. Being nobody.

Her phone buzzed. Mom: Bubbles is swimming upside down again. :(

Maya smiled. Maybe being at the bottom of the pyramid wasn't so bad. At least her goldfish didn't care what her hair looked like.