Zones Where We Don't Play Dead

I feel like a zombie today. Not the cool apocalypse-fighting kind, but the high school junior version: three hours of sleep, chem test at 7 AM, and somehow still expected to perform like a functioning human being at lunch.

Maya's nodding off next to me, drool practically hitting her APUSH textbook. "You good?" I ask, even though I know she's not.

"Hard pass on existing right now," she mumbles, half-face-planted in the chapter about the Industrial Revolution. "Wake me when colleges stop demanding our souls."

Behind us, the baseball team's being loud as usual. Their practice ended twenty minutes ago but they're still hanging by the bleachers, acting like batting .300 makes them gods. Jake's there with his crew, leaning against the chain-link fence like he owns it. I used to think his smile was cute until I heard him explain why girls "can't catch" to a freshman who actually plays travel softball.

Some sophomore—I think her name's Riley—walks past the fence. Jake's friends start doing that thing where they talk louder, posture harder, basically perform masculinity like it's their unpaid internship. One of them tosses a baseball near her path, obviously staging it so he can "helpfully" retrieve it and start a conversation.

Riley keeps walking. Doesn't even look down.

"What, she thinks she's too good to notice us?" Jake says, just loud enough to carry.

Riley stops. Turns around. Looks Jake dead in the eye and says, "I literally saw you set that up. It's giving obsessive behavior and I don't have the emotional bandwidth for your performance art piece today." Then she holds up her palm in his face like a traffic stop. "Read the room. Read this hand. Read anything besides your own hype."

The entire baseball squad goes silent. Jake's face turns the color of tomato soup that's been microwaved too long.

Maya lifts her head from the textbook, suddenly very awake. "I think I just witnessed the death of the male ego."

I'm laughing so hard my chem notes are basically ruined, but for the first time all week, I don't feel like a zombie anymore. Just a girl who needed to see someone refuse to play dead even when everyone expected her to stay in character.