Perfectionism in Pink | A Zombies FanFiction

7

Josephine wished she had gotten in trouble in all honesty, because the silent car ride home was more torturous. A simple get in, Josephine and then no other words from the man as he drove her out of ZombieLand and back home.

When he had pulled up, his eyes drifted from his daughter's face to the egg in her hands, then immediately unlocked his car, and he gave no other reaction. She couldn't tell if he was proud, disgusted, annoyed, angry... Josephine could hardly sleep over the weekend because neither parent commented on her initiation.

It was like walking on eggshells - no pun intended - the entire weekend. Josephine was just waiting for her parents to finally start with some form of punishment, lecture, grounding, anything. So come Monday at cheer practice, the girl was tired, and Josephine nearly didn't catch Addison during her fall.

"Jackson!" Bucky barked out, stomping his way over and setting his hands on his hips. "What was that?"

"I, I don't-"

"It was terrible. That's what it was." Bucky interrupted the stuttering with a hand held up, successfully silencing the brunette. Even though he had a small grin on his face, his eyes were on fire and dark. "Repeat after me. I'm terrible."

Josephine swallowed her spit as she felt sweat from the pressure pool around her face. She was tired and exhausted and mentally broke about what life really was. The entire weekend was spent wondering if she did the right thing or if she really wanted to be a cheerleader combined with when will her parents finally punish her. What was right, what was wrong, who was the good guy, and who was the bad guy.

Was there even a good guy or a bad guy?

Coming to cheer practice today made the problem worse. Addison and Bree were still on the team even though they had apparently refused to participate in egging the house. Yet, Josephine did so and probably made herself number one on the zombie hit list. Where was the justice in this?

It just proved that Addison always was and will be the golden child of Seabrook. She did the bare minimum and got away with it.

And now Josephine was the perfect victim for Bucky to release his superiority complex onto. Josephine was starting to learn that the captain was a border-line psychopath when it came to anything he was interested in, especially cheer. It was his passion, the air he breathed, and anything that wasn't perfectly executed was a failure.

Bucky made sure his team understood his expectations.

"I-I'm terrible." Josephine said shakily, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Her hands started to shake with the pom-poms behind her, the noise of the plastic giving her nerves away. This was fine. She just needed criticism in order to get better and be perfect. "I-I'm sorry, Bucky."

The cheerleading captain spent a good few seconds staring deeply at Josephine and seemed to feed off of her nerves. He let out a stream of air through his nose, breaking the atmosphere

"Don't drop my cousin, Jackson. The only thing worse would be dropping me." He huffed before clapping his hands to start back practice. "Alright, from the top everyone! Get into your places! Pep rally is in two days, people, and I need all of you to be perfect with me."

By Thursday, the only time Josephine saw green hair was from the other side of a fence and Zed seemed to have learned his place. He made no move to talk or look at the cheerleader and that was good. She did good, right? No more being held hostage by a zombie when and where no one could hear her screams. She was safe now.

Addison was keeping more of a distance from her than usual, but despite that one outburst, Bucky seemed to like her. She thought. To be honest, Josephine was pretty sure the teen was only able to like himself, but he seemed to like that a freshman listened to him more than his cousin.

That Thursday, Josephine had paired up someone other than Addison to get ready, a weird feeling. The girls had always been paired together growing up, it's why she was so comfortable throwing her in the air - Josephine had always been the base and Addison the flyer.

When zombies were discovered to be in attendance at the pep rally, Josephine didn't have to push her way through the crowd to know who it was. Addison had already told Bree that she had gone down and apologized to the zombies, inviting them to the pep rally, and by extension Josephine was informed as well.

The zombies looked wildly out of place, Josephine mused to herself as they started their routine. She tried to keep her eyes on the crowd, but away from Zed as she smiled and hollered the cheers they had memorized. She was pretty sure he was trying to ignore her as well anyways.

Josephine had already started prepping with two other boys to throw Addison in the air for the millionth time in her life, when a loud scream interrupted her focus. A past conversation about zombies hating fire zipped through her mind as she watched the spirit sticks crackle in front of her. It all seemed like slow motion - and as if Addison could defy gravity - as a zombie came thundering down the bleachers and towards the cheerleaders.

Now, Josephine could have stayed where she was and caught Addison herself. She was strong enough, tall enough, and more than capable to do so. Being a base for so long gave her talents. But, the fear of a zombie running at her overpowered the desire to stay and help the blonde.

So she ran away in terror.

And tripped.

So the brunette got a front row seat of a real zombified Zed catching Addison just a couple feet away from her and somehow changed back to... not a zombie? A calmer zombie? His veins had been close to protruding out of his skin, his eyes seemed even more sunken, and he basically hit the defensive team away as if they were nothing

Josephine trembled at the image and quickly shoved herself away as fast as she could away from the monster. It may have just saved Addison's life, but the image of a pale, bruised arm and sunken eyes were forever ingrained in her head.

But the crowd cheered and life continued. Zed made it onto the football team and zombies were allowed to eat in the cafeteria - times were changing and Bucky was complaining.

Although Josephine sat with neither the VIP's nor Bree and Addison, she still had a perfect sight of Addison getting up to talk to the zombies. Not only was she in view, she was on the way as the Acey's picked her up to go and knock some sense into the blonde.

"Come on. We're gonna go get Addison before Bucky breaks out in stress." Stacey flipped her hair as the three stood at the end of Josephine's table.

"Why do I have to go?"

"Because you're the only one here who has, like, actually beaten up a zombie." Tracey rolled his eyes and looked over with expectant eyes. "Plus you're, like, tall. You'll intimidate them."

"Yeah, Josephine. You're all like muscley and you'd be scary if it weren't for your face."

That was about as close to a compliment from the Aceys as she was going to ever get, even if it was more insulting than anything. Josephine didn't ever have a choice but she agreed anyway and got up to be the cheerleaders... bodyguard? Should she have denied beating up a zombie?

But she watched as Addison was dragged a few feet away and to her and Tracey. Zed's face dropped and watched in increasing sadness as Addison was reprimanded for her choice. His eyes briefly met Josephine's and Josephine looked away.

Nothing good could come from zombies being integrated. Josephine continued to agree with Bucky and listened like the good cheerleader freshmen she was. Her mother always said that the cheer captain led the team to victory as long as the team listened perfectly.