Perfectionism in Pink | A Zombies FanFiction

8

After the football team's first win, Josephine faded into the background. She blended in with the cheerleaders, played the game, kept her head low, and did her workouts when she got home. She had even moved up as a stand in at Bucky's table when there was a vacancy.

Everything was how she had wanted it.

Sure, the Zombies were around more often in the hallways, the gate was down, and they ate in the cafeteria, but she made sure to stay clear from the monsters. They were at every game, rally, event... but Josephine was safe in numbers which is why she carried the bags for the Acey's, brought Bucky his fancy water, and laughed at peoples jokes when they weren't funny. She needed to feel safe.

But, like she said, today's homework kept her from the safety of the cafeteria and in a computer lab typing some bullshit history paper about the founding of Seabrook. If she wanted any time at the gym today, she needed to get this thing done for tomorrow. Words were never something she was good at, numbers were so much easier to understand, but she would make do and focus.

Josephine was so focused that she didn't hear the door open.

"James Jett."

Her fingers froze on the keyboard and Josephine didn't have to look up to know who was walking into the room right now.

"Wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders, nine seasons. Also an olympic gold medalist." Zed recited from memory, walking further into the room slowly. "A sprinter turned receiver, very impressive career. Fast man, kind of reminds me of another fast human from a couple of weeks ago."

"L-look, if you've come to rip my head off, just do it already." Josephine snapped, still not looking at the zombie that was walking down the center of the lab towards her. With a heavy breath she folded her hands into her lap and waited for the pain. "J-just make it quick."

"Okay."

Josephine's head snapped up at the zombie that now stood next to her in shock. Zed only grinned down at the human playfully throwing his hands up like he had done during their first meeting and wiggled his fingers.

"But I've heard cheerleader brain isn't really good. It makes your heart hurt." Zed put down his hands and the silliness was replaced with sadness as he stuffed his hands in his pocket. "Then they run away at near superhuman speed after egging your house."

Ouch. Okay, she could see where he was coming from, but the fact that he was still towering over her made Josephine feel way too small to continue this conversation. Diplomacy, right?

"...Sit with me."

A girl and a zombie sitting in a computer lab with 15 minutes left of lunch and all the way across campus, what could ever go wrong?

"I... egged your house."

"I know. I watched you do it."

"You watched me and didn't say anything?!"

Zed shrugged and twirled around in the roller chair a few times. Even though he was supposed to be a monster, he sure acted like a human boy sitting the wrong way in the chair and playing around. He really threw Josephine off guard every time they spoke.

"You've got a good arm. Good aim. Plus, the eggs hit the easiest places to clean. How convenient, huh?" The zombie didn't hide his thoughts from her as he stared at Josephine. Josephine licked her lips nervously and looked away from Zed, not wanting to look at the pale skin of the dead creature. "Almost like they were aimed to do the least damage-"

"No." Josephine stood up before the monster could finish his sentence, backing away from Zed and towards the side wall. "I egged your house."

"And I saw you." Zed placed his hands on his to emphasize himself and then gestured to the standing human. His eyes were way too kind. "We've been over this, Jett. I know."

"Then why aren't you attacking me, or yelling at me, or or-" Josephine grabbed at her hair, pulling it from the scalp to feel the pressure of being alive. "Anything?!

The zombie frowned, standing up from his chair and taking a step closer, but stopping when she took a step back. "Are you okay?"

"When I do something wrong, that means I'm not perfect." Josephine reasoned with more herself than anything. "That means I need to face consequences. But if I don't face consequences then that means I didn't do anything wrong."

Zed shifted his feet and rubbed his neck with his right hand, trying to figure out how to respond. "Well, why'd you do it?"

"Because of cheer initiation."

"Why did you really do it?"

Click, click, boom.

Another one of her dad's favorite movies was called Zombie Slayer. The movie was flashy, gory, and absolutely disgusting with it's portrayal of murderous zombies eating humans and then being slayed by a man finding revenge for his family.

In the end, the man realizes his family had actually been fine, but because he had spent so much time killing zombies, he didn't realize that his own family had become zombies too. In Zombie Slayer 2, the watchers find out that he had known the entire time and was just ignoring the problem because he didn't want to face the consequences of his actions that was learned about in Zombie Slayer 3.

Why did she really do it?

Everything that made her who she was seemed to be melting away as if the holes in her soul were filled with wax to keep her in place. But now that the heat was up, she was falling apart because she had no solid answer.

"To fit in." The cheerleader whispered, eyes on the tile in front of Zed's feet. Her hands clenched and unclenched nervously. "T-to make my parents happy."

"Do you think what you did was right?"

"I-I don't know..."

"What do you mean?"

"There's no consequences."

"So?"

"... I cut my hair when I was 7, so my mom and dad kept me from playing outside for a month. When I was 10, I punched my brother and my dad made me punch a punching bag for four hours." Josephine swallowed thickly as the memories came flooding through. "Do bad, get bad things. But my dad found me that night in Z-zombieLand and didn't say anything... he knows what I did and he just... ignored it!"

"So you're struggling with whether or not zombies should be treated the same as humans?"

It was ridiculous having a conversation about if a creature deserved to have rights with the creature of the subject matter. Yet, Zed didn't seem bothered by it at all. Her dad would be having a fit right now if she brought this up to him.

"I-I..." She didn't want to say yes or no. She wasn't sure what she thought anymore. "Zombies are ugly, ravenous creatures."

"And so are humans." Zed replied with a shrug, hands going up as well. The zombie rolled his eyes at the shocked look and started counting the wars on his hands. "All of those plus more? Humans. Zombies killed less people in the entirety of our kind than humans did in one day during the World Wars."

"I- didn't know that." Josephine whispered feeling a little ashamed at her assumption and her hands dropping to her side. Her eyes slowly glided from the floor up the zombie's body - he had a quarterback's body for sure. "Growing up I've always watched and heard of mindless zombies that ate brains, killed humans, and tortured them... but you..." she swallowed. "I can't like you."

The zombie sighed and his shoulders dropped. He had really hoped he was getting somewhere with the first human he had a decent conversation with - even if she did run away. Zed nodded finally, a hand on his chin as he processed the information. "Sounds like to me you're focused on other people and not yourself."

"...What am I without other's approvals?" It was a broken whisper that although quiet was the loudest question she had ever asked.

And Zed gave the largest grin she'd ever seen with eyes that dripped sunshine even though they were the color of freshly watered soil. They bloomed blossoms of happiness and optimism even in the shadows of the world. His words slapped the vines guarding her heart away and she felt the thumpthumpthump  in her chest like her heart was about to fall from its spot inside of her.

"You're Jett, the perfectly imperfect teen with a wicked arm and a speedster in her boots."