Zombies

Chapter 8

"You snuck out" my mother scolds me as I stand in the kitchen with my head down "do you know how dangerous it is out there?" my dad asks "this town is full of monstrous zombies, what were you up to?" I had to think of something, quick. "I was out with a boy," I say. "No summer art course until we meet this boy," my mother says pointing a spatula at me. "What? That's not fair!" I say, man why did I have to say that, they cannot meet Zed, they can't know he's a zombie. "Hey your mother's right, okay, no more art until we meet him" I sigh at them and walk off to my room.

Today was the day of the homecoming game, and I needed to talk to Zed. I hear my name get called out and I turn around to see exactly who I was looking for "last night, I wanted to help when the zombie patrol arrived but I was afraid-" "Zed, it's not your fault, the big problem is that my parents won't let me do this summer art course until they meet you" I say cutting him off. "Great so I'll just win them over with my charming smile," he says winking "no, not great, they don't know you're a zombie" "and they hate zombies," he says finishing my sentence. "Yeah," I say sadly "I'm sorry, for making things difficult for you," he says and my eyes widen "no no you haven't done anything wrong besides being you, and you're great. You know what, if my family can't accept zombies then maybe I don't wanna do art anymore" "but you love art, it's what makes you, you" I sigh "I wish I could just flip a switch and change everything but I can't. I have to go, I'm late for maths" I say and turn to walk up the stairs, leaving him behind.

"Listen there's something you need to know," I tell my parents, I need to tell them he's a zombie. Ding Dong. "He's here," my mum says as she makes her way to the door, "whoa you do not want to do that," I say worried, and start following them "don't be ridiculous, where are your manners?" "Ok fine, open it. Yes, my date to the homecoming game is-", "handsome" my mother finishes my sentence. What? I wriggle around my parents and see Zed standing at my door looking... human? "You look-" "dashing".

"So how do you know my daughter?" My dad questions. "I'm on the football team and I see her at games with her sister," he says casually, my dad starts talking about how he was on the football team too, and the two of them bonded over the fact that they played the same position. "Alright we're gonna go to the homecoming game now," I say pushing past my parents and gesturing to Zed to start walking "it was nice meeting you," he tells them before walking away. "Harper, he is such a nice boy, where did you dig him up?" My parents say but I brush them off and run over to where Zed was waiting.

"How did you-" I start and he continues, "I adjusted my Z-band, I can feel the energy coursing through my bones right now it's awesome! hey we still have time before the game, I owe you a real date", "a date?!" I say excitedly running after him. "As I said, a real date," Zed says as we arrive at the fro-yo shop. As we were walking inside Zed groaned in pain and leans against the wall holding his wrist, "oh my god Zed are you okay?" I asked, the worry obvious in my voice, he cleared his throat before answering "yeah yeah I'm fine, Eliza was wrong, nothing bad is happening I'm completely fine. After you" he says gesturing to the door, "thanks?" I say but I'm not convinced that he's actually okay.

"Vanilla, vanilla, double vanilla. Can you guess what the last one is" I say listing the flavours on the menu "vanilla" he says knowingly, "yeah how did you know" I joke, "you guys have a wide variety", "of vanilla".

The waitress comes over with our fro-yo and we thank her, "you know what, vanilla works" Zed says enjoying his fro-yo and I laugh. "I've always wanted to come here. And here I am, with you, on a date! It's great" He exclaims excitedly, I look down thinking, I mean yeah, of course, it's great I mean we're together but is it really? I mean he's forced to be someone he's not. We should have to change, everyone else should. And I tell him exactly what I'm thinking. "You wear a wig to fit in, why can't I do the same with my Z-band?" He asks, "Okay, I admit that is a good point. But I'm pretty sure changing my hair colour is a lot different than going from zombie to human" I say whispering the last part so no one hears, "Harp, everything's going to be alright, trust me. I'll dial myself down to zombie mode and win the game" and that was the end of the conversation.