Limelight

Izabelle, Riza and Zadie: Revenge

(Some good old fashioned Terrible Trio, without Zeke and Hazen (they do get mentioned tho, don't worry~). I decided after the first Terrible Trio one-shot that the guy who threw the rock at Iza was the same guy she danced with at the block party. Then I noticed he has Zombie-tongue letters on his t-shirt in the party scene and this happened)

TRAVIS: the human Izabelle dances with at the block party
SUZANNE: the zombie girl in red seen with Hazen when they pass the NO ZOMBIES graffiti

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He looked... familiar...

Izabelle had definitely seen this boy somewhere before, but she just couldn't place it. And not just around school. She had come to recognise a few human faces at Seabrook High over the last couple of months, but she was sure she had seen this particular human even before that. Which didn't make much sense, seeing as the younger generation of zombies hadn't really mixed with humans before they started attending school with them, and Izabelle had never wanted to interact with them in the first place. To be perfectly honest, she was even steering clear of them as much as she could now that they went to the same school. So where had she...

Then it hit her.

"What, you freaks never seen real people before?"

The day, almost a year ago now, when she, Riza and Zadie had spotted two human boys climbing over the barrier.

"Oh, it speaks English!"

She had tried to just walk away. She really did. But he pushed her too far.

"You've got a lot of nerve walking away from us, braindead runt."

The memory of it alone was enough to make her eyes narrow and her lip curl up in a sneer. But there wasn't time for that. The block party was beginning and the other zombies were welcoming the humans.

Riza and Zadie were by her side, as always, and noticed how fixated she was on whatever she was looking at. Riza crouched slightly to follow her line of sight then gave her a confused frown.

"... Why are you staring at that guy?"

Izabelle jumped and punched Riza's arm, giving her a look of disgust.

"You're not going soft on us, are you, Iza?" Riza quirked an eyebrow.

Izabelle gaped in disbelief, "Are you insane?" Riza smirked and opened her mouth to respond but Iza interrupted her with a roll of her eyes, "Don't answer that. You don't recognise him?"

Both Riza and Zadie briefly glanced at the human boy, but were only more confused.

"No?"

"That's the drak who threw a rock at me and called me a braindead runt."

There was a pause as Izabelle continued to watch him. She noticed a group of people – zombies and humans – switching jackets. Roz was handing theirs over to the cheerleader Bonzo so obviously had heart eyes for. Iza looked back at the boy and Zadie leaned in.

"You're planning something."

A sly smile spread across Izabelle's face but she said nothing.

"Some would say other humans have done plenty worse than he has," Riza joked, faking a disappointed tone. Zadie copied her.

"Some would say it's been a year and you should just let it go already."

Izabelle cocked her head, looking off into the distance, "Some would also say petty revenge isn't the answer."

Zadie grinned, "So what do you say?"

"I say give me about five minutes and some of Bonzo's paint and I'll show you just how petty I can be."

– LIMELIGHT –

Izabelle easily snuck into her cousin's house without anyone noticing. Her aunt and uncle were home, obviously not interested in joining the party, but all she had to do was tell them she was getting something from Bonzo's room and they left her to it. She found a small pot of black fabric paint (and a brush) and skipped back down the stairs and out the door. Riza and Zadie were waiting for her.

"So, how are you gonna do it?" Riza asked, "You can't get close to him without him noticing."

"Who says he can't notice? He just can't know what I'm gonna paint. And I don't think he can read Zombie-tongue."

"What, you're just going to walk right over to him? What if he recognises you?"

"Doubt he would," Iza shrugged, "You didn't recognise him. I only did because I'm bitter."

Zadie brought a hand to her heart, "You're an inspiration."

"I know," with a flip of her hair, Izabelle sauntered off.

She got lucky – he had no idea who she was. But honestly, that just irritated her more. He probably thought all zombies looked the same. She bit back a grimace and put on a fake smile.

"No-one to switch with, huh?" She gestured to the other zombies and humans wearing each other's jackets. The boy – Travis, as she had picked up – shook his head and laughed lightly.

"Nope."

"I don't have a jacket or anything, but I do have this," she held up the fabric paint, "You know my cousin, Bonzo?" Travis nodded. People did recognise Zed's friends by now, "He paints Zombie-tongue all over his clothes, how 'bout something like that?"

He agreed.

... Drak...

He didn't even really question what Izabelle was writing as she scrawled every Zombie swear and insult she could think of across his t-shirt. It was subtle, but the self-satisfaction would be enough for her. For now, at least.

He actually had the nerve to ask her to dance then and she had to pretend her laughter was more flattered than 'I'd-rather-set-myself-on-fire'. But dancing meant he'd be on display for the other zombies to see her handiwork, and they wouldn't be able interrupt the dance to do anything about it. And it was BAMM – it wasn't like she would have to touch him.

Before the music started, Izabelle returned to Riza and Zadie, who had been watching, snickering to each other and trying hard to read every word on the shirt from where they stood on the other side of the street.

"Good thing the boys aren't here," Riza bit her lip but it didn't stop her laughing.

"I wish they were!" Zadie giggled, "Imagine the look on Hazen's face if he saw that! And I bet Zeke would actually find it funny."

"Then he'd fake like he was disappointed when Hazen started going off about it!"

Now, every zombie Travis spoke to seemed unable to take him seriously. He said hi to Suzanne and she gave him a once over, snorted and walked away with a wave of her hand. Inez immediately guessed who did it and shot Izabelle an impressed look. The guys of BFZ, about to perform, were nudging each other and pointing at Travis behind his back as they made their way over to where their instruments had been set up.

A tall shadow fell on the girls and they turned to find Bonzo standing there, looking down at Izabelle. And he did not look happy. He pointed at Travis.

"Ru?"

Izabelle nodded, completely shameless, "Yup."

Bonzo pointed to himself, "Z'ag grarg zig?" With my paint?

She nodded again and he held out a hand, palm facing up, and she gave him the pot and brush with a smug smile. Bonzo shook his head as he slipped his art case from his shoulder and put them away, then he moved along with nothing more than an 'I'm-watching-you' motion at Iza.

The three girls burst out laughing again.