The changing of Winter | ✔

|06| - Middle School?

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The next morning, something was nagging at my memory. Something important I forgot. I opened my notebook, and there were only two things listed:

Read: Frankenstein.

Check. I did that, and even took careful notes.

Next: Call Chiara.

Check. I did that last night before bed.

Chiara wanted to know if I still had a crush on Brett. And for a split second, I couldn't remember who Brett was, so I looked him up online and pasted a printout of his profile page in my notebook.

Stalker level 100 ..

Of course I still had a crush on him. I liked him since I first met him.

Jesse was---well, I didn't know exactly what he was.

"He's a new friend," I told Chiara. Which was true.

That's when Chiara said, "Brett's been asking about you."

"Really?" My heart felt like it might leap out of my chest. "When?"

"He asks at least once a day," she told me. "Sometimes when we eat lunch together or when we hang outside during free period, and almost everyday after theater."

"Wow," I say. "Brett is asking about me. Very cool"

"Yeah," she said. "He is."

That night I stayed up, smiling to myself, reading and rereading Brett Hanson's school profile.

In the morning I told myself that when I got back to IECA, I'd go by the school theater first thing and talk to Brett. Like, really talk to him. Looking him in the eye and everything.

I checked my notebook again, calling Chiara wasn't what I had forgotten.

"I seriously have to write everything down," I told myself. I felt like my zombitus brain fuzz was slowly getting worse. Then again, if I had to have symptoms, brain fog was better than decaying skin.

The calendar said it was Tuesday. I reviewed my schedule.

The day before, when I met Joy for lunch, I discovered a pretty great thing about ZBS-Academy: There were no classes after noon! It wasn't perfectly perfect because I had three classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and another three on Tuesday, Thursday, and SATURDAY. But still, since my afternoons were free, I didn't mind too much that my Saturdays were school days.

After classes ended today, I was going with Jesse and Joy to the school movie theater. They were showing zombie movies, of course. If zombitus wasn't contagious, Danny really would really love this place!

Thinking about Danny made me think about my parents. And about Chiara.

I missed them all so much. I've only been gone a night and yet it felt like much longer. It was hard to say if that was the creeping zombie brain fog, or just normal homesickness.

Thankfully, when the cure was released, I'd get some and then ..

THAT'S IT!

The cure was the thing I'd forgotten!

I wanted to find out more about it. Plan my trip home. Tell Danny, my parents, and Chiara.

Of all the things to forget, I couldn't believe that was the one thing that slipped my brain.

Before calling my parents, I needed information. Like when exactly I'd be leaving. Jesse seemed to know everything about ZBSA, so I'd ask him. Thankfully that my knees could bend, I ran all the way to my first Tuesday class. It was History.