Part 6 (1/2)

But as the days go by, the students start turning into actual zombies-with yellow skin and mussed-up hair. So Brad teams up with Christy to try to figure out who's turning the whole school into zombies, and why. That's what the scene at the vending machine was all about: they're finally realizing that, no, it's not all in their imaginations.

They kept shooting the vending machine scene over and over. I was still ignoring Kevin, but around the fifth take, I couldn't help but notice that he suddenly seemed to be getting awfully cozy with one of the other zombie-jocks.

88 Or maybe they were just talking. I mean, since Min, Gunnar, and I were ignoring him, Kevin had to talk to someone, right? I couldn't tell if the other guy was good-looking or not, because of the yellow makeup and messed-up hair. I hadn't paid any attention to him before, but now I couldn't help but notice that he did have a pretty good body.

I tried to put them both out of my mind. Before the next shot, I talked with Min, Gunnar, and Em.

”I have a question,” I said.

”Yes?” Min said.

”Has anyone figured out what a brain zombie is yet?”

Min smiled. ”Not a clue. It hasn't been mentioned in any of the scenes I've been in.”

”I still say it's explained somewhere in the script,” Gunnar mumbled.

Suddenly Kevin laughed. I turned. He was standing across the hall with that other zombie-jock. The guy had his hand up against the wall, leaning into it, exactly the way a guy leans into the wall when he's. .h.i.tting on a girl. But Kevin didn't seem to mind. He was laughing and talking, so engrossed that he didn't even notice me staring at him.

Well, what difference did it make if he was being hit on by another guy? I wasn't interested in Kevin anyway, right? I didn't even want to talk to him. But it did sort of speak to Kevin's state of mind. I mean, if he was so des perate to get back together with me-so desperate that 89 he'd become a movie extra just to get close to me-what was he doing letting himself be hit on by another guy? He had to know that I'd notice. Was he trying to make me jealous? Or was he just so weak-willed that when some random guy hit on him, he was powerless to resist?

I decided to block Kevin and his new ”friend” out of my mind completely. Instead, I concentrated on Declan McDonnell. Him, I did want to talk to again, desperately. I didn't really expect to, but I decided why not swing by that bathroom where I'd seen him before? So I did.

Six times.

Every time we had a break or even an obviously long pause between shots, I went to that bathroom. And every time, I found myself alone. It was stupid, I know. Of course I was never going to talk to Declan McDonnell again. I'd been lucky to talk to him once!

When I went back to that bathroom a seventh time, he was there. He was standing at one of the thirty urinals, just zipping up.

”Oh!” I said.

”Oh,” he said. ”h.e.l.lo again.”

He picked up a silver dagger that I hadn't noticed sitting on top of the urinal. It had jewels in the handle and every 90 thing.

”What's that?” I asked.

”Just a prop. What I use to kill the zombies in the last part of the movie. I find it in a drawer in the princ.i.p.al's desk.”

Taking the dagger with him, he crossed to the sinks to wash his hands.

”Hey, can I ask you a question?” I said. I didn't really have a question in mind, but I figured I had to say something, or he'd fly away again.

”Huh?” he said. ”Sure, I guess.” He finished was.h.i.+ng and started drying his hands.

”What's the secret of high school?”

I have no idea what made me say this. It was just the first thing that popped into my head. I guess it was because Declan McDonnell was always playing high school students. He had to know the secret, right?

He shrugged. ”Beats me. I didn't even go to high school.”

”What?”

”It's true. I dropped out my soph.o.m.ore year, when I started getting jobs on television. I had on-set tutors. I always wondered if I missed out.”

”You didn't,” I said quickly. ”Seriously. Not at all. Trust me on this.”

He laughed. ”Well, it is ironic. I've spent the last ten years playing high school students.” 91 ”You're twenty-six?” I said, surprised. I knew he probably wasn't a teenager, but I had no idea he was that old.

”Maybe even more like twenty-eight.” He winked. ”Don't tell anyone, okay?” He looked at me. ”So you hate high school, huh?”

”Well, hate is a strong word. So I'd say, yeah, it's perfect to describe how I feel about high school.”

He snorted. ”You're pretty smart,” he said. ”Anyone ever tell you that?”

”Yeah. It's part of the reason why I've always been known as Mr. Popularity at my school.”

He laughed one more time, and I wondered why I couldn't ever be this charming around guys who weren't untouchable angels.

”I didn't go to high school, but I read a lot of high school scripts, so I've learned a few things,” Declan McDonnell said. ”You really want the secret?”

”Yeah,” I said. ”Totally.”

He fingered the pommel of the dagger in his hand. Fake rubies and emeralds glinted in the fluorescent light. ”Adults think they know what's going on,” he said, ”but they actually have no idea.”

I thought about this. ”I know that's a movie cliche, but that's actually true.”

92 ”The less you care about popularity, the cooler you are,”

he continued.

”I can't deny it,” I said.

”Finally, high school is about the future.”

”What?”

”Think about it,” he said. ”Every year in high school is a new one, a chance to reinvent yourself, a chance to try something different. And every year leads you closer to that ultimate adventure, graduation. When you've played as many valedictorians as I have, and given all those graduation speeches, you know that high school is about looking ahead. Believe me.”

I thought about this last one. It actually made a lot of sense.

”Well,” Declan McDonnell said at last. ”I should be getting back.”

”Right,” I said. ”And thanks! A lot.”

”Sure.”

This time I watched him leave, disappearing up that little flight of steps. It didn't make him any more human, though. Declan McDonnell was the kind of angel who didn't need wings to fly.

When I got home that night, I felt better than I had in a long time. It was partly my second encounter with Declan 93 McDonnell. But it was also the fact that in three days Otto was going to be here, and then everything would be clear. I was certain I'd see him, and it would feel just like old times. Everything would be right again, and I'd know that we could make this long-distance-relations.h.i.+p thing work. Or maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't feel right. Either way, things would finally be settled.