Part 10 (1/2)
Min stopped me. ”It's okay. I didn't win that bet.”
I looked up at her.
”Sure, different things happened to each of us,” she said. ”But we were together too, in more ways than one. Even when we weren't together, we were together, you know?”
I thought about this. I remembered Thanksgiving dinner, and how comforting it had felt to be surrounded by such good friends. And I thought about how nice it had been for Min and me to finally share our different experiences with each other. So I guess Min had a point.
”Oh,” I said to Min. ”Well, in that case, you can pay me!”
Min laughed. Gunnar did too.
”No,” I said. ”Seriously! Pay up!” 145 Only now did I join in their laughter. If you can't laugh when you're grounded for a month, when can you laugh?
”So what's next?” Gunnar said.
”What do you mean?” Min asked.
”Oh, you know us,” Gunnar said. ”Seems like we're always in the middle of something. So what's next?”
I had plenty of ideas, but being grounded, I wouldn't be getting to them anytime soon. Besides, you can't go on and on in life, never stopping, never resting. Every now and then, it's a good idea to take a little breather and say, That part of my life is over, and for the time being, we've come to . . .
THE END.
Or is it?
BRENT HARTINGER.
For Jo Ann Jett (aka Mrs. O'Neal), the opposite of a zombie in every way Contents Chapter One.
BODY PARTS. A FLIER on one of the school bulletin... 1 Chapter Two.
THIS IS THE PART where I'm supposed to complain about... 16 Chapter Three.
YES, I WANTED TO get dinner with Leah! 32 Chapter Four.
I WAS DYING TO see Leah again, and I couldn't... 49 Chapter Five.
WE WENT BACK TO that Ethiopian restaurant on McKenzie Street. 70 Chapter Six.
RUSSEL'S BOYFRIEND, OTTO, LIVED in another state, but he was... 82 Chapter Seven.
HERE'S THE THING. I wasn't that upset with Leah's friends... 101 Chapter Eight.
THE NEXT DAY, SAt.u.r.dAY, I had another early morning makeup... 118 Chapter Nine.
DADE, SAVANNAH, AND ALEXIS descended upon Leah's bedroom like a... 128 Chapter Ten.
THE NEXT MORNING, MY mom was reading the newspaper at... 139 CHAPTER ONE.
Body parts. A flier on one of the school bulletin boards was covered with little drawings of them: dismem bered arms and feet and heads dripping with blood. They 1 looked the way I felt. Disconnected.
My friend Gunnar had been the first to notice the flier.
He'd beckoned to me and my other friend Russel on the other side of the hallway.
”They're filming a zombie movie in town, and they need teenagers to be extras, and isn't that cool, we should totally do it!” he said breathlessly. I hadn't seen him this excited since the night they left the gate unlocked at the sewage treatment plant.
I glanced at the words on the flier. ZOMBIES WANTED!it read.
Teenagers needed as extras for upcoming horror film, Attack of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies, to be produced in local area. Come let us turn you into gruesome, monstrous zombies!
The dismembered body parts surrounded these words. My name is Min Wei, I'm sixteen years old, and I con fess I adore monster movies. I was also keen on the idea of giving this movie some racial diversity, because, honestly, when was the last time you saw an Asian-American zombie?
At that moment, however, I was in kind of a p.i.s.sy mood.
2 ”Aren't they kind of late for zombies?” I said.
”Halloween was two weeks ago.” It was currently the second week in November. ”They're filming the movie,” said Gunnar. ”Not releasing it.”
Gunnar is the kind of person who somehow always manages to be wearing the wrong shoes. I would never say this out loud, but Gunnar might even have a mild form of autism, something like Asperger's syndrome. He is very intelligent but can become somewhat obsessive about things. He's also not so skilled at the human-interaction thing, if you know what I mean. However, he is still an extremely nice person.
”And what's a 'brain zombie'?” asked Russel. Russel is my best friend. He is quite adorable, but he doesn't know it, which just makes him that much more adorable. He is also very smart, but pretty emotional, always waving his hands all over the place. When he does that, he reminds me of Kermit the Frog, except with reddish hair. He can sometimes be exasperating, because he always has to see every side to everything. Still, he's a great guy, with possibly the world's biggest heart. Russel is gay, and his boyfriend's name is Otto.
”I know,” I said to Russel. ”Brain zombies? That doesn't even make sense.”
”I'm sure it's explained in the script!” blurted Gunnar. 3 ”Look, do you guys want to do it or not? I know Em will.” Em is Gunnar's girlfriend. I'd point out that she's really intelligent too, but then that makes three people in a row that I've called smart, and I accept that that might strain my credibility.
”I don't know,” I said. I did want to be a zombie extra in the movie. For some reason, I just didn't want to come right out and say that.
Russel looked at me. ”What's wrong?”
”Huh? Nothing.”
The truth is, I knew exactly why I felt so disconnected. Russel had a boyfriend, and Gunnar had a girlfriend. Ironically, I'm bis.e.xual so I would have been okay with either a boyfriend or a girlfriend. I didn't have either one, however, so I was feeling a little excluded.
”This zombie thing could be fun,” said Russel. ”Yes, maybe,” I said.
”We'll all be together, at least,” he said.
”No, we won't,” I said. ”Not really.”
”Yeah, we will!” said Gunnar. ”Why wouldn't we be?” ”Because people are always alone,” I said. ”Sure, we're 'together,' but not really. We all might be doing the same thing, being zombie extras on this movie set. But we 4 wouldn't ever really know what the others are thinking or feeling. It'd be a completely different experience for each of us.” I know all this makes me sound like a cras.h.i.+ng bore. As I said, I was feeling a little lonely, and this was just my not-so-desperate cry for help.
”Please,” said Russel. ”Zombie guts are zombie guts are zombie guts.”
This was a reference to that Gertrude Stein poem, ”A rose is a rose is a rose,” which we'd studied in cla.s.s. Like I said, Russel is smart. Funny too.
”Are they?” I said. ”Zombie guts might mean one thing to you, but something completely different to me. Even if we were always together, which we won't be, it wouldn't be the same experience at all. I bet you ten dollars that if we do this, we'll have completely different experiences.”
”Yeah, but that doesn't mean-”