Never Slow Dance with a Zombie
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For my part, I finally realized the cool kids weren't the ones with the best wardrobes, or the best figures, or even glacier-blue eyes. They were the kids with the best attitudes.
Principal Taft never came back to school. He vanished, as if into thin air. When the spring semester began, a new principal, Mr. Fargas, took over.
The Saturday before spring semester was to begin, I invited Sybil to my house. When she arrived, I pulled out my manifesto.
"Oh, my goodness,' she said, snatching the page from my hand and ripping it in half.
"What are you doing?"
'Isn't that why you pulled it out? This manifesto has caused us nothing but trouble. We need to get rid of it." She placed the two halves together and prepared to rip them again.
"Stop!" I called. "I like having the manifesto." I snatched it back and began looking for some tape to patch it back together.
" But last semester was a fiasco."
"I know, but the problem wasn't the manifesto, Sybil. The problem was me. I still want to be popular, I still want to go to
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parties, and I still want a boyfriend... well, actually I have a boyfriend. So the semester wasn't a total failure." I smiled. "But more importantly, I never again want to sacrifice my relationship with my friends to get the things I want." I taped the manifesto back together. "I'm keeping this as a reminder."
I moved to my dresser, where I picked up a tiny, brightly wrapped package and handed it to her.
"What's that for?"
"For you."
"What's the occasion? It's not my birthday. Do you know something that I don't know? Am I getting expelled?"
"Sybil!" I smiled. "Do I need a special occasion to give a present to my very best friend?"
An odd expression crossed her face as she looked at me for a moment. "Absolutely not," she replied. She took the package, ripped into it, and pulled out the charm bracelet I had picked out especially for her. There was a single charm hanging from a link on the bracelet. A tree.
A warm smile crossed her lips. "It's beautiful." For a moment I thought she was going to cry.
"It's in honor of when I met my best friend," I said.
"I know." Her voice was cracking as she put on the bracelet. "Thank you," she said, admiring it on her wrist.
Just then: "Hey, Margot, what are you guys doing in there? Mom says you have to take me to the mall for new sneaks. Pronto!" called Theo.
"All right!" I said with an exasperated sigh.
I recalled the evening when I'd first started dating zombie Dirk. Theo had come to my bedroom door to annoy me, and I'd flirted with the idea of yanking the door open, tying a leg of lamb around his scrawny neck, and letting Dirk have at him.
Gosh, I wish I had.
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Cranford College
Office of Admissions
3501 Trousdale Pkwy
Room#l01A
Amherst, MA 01002
Dear Miss Johnson,
Congratulations! Let me be the first to welcome you to the fall freshman class of Cranford College. I enjoyed reading your essay. My, what a wonderful imagination you have. It was quite clever how you used zombies to describe your journey through high school. I believe you are just the kind of thoughtful and engaged student that will benefit from the Cranford experience.
1 took the liberty of passing your essay along to the head of our creative writing department. I told her I think we have a female Stephen King on our hands.
I am very pleased to hear that you and entering freshman Sybil Mulcahy have already taken the initiative to start a Save the Planet Club at Cranford. It shows just the kind of motivation we enjoy in our students. I look forward to meeting you both in the fall.
Very truly yours,
Llod B.Bartlett
Lloyd Baskins
Bartlett
Dean of Admissions,
Cranford College
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Acknowledgments
I'd like to thank my agent, Jim Kellem, for making this possible; my manager, Sheree Guitar, for her unfailing belief in me, and for providing a venue for the readings; Garett and Yvette, for listening to the early chapters; Latif, whom I first ran the idea past, and who told me to go for it; Lorraine, who puts up with so much; and special thanks to Susan, editor extraordinaire, who helped find the soul in a silly story.