“You,” she automatically said, since with the way her luck had been lately, it was odds on that she would break it.
“Sure.” He shrugged as he stood back and prepared to leave. “So I’d better get going, but if you’d like, I’ll pick you up tomorrow after I get Candice.”
“Thanks,” Mia said as she poked her head out of the door to check that Grace was nowhere around before nodding for him to follow her down the stairs.
“And look, if you’re worried about anything happening tonight, don’t be. The virus is still definitely in stage two, so even if someone wanted to eat you, they probably couldn’t manage it. Their teeth and their bile glands aren’t fully developed yet.” Then he groaned. “Did I really just say that out loud?”
“It’s okay, I know what you meant,” she assured him as she realized that he had seen how scared she was back in the room. Then he shot her a rueful grin that transformed his face, and suddenly Mia could understand what Audrey had seen in him. And Candice, for that matter.
“Cool. So, I’ll see you tomorrow then. Oh, and Mia, I like your prom dress.”
Huh?
She paused for a moment before recalling that her dress had been hanging on the outside of her closet. But Chase was already opening the door to his Impala. She waved good-bye before heading back inside and trying to think how much better it would be this time tomorrow, when no one wanted to eat her anymore.
“Mia, why didn’t you tell me?” her mom asked the next morning.
Mia looked up from the cereal that she had been pushing around her bowl. “T-tell you what?” She tried to plaster a bright smile onto her sleep-deprived face so that she didn’t look like the girl who had stayed up most of the night worrying about the zombies she had accidently created.
At first she had just worried about getting her chanting right, but as the night had worn on, she’d started to worry that Candice and the others had ended up turning all carnivore and had eaten everyone in Newbury (Chase included) and that any minute now they would be crashing through the door looking for her.
“About being nominated for prom queen.” Her mom sounded surprised. “Even Grace didn’t tell me. It wasn’t until Nancy Griffin across the street mentioned it to me that I found out.”
“Oh, right.” Mia tried to push the zombies to the back of her mind. “Yeah, go me.”
“Well, I think it’s wonderful.” Her mom beamed, while somewhere in the background Grace slammed a knife onto her plate. Their mom turned around and lifted an eyebrow. “Honey, we’ve talked about this. You should be pleased that your sister is so popular.”
“Pleased?” Grace scowled as she glanced over at Mia’s outfit (skinny jeans, converse sneakers for running in case things got ugly, and her favorite David Boreanaz shirt for good luck). “How can I be pleased when she is making a mockery of a beautiful tradition?”
“Grace.” This time their mom’s voice was sharp, and Mia grinned.
“Don’t worry, Grace. If I win, I’ll make sure people know that we’re related,” she assured her, which only made her sister scowl even harder. Thankfully, before Grace could respond, Mia caught sight of Chase’s Impala pulling up outside the house with Candice in the backseat. Oh, thank God. They were both alive. And in Candice’s case, not looking like an extra from
Night of the Living Dead
. That had to be a good thing.
“Here’s my ride.” She darted over, gave her mom a kiss on the cheek, grabbed her bag, and raced outside.
“Hey,” she said to them both as she slid into the front seat of the Impala. Chase was looking nice in a striped T-shirt, while Candice had obviously decided to go for zombie chic in a pair of ripped jeans and a pink hoodie with tiny vampires on it. “So are we all ready?”
“I’ve already eaten my body weight in pepperoni this morning. I’m way past ready,” Candice declared. “So what’s the drill?”
“Well, the senior assembly is in second period just after biology, so I was thinking I’d skip class and get everything set up, and you two join me when bio is over,” he said. “The ritual is similar to the one you first did, but instead of using Algeria’s crystals and amulet, we use cleansed ones. Then Mia just needs to chant the incantation but with the reversal spell added onto the end, and then it’s all done.”
“Good, and we can get back to the important business of getting ready for the prom. I swear I’m going to need a whole day at a detox spa to try and get all this protein out of my system,” Candice said from the backseat as Chase made the short drive to Newbury High. He pulled into the parking lot, and just as they were getting out, he turned to Mia.
“Do you have your water? I think you’re going to need it.” He nodded toward the group of seniors that were gathering on the pavement, and Mia felt her stomach flip. She pulled a bottle out of her bag and gave herself a quick squirt and let out a sigh of relief as everyone started to wander away (not before mimicking her, though—had she mentioned how annoying that was becoming?).
They hurried along the hallway, and after checking for the third time that Chase had everything, Mia and Candice watched him slip into the gym, which was already being transformed for tomorrow night’s prom. Several people on the prom committee were at the other end of the room fussing over a large glittery sign, but none of them even seemed to notice Chase as he headed for the bleachers. At first Mia thought that maybe they were purposely ignoring him, but then she realized it was just his way. After all, if she hadn’t turned everyone into zombies and attracted his attention, she probably never would’ve noticed him, either. Which, in retrospect, would’ve been a pity since as it turned out, Chase Miller was a pretty nice guy.
Once he was safely under the bleachers, she and Candice made their way to biology. The bell hadn’t rung yet but the class was almost full, and up at the front of the room Samantha was having an animated conversation with Mr. Haves.
“I just don’t understand why you won’t let me do a final run-through of my speech. Have I mentioned how important this is?”
“And yet I’m still convinced that it’s best to actually learn about biology in a biology lesson,” Mr. Haves said in a mild voice, seemingly unmoved by Samantha’s plight. Ten points to Mr. Haves. “Now since you are on equipment duty this week, can you please go into the supply closet and get the microscopes? We’re dissecting grasshoppers today.”
“But who wants to find out more about grasshoppers or cockroaches that were dumb enough to get turned into brainless morons?” Samantha poked her bottom lip out and Mia gulped.
Yeah . . . wouldn’t want that.
Then she noticed the large ketchup stain on Mr. Haves’s tie and the empty burger wrapper on the desk and she realized he must’ve been at the senior awards assembly, as well. Okay, she must not panic. Everything was going to be fine. Chase knew what he was doing and once they did the ritual, everything would return to normal.
Please let everything return to normal.
She and Candice made their way to a lab table just as Samantha stalked to the supply closet at the back of the room, muttering as she went. Mia ignored her and sat down. Two seconds later, Rob walked in and made a beeline for her. She would’ve been a bit more flattered if it didn’t look like he had just smelled a gourmet double-patty burger. She gave herself another light squirt of water.
“Hey, Mia.” Rob yawned as he sat down next to her and gave her a sleepy grin.
“Are you okay?” she said in alarm, worried he had hit his stage-three zombie coma a bit early. “Maybe you need some Red Bull to help you stay awake. You definitely don’t want to go to sleep. No way.”
“Huh?” He looked at her blankly for a moment as his left arm started to twitch. “I’m fine. I just stayed up late last night trying to figure out my speech for today’s assembly.”
“Oh right.” Mia felt a surge of relief flood through her. So no zombie coma, then. Well, that was good. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much. I mean, everyone knows how great you are. You could probably just stand there and smile and people would vote for you.”
“Or take off your shirt,” Candice helpfully pointed out as she discreetly took a handful of Vitamin C supplements and passed them over to Rob. “By the way, take these. It will stop your arm shaking so much.”
“They’re not steroids, are they? My coach has given me strict instructions not to touch that junk.”
“Definitely not,” Candice assured him as they both watched him swallow the supplements. His arm immediately stopped twitching and Mia let her breath go. After her run-in with everyone in the parking lot yesterday, she just wanted to get through this class in one piece.
“Hey.” Rob nodded at Candice. “Thanks for that—I feel much better. Now I just need to figure out a great speech. You know, one that makes me sound smart or something.”
“You mean like how it’s your dream to erase carbon footprints or something?” Mia said, joking. Then she looked up in alarm as Rob scribbled it down.
“Thanks.” He grinned. “I love dating smart girls.”
Before Mia could say anything else, the bell rang and Mr. Haves stood up and started to take attendance.
Despite sitting next to Rob, Mia couldn’t wait for the class to be over. It felt like an eternity, and by the time the bell rang her nerves were feeling pretty frayed. She jumped to her feet, eager to join Chase under the bleachers, but Candice seemed to be having problems getting her books back in her bag.
“Let me,” Mia urged, but Candice waved her off.
“I’m not a brainless idiot yet,” she insisted, and Mia took a deep breath and tried to be patient. Finally Candice got to her feet and they both headed for the door, but just as Mia was about to walk out, Samantha appeared at her side holding a large box filled with the microscopes they had just been using.
“Mia, do you have a minute?” Samantha asked as she fiddled with the top of the microscope.
“Why?” Mia narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
“Because I think I owe you an apology for yesterday,” Samantha admitted.
“You know I’m not going to vote for you, right?” Mia double-checked, and Samantha nodded.
“Seriously, I just wanted to talk to you for a minute. Is that okay?”
“Fine.” Mia let out a reluctant sigh. Candice was already farther up the hallway, but since her walking had slowed to a snail’s pace, Mia figured she could just catch up to her. She followed Samantha back into the lab and folded her arms as the wannabe prom queen continued to collect the microscopes. “So what’s this about?”
“I just wanted to say that after speaking to my mom last night, I realize I was a little bit hasty in blaming you just because people seem to like you.”
“Well, that’s very big of you.” Mia shrugged as she looked at her watch. “And if that’s all, I’ve got to go.”
“Me, too.” Samantha frowned as she picked up a couple more microscopes. “Actually, would you mind giving me a hand to put these away? I’m really nervous about my speech, and I think I need to run through it one more time.”
“Well, I really need to—”
“Fine. Grace told me that you wouldn’t want to accept an olive branch. I guess I should’ve listened to her.”
“Oh, did she?” Mia bristled as she dumped her bag on the chair and grabbed the remaining microscopes before marching toward the supply closet at the back of the room. It was a huge walk-in closet with a security lock and steel doors, supposedly designed to guard against unauthorized access to expensive equipment and dangerous chemicals, but privately Mia thought it was more to keep out the smell of years of accidental spills. She wrinkled her nose as she flicked on the outside light switch and stepped in to put the microscopes on the shelf at the back.
Grace was just so freaking unbelievable, because—
BANG!
“Hey!” she yelped in surprise as a loud noise went off from somewhere behind her, but as she spun around she realized it was just the closet door swinging shut. All this zombie business was making her far too jumpy. Soon she would become just as paranoid as Chase.
“Sorry about that,” she started to call out as she twisted the handle. “I thought it was . . . Okay, so why can’t I open this door?”
“That would be because I locked it,” Samantha said in a cheerful voice from the other side just as there was a clicking noise and the space went pitch-black.
“You locked it?” Mia still didn’t quite understand what was going on. “But why?”
“Because I’m about to give the most amazing speech ever, and I have no desire to have you try and overshadow me. You’ve already turned Rob against me—I’m not going to let you turn the whole senior class against me, too.”
“Are you insane? You can’t leave me locked in here.” Mia used her shoulder to try and get the door to open. It didn’t work.
“Of course I can. I did warn you not to take me on. That tiara is mine, and I’m not letting you get in my way. Oh, but don’t worry. I’ve put some nice snacks in there for you—some leftover cupcakes and a Snickers bar—so make sure you don’t forget to eat them.”
If they were face-to-face, Mia would be staring at her in disbelief, but as it was she was left to stare into the darkness instead. She started to bang on the door again.
“Samantha Griffin, you let me out this instant. I know you don’t believe me, but it’s not about being prom queen—I just really need to get out of here. There’s something important I need to do.”
“I don’t think so. The only important thing you need to do is learn your place, and since there is no class in here next period, I don’t like your chances of getting out. Oh, well—see you at prom, loser.”
Mia gave the door a couple more thumps but it was obvious by the silence that Samantha had left. She tried to glance around the closet, but since it was pitch-black, this was easier said than done. Had she mentioned that this sucked? Especially since, without her at the senior assembly to do the chanting, the reversal spell wouldn’t work. And in turn she would be trapped in this closet until all the zombies came to eat her.