January 6th, 2011

I woke up to the sound of birds twittering in the morning sunlight. Because last night felt like a long dream, I was confused where I was for a moment. When I came to the realization that I was with my band partner, in my new college, I finally relaxed and cooked myself some pancakes. Leaving some more for Ben... of course.

Ben didn't wake up until he smelled pancakes baking. The first thing he did when he woke up was skid out of his bedroom and stop at where I was making pancakes. He stared, then looked up at me.

"Pancakes?" He asked.

"No... I'm making rat carcass." I forced myself a sarcastic laugh.

Ben rolled his eyes. "Whatever dude. I'm just hungry, can't wait. I didn't eat anything for dinner. All what I had was a granola bar." He took out plates and set them down at the table, one for me, one for him.

"WE." I corrected him. "And I didn't even eat a granola bar."

"Yeah, well... uh. Okay, right." Ben stammered, awkwardly. 'Pretty awkward guy...' I thought 'But, he's cool. About my age, so I'll hang with him.' I flipped Ben's pancakes and dropped them over to his plate. Ben smiled and dug in, gnawing at it like he's never eaten anything in his life. It was like a grizely bear cub eating the first squirrel it's ever caught, full of joy.

Once I finished my pancakes, I basically ate just like Ben. Hey! I'm guy... deal with it. Ben started up a conversation while we were eating.

"So..." He began. "How'd you sleep?"

"Fine. I felt a little different, not really used to this new college."

"Ah." He replied, in between chewing. "Well don't worry, John. Today you're going to meet the band. There're a lot of things and people that you're gunna learn. There's this one girl named Jenny Pitcher." He sighed. "Let's just say I might have had a crush on her for a long time... in school."

I stared at him, like he was forgetting to say something.

"Okay... okay!" Ben shook his head like he lost a game. "I still do have a crush on her." I laughed. 'Well, i defiantly wasn't expecting THAT.'

"How cute is she?" I asked.

"She's pretty." He smiled. "And, nice... smells like peppermint too. It's strange... but every time she walks by me I can just smell peppermint..." "You SMELLED her?" I cut in. Ben giggled nervously.

"Dude... I can't help it. It's pretty obvious. It's like the sent is stuck on her everywhere she goes. But I like the smell... so it's not that weird. She has pretty eyes. I like her hair too. She long dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. They're like dark chocolate... look like chocolate too."

'Dark brown... that was exactly Zane's eye color. And she loved chocolate, especially the dark ones.' I thought to myself, not really listening to Ben's rant anymore. I couldn't stop thinking about my family. Through half the stuff Ben was talking about, I was zoned in my own world... thinking about what Christmas was like, and whenever or not Zane was thinking about me right now. I could hear Ben talking, but I really didn't care about this "Jenny Pitcher" girl... even if she was hot. I wondered if Zane was playing my guitar, or wearing my hat. I wondering if she was playing basketball with my favorite ball, remembering all the moves I taught her to do. I wondered if she had make any friends in her short time in school. I wondered if she had a crush...

After a while, I heard Ben ask my name.

"John... JOHN? You there? Are you even listening to me?" He waved his hand in the front of my face to catch my attention.

"Huh?" I snapped out of my thoughts. "Oh, right. Yeah... I was listening. Sorry, I was also thinking about my sister. I was just wondering where she was, they hadn't picked up my calls yesterday..." 'CALLS!' I jumped up in my seat. "Oh, hang on Ben, I gotta do something."

I skidded over to my bag and pulled out my phone and heading straight for the bathroom... if i could just find it.

"Hey! John, are you okay?" Ben walked up to where I was headed. "If you need to go to the bathroom it's in the left of the bedroom." He pointed toward the bedroom.

"Thank you!" I smiled and pushed my way through the bathroom, ready to call my family.

A LITTLE WHILE LATER

No one answered my call... AGAIN! Where were they? Why were they always gone like this, they usually always answered.

I tried to focus on entering my band hangout with ease and manners, but I was still in a different world. Family world. Zane world.

Once I entered where the band met, I saw instruments and tons and tons of people. They're were jocks, rebels, nerds, emos and goths, normal people that were out looking at their phones... and the so called "Popular" people. I even recognized one of the girls... wait, is that...

CAROL MAPLE! Charlotte Maple's sister! Who by the way, is a bullying to my sister. Great... now I can't stop thinking about Zane again.

"Hey John," Ben caught my attention. He pointed to one of the tall girls that was hanging out the nerds. She had purple glasses and long brown hair, and brown eyes. "There's Jenny." He smiled, shyly and awkwardly.

'Why are such a dork, Ben?' I asked myself. "Okay... where's David, the band director?" I asked, looking all around the room for any sign of a teacher.

"Probably in his office. Here, I'll show you where it is." He lead the way across the instruments that laid on stage and into a hallway that had different doors with different labels on them. One door had a girl's restroom sign on it, the other had a guys sign. Then their was a studio room for recording and creating music. Another hallway we passed which had less doors there, but there were trophies in selves all across the hall. They actually had surprisingly a lot of trophies for a small band. They weren't "trophy famous", or anything, but they had a lot more than I expected. At the end of the hall there were two doors. One had an "EXIT" sign at the top with red, glowing letters, and the other sign said... "Directors office, knock before entering".

Ben inclosed on the door, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" A voice came from inside the room. "It's me... Ben, with your new band-man, John." He said slowly.

The door creaked open, and out came a man taller than what I imagined, but not death-difingly tall. He had a shaved beard and mustache and short, curled hair. He wasn't fat, but a little chubby and he was wearing the same blue jacket everyone else wore.

"Welcome." He smiled. "I'm David, must've already met me... of course, and I'm really excited to meet you in real life. I hope you are too."

I nodded at him. "Yes sir."

He nodded back. "Ya see kid, your work isn't just amazing... it's FANTASTIC! I can barely believe hoe good you are. John, we need a lot more kids like you. Kids who are creative, fast learning, and very competitive. Are you all three of those things?" David stared into my eyes, like he was testing me or something.

At first, I honestly didn't know what to say. I looked over to Ben, who was surprised himself. He looked back at me and just nudged me to keep going. Ben wasn't the one for speeches. "Yes sir." I looked back up to David.

He smiled.

"Good! Because, you, my friend, are going to be one of the lead singers and student director helper for our band, which means you can help create as many songs and chose all the instruments you'd like. You even get to chose the one you want to play for the songs. You are really oh, so talented John. You don't know how pleased I am to meet you.. really, really pleased." He looked into my eyes again and smiled a soft, friendly smile.

I couldn't stop smiling myself! THIS. WAS. REALLY. HAPPENING. I had to keep telling that in my head so that I wouldn't faint right in front of Ben and David. It would make me look like an idiot... and that was Ben's job.

"Are you sure you want to be in our band, John?" He stared at me. "Do you really want to?"

I had a feeling spreading inside me, started from all the way to my toes and heading straight up to my head. It was so cool! So amazing to feel this way.

"Yes sir!" I shouted a little louder, making myself sound confident. "Good." David said. He lead my up and around the hallway. "It's time to go meet destiny." He said. "Go meet your teammates. We are all part of a family now."

Ben and I ran up into the crowd of people... my family. Ben showed me around to all the girls, Jenny Pitcher, Carol Maple, Sabrina Smith, Ariel Carry, and Lilian Rain. While Ben was "flirting" with the girls, or at least trying to, I went up to the guys and introduced myself. The guys that I met were, Samuel Carry(Ariel's brother) Ronald Tooth, Andrew Krane, Tommy Miles, Dan Lee, and Ken Sue. I hung out with everyone before we all had to go.

Something strange happened while we exited to go home, I was just walking down the hill, heading for my car with Ben, when suddenly, something grabbed my arm and tried to bite me! The weird thing is, that it was a human, not an animal or anything... but a human was TRYING to BITE ME! I pulled my arm away from him and yelled at him.

"HEY DUDE! Could you not! What the hell were you trying to do?" I shouted at him. Something wasn't right. This didn't look like a human, it was like a dead human. A walking dead human. He had glowing, yellow eyes, and his clothes were torn up. His mouth had streaks of blood coming out of his mouth, like he was eating something. I looked at my hand to make sure I wasn't bite.

Yep! I wasn't.

That thing was walking closer, making sighs and grumbling sounds. I couldn't believe it at first, it happened so fast. I had flashbacks of be being with saying I'd never leave her, that'd I'd always be in her heart. The zombie walking toward was getting closer and closer. All what I vision was Zane looking up at me, her sweet, innocent grin. They way she's laugh when I would tickle her. I remember teacher her how to read when she was only a baby. Watching her grow and age up. The way I'd sing songs in the middle of the night, and the way she'd try to copy me. The zombie reached for my hand and opened it's mouth wide, about to bite my arm off, when Ben jumped on top of the zombie. Hitting it with a axe I could hear the faint sounds of the zombie dying, I saw the blood splatter on top of my skin. I saw Ben finish up the zombie and then stare at me mouthing the words. "JOHN MOVE! YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!"

I couldn't feel anything, I was completely numb. I tried to make a run for it as more of those dead, mania-cans lumbered towards everyone. I could see all the guys and girls running inside the band-hangout. Ben pushed me forward, ahead of him, but I slipped and feel, causing myself to see nothing but empty blackness. I opened up my eyes as I felt Ben pick me up and run into the bandroom... hangout, whatever. He was staring at me, worried if I had gotten bite. That wasn't the problem. The problem was be... I had no feeling anymore, like hell just crept on Earth.

Zombie Apcalyples were nothing to kid about. In fact, no one ever thought that would possible happen... but it did. I felt sorrow for Zane, for my family. For Ben and my bandmates. I really didn't care if I was dead or alive, or what-not. I just wanted to see Zane again. I closed my eyes as Ben laded me down on the stage, everyone was blocking the doors and windows so no zombies could break in. I softly closed my eyes and fell asleep.