"Who wants to play rugby?"
When Tyra had jumped up on the cafeteria table, only those nearby had looked at her oddly – and even those had looked away almost instantly. The other students at the table had quickly moved somewhere else with their trays, but now that her hands were cupped around her mouth and her usually loud voice had been given an extra push, the entire room was looking at her. From the teens in line to the ones at the tables, all eyes were on her as she paused. No big deal. Less than at a game; at least she had their attention.
A smile flashed across her face before her hands cupped around her mouth again. "That's right, you heard me. Not a casual game, but to start up a team!" she boomed, dropping her hands as she casually strode the length of the table. Her fellow students were looking at her like she had three heads, but that was fine. Curiosity breeds interest. "A team that has each other's backs from a bond forged through blood, sweat, and tears! You'll never have to look for a gym buddy ever again because you'll have an entire team full of them."
Still only shifting glances and whispers; even those that had stopped walking to stare at her spectacle had started moving again. Maybe the blood part was too intense for people at the beginning. It really needed to be worked up to. "Come on! Never need to ask anyone to open a jar for you again!"
Crickets.
Even Tyra knew that was lame, and her face twitched with a quick grimace. "Or how about this – never worry about walking around at night on your own, ladies?"
A deep bleat of a laugh behind her caught her attention and she twisted to see a guy in a letterman jacket sneering at the guy he was walking with. Pink. The school had weird colours, that was for sure. "Only guy that would be after her would be a zombie off his z-band," he mocked, not having noticed she was paying attention. "What a freak."
"Wow, what an asshole," she commented at the same volume, projecting across the cafeteria while looking down at the pair. His buddy took a step away as she crossed her oversized flannel-clad arms across her chest, having fixed both of them with a glare. The pink was barely noticeable as the jock turned to face her, his brow drawing down.
"You're the asshole – taking up a whole table with your feet. Interrupting an entire cafeteria with your rugby bullshit. Nobody cares. Nobody is going to join, and you labeled yourself a weirdo. Good luck being a loser," he continued, though some of his swagger had been lost, his posture less macho.
"Whatever, you're clearly an idiot, but what I meant was, you're an asshole for using that as some kind of insult."
The furrow in his brow deepened and the beginnings of a scowl pulled at his mouth as he tried to piece together what she was talking about. Tyra felt she had been right on the money when all that came out of his mouth was, "What?"
"Zombies, z-bands. Like they're just some kind of monster when the band doesn't work properly. I thought all this 'humans are the best' shit was done like, three years ago. Are you some kind of closeted speciest?" Her head cocked to the side but that didn't stop the glare she was still boring into his skull. If anything, Tyra was closer to a snarl than he was.
"What?!" he cried, tossing his tray onto the table beside her. The individual plates on it clanked around, and his cupcake tipped onto his artisanal sandwich. By how red his face had gotten, once again she didn't feel like she had said anything too far from the truth. "My captain is a zombie. You don't know anything, you dumb bi-"
Whether he had stopped mid-word, or the sound of her feet hitting the ground drowned it out, Tyra didn't hear him finish his sentence. Jumping from the table to the floor wasn't much more than a box jump, so she'd executed it the same – both feet planted on the floor in front of him. Straightening up from her bent knees, she hid her amusement as the guy in front of her paled a little. Not well, because one corner of her mouth was pulled up into a small smirk.
"What? Weren't you in the middle of saying something?" she asked, eyebrow raised.
Seeing as they were at the same eye level, it was very clear that he gave her a once over. "I, uh…I thought it was just because you were on the table…" he mumbled, not very subtly standing up as straight as possible.
Her smirk stretched a bit. It wasn't often someone picked a fight with her without knowing how tall she was, and it clearly had the guy rattled. Tyra had learned that as a general rule, guys didn't like it when she was the same height as them. "Nope. Still want to insult me? Make another dig about zombies?" The bite had left her tone, and now she was just toying with him.
Movement behind him caught her attention, and she just noticed the pale skin and green hair before a hand clamped down on her prey's shoulder. "Don't worry, he'll be running some extra laps at practice for that comment." While the voice was steady and light, she could see the grip on his shoulder dug in just enough to hurt. "Go sit down."
As the not-speciest slunk off, she tucked a dark, wavy lock behind her ear and instantly felt stupid. Zed Necrodopolous. The giant that appeared to his teammate's rescue had turned to make sure he actually went to sit down before turning a toothy smile on her. "I am so sorry about that. I mean it. He's getting extra laps, drills – whatever I am allowed to throw at him." His head shook as he sighed, though he quickly brightened again. "I'm Zed – you must be new?"
As if the person responsible for bridging the zombie-human gap needed to introduce himself. Maybe he didn't realize that he was famous in certain circles. She could keep it that way. "What gave it away?" she asked with mock shock before rolling her eyes. "Yeah, I'm new. We actually have first period together, but you missed the 'hey, look at the new girl! She's new!' thing."
He grinned sheepishly, wide shoulders pulling up to his ears. "Yup. I was late. The dog got out and I had to run after him. I'm sure you made it very entertaining."
Zed was too big to actually sneak into class – other than the clear growth spurt he'd had since freshman year, he was much more muscular than the videos she had seen. If he was captain, he obviously didn't stop playing football. She figured he must have bulked up to be able to keep playing without Z-ing out. "Implying that because I jump onto tables and disrupt a quiet lunch period, everything I do is more entertaining than an average person?" Tyra asked with her brows raised mockingly. Though his laugh quickly changed her smirk into a grin.
Damn contagious happiness.
"Yes, yes I am," he teased, tucking his hands into the pockets of his grey jumpsuit. They didn't seem to make them for giants, because his ankles were exposed in their entirety. That didn't stop him from looking cool. "So, somebody actually moved into Seabrook, huh? From where?"
At least he didn't ask her why. "Utah. Provo, kinda near Salt Lake City. My dad got transferred, and this was cheaper than finding somewhere in the city," Tyra explained, supplying a one-shouldered shrug for believability. It wasn't that far off from the truth, but enough that it wasn't weird.
"Ah, a city girl. That explains the hair." His smile made it clear he wasn't actually making fun of her as he gently pulled a lock of blue highlight between his pale fingertips. Zed wound it once around his finger before letting it bounce back amongst the mix of blue and dark brown waves. He was touchy – good to know.
"You know, as much as it didn't stand out in my old school, it doesn't feel like it does here either. I can't put my finger on why, though…" Tyra tapped a finger against her pursed lips, eyes locked on the green head in front of her before slowly rotating as her eyes landed on the other green-haired zombies in the room. When she completed her three-sixty, he was grinning down at her.
"Yup, I can't think of a single reason either, but I know exactly what you mean," he laughed, running a hand through his spiky hair. Zed's smile dialed back a little as he leaned toward her conspiratorially and dropped his volume. "I don't know if you noticed when you enrolled here, but we don't have a ton of sports teams…"
The duo looked around the cafeteria, at the most prim and proper teenagers she had ever seen. She'd been distracted by Zed's arrival and hadn't noticed how everyone became disinterested as soon as she stopped being showy. It hadn't even occurred to her before she started her pitch that it wasn't very loud. Even the laughter was at a respectable volume.
Tyra's shoulders slumped as she sighed. "Yeah, I did notice. I thought it was like, just nobody asking. You don't even think any zombie girls would want to play?" He must have heard the hope in her voice, because he straightened up and shrugged, though he couldn't quite meet her eye and his hand moved to adjust his z-band.
The movement attracted her eye, and she noticed the scarring radiating out from the band. It crept up his wrist to the base of his thumb, extending a few inches on either side of his z-band. She had seen the mark in some of the videos, but she hadn't realized it was permanent. "Was it worth it?" Tyra asked, already knowing what the answer would be.
Except she was only met with confusion.
Zed's head tilted and his brows knit together, pale lips pursed. "You know, hulking out." She nodded towards his wrist, the pink scar marring his otherwise flawless skin. "Was it worth the scar and detainment? It obviously was, right?" As his questioning eyebrow raised, so did the temperature of her face.
"How do you know about that?"
Tyra ran her tongue over her teeth. Of course, if he didn't know he was a bit of a celebrity, why would she know anything? Her arms crossed over her chest as she took a deep breath. "Like, you should know, everyone has a phone. Which meant that video of your games and the z-ing out, you guys getting arrested, and that weird cheer competition thing, all of that was put online. It's not like the rest of the world forgot you guys existed – you were on the news and stuff. I honestly can't believe you didn't know…" she grumbled, though his giant grin was hard to look away from. "So like, you and Addison are kind of famous, and I guess I'm like, kind of a fan, or something. What you did was cool and brave or whatever."
"So, can we just back that up a sec? Not only am I famous out in the world, and not just in this small town, but what did you call me?" he asked, grin getting more cheeky by the second as he cupped his hand around his ear and leaned closer. "I think I missed it. You're my what? What I did was what?"
With a groan, she shoved his shoulder, the minute surprise on his face as he nearly stumbled was enough for her to regain her mental footing. "Yeah, I'm a fan in a really loose interpretation of the term; you're a big shot, risking your life for a better future for your people was really cool. But uh, interesting move, changing minds with cheer?"
Zed burst out laughing and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, if only I'd known that would work, I'd have tried to become a cheerleader instead of a football player. Could have avoided this altogether." The wrist with the z-band flicked up and wobbled around. She could see the scar was on his inner forearm as well, not just the side with the screen. It must have been killing him the entire time, but he kept playing. Kept winning.
He got just a little bit cooler.
"But hey, if getting a rugby team formed doesn't work out, you can always join cheer – change hearts."
Even though Tyra knew he was joking, her face completely soured. She knew cheerleaders. "Uh, no. They'd make me slim down, and these-" The slapping of her bare thighs echoed in the large space, and as she pulled her hands away big red handprints could be seen on each leg. "Aren't just jiggle." Her thighs looked thick when she sat or stood, but she knew the power in them. The girls on her former team used to try and compare who had more Cs in a thicc thigh contest.
As soon as she saw his wide eyes and brows reaching toward his hairline, she wondered why she had just done that. Being confident was one thing. Weirdly slapping her legs and saying they weren't all jiggle, that was not something her brain should have let her do. Even a quick glance around them revealed shoulders were up in silent cringe. Tyra closed her eyes as she inhaled deeply, pinching the bridge of her nose. Only after she exhaled did she open them. "Can we pretend I didn't just say that?"
His surprise had faded to an easy smile in the time since her eyes squeezed shut. "Say what?" he asked innocently, waiting a bit before winking at her.
Somehow when he winked, she didn't get creeped out. Quite the opposite, as she had to stop herself from saying oof aloud. "Well, I'm going to go feel dumb somewhere else, and actually eat some food, soooo…see ya around, Zed," she said, giving a quick wave before turning on her heel and walking quickly in the opposite direction. Even though she had heard him try and say something else, she just walked a little bit faster. Hopefully by the next morning in English he would actually forget she'd done that.