Her parents would be happy, that's for sure.
Josephine had made the cheer team, nailing her audition, got the crowd excited.
But, she wasn't a flyer.
The dread in her stomach wasn't from not making the position, but the disappointment she'd face the next time she spoke to her parents. But for now, Josephine made a show of putting her pom-poms by the front door so that her parents could see her acceptance and she accepted the congratulations note the next day next to a coupon for some ice cream.
Which, to be honest, was her brother's favorite treat not hers but she would take it as a success.
For a few days it was... nice. Classes went normal, she sat with the other cheerleaders, and went to practice after school. Josephine was living the life her mother spoke so highly of. It was... perfect. She finally seemed to fit in even if her height made her stand out.
Josephine wasn't sure what drew her away from the crowd during lunch on Thursday, but there was something about the universal buzzing noise from multiple people talking in a wide open space that made her antsy.
"I feel like you're stalking me." Josephine commented after opening the stairwell door and meeting wide eyes from a familiar zombie. "What are you doing?"
"I'm..." Zed tried to think of an excuse for his presence out of the basement but couldn't find one. Instead he decided to take his own advice and smiled sheepishly. "I wanted to see if coach would let me play..."
"No, it's like, totally the color of vomit, Stacey."
Josephine recognized cheerleader voices anywhere and knew that the reaction to Zed would be a headache for the rest of the week. So the human made a decision to grab the zombie by the wrist and run down the hallway.
"W-whoa, what's going on?" Zed allowed Josephine to lead him down the hallway, severely confused as to what was going on.
"Cheerleaders." Josephine stated simple, eyeing a computer room and making a B-line towards it. "If anyone sees you, they'll freak. I don't want that headache."
"If you wanted me all to yourself, you could have just said so!" Zed joked as he was pushed into the classroom and Josephine shut the door. "You're pretty fast… and strong." He pretended to rub his wrist exaggerating the fake pain.
"...Thanks." Josephine accepted the compliment quietly. It was the first time someone other than her brother acknowledged a skill she liked about herself. A skill she grew by herself. "We can't stay here forever though. You really shouldn't be up here..."
Eliza had warned Zed that Josephine was trouble the first time he started talking about her and continued to remind him of her opinion with each meeting. The female zombie reiterated her opinions regarding all cheerleaders whenever he spoke about Addison. But the zombie couldn't help but to think that their opinions on humans were wrong.
"I know, I know, but since we're already here and it's only the beginning of lunch..." Zed trailed off with a grin walking into the room and pulling to roller chairs from their homes to the center of the room. He gave one a pat and looked over at Josephine expectantly. "Come on! Sit!"
The irony in this situation was that the very zombie that she had once labeled a puppy was ordering her like one.
The sad part? Josephine didn't make any move to say no.
"So..." Zed began, bringing out the 'o' as he looked around the room to ease the nervous human. His eyes caught the cheerleader uniform and a grin landed on his face. "Congratulations on making the cheer team!"
"T-thanks. But we're technically not on the team yet." She figured that she couldn't out run, over power, or escape in general from the zombie so she might as well participate as politely as she could. "We have a week trial and then Friday night we have to do initiation."
"Oooo, that sounds intense. What's initiation?" The zombie leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped together on his chin.
"I don't know." Josephine admitted with a shrug. "I've heard it's scary though."
"Maybe they'll make you start a fire in the woods." Zed suggested helpfully. "That's pretty scary."
"No that's pretty normal." Josephine corrected with a raise of her eyebrow. "Bonfires, marshmallows, and music? That's a stereotypical Friday night for a teen."
Zed's nose scrunched up and he appeared appalled by the new information. "What is it with humans and fire?"
"What is it with zombies and fire?" Josephine countered feeling a little offended by the judgmental tone coming from a zombie.
"Well, most of us have a fear of it... it's something that comes from birth." Zed confided honestly, shocking Josephine that he would share this with her. "I'm pretty sure it's because of our ancestors dying from flames but then rebirthing into... us."
"Into monsters." Josephine supplied.
"Zombies." Zed corrected helpfully with a smile. "It's pretty cool, y'know?"
"Being born a freak is... cool?" Josephine repeated back slowly, not sure if she had heard correctly.
"I mean, sure. If you want to use that word." The zombie shrugged, rolling his chair to the whiteboard at the front of the classroom and grabbing a green expo marker. "We've got unique clothes, houses, families..."
Zed was by no means an artist but he drew his home the best he could, his late mother's light garden out front and his family inside of it.
"A rich history, a beautiful language, and totally fun traditions."
Josephine watched as Zed wrote a few things on the board in squiggly characters that she recognized as Zombi. When Zed turned back towards the human he had a bright grin on his face and pointed at the words. "Can you read that?"
"You're telling me that you can read that... mess?" She didn't bother hiding the disbelief in her voice. It looked like something she'd had drawn in preschool.
"A zig zagg gwag." Zed said confidently pointing to where each syllable was as he said it. "Know what that says?"
"I'm sure you'll tell me."
Zed smirked at the snarky answer and pushed himself off the wall back over to the human girl. The chair stopped within BED of her and Josephine felt her heart speed up at the distance - or lack there of - between the two.
"It means..." Zed started whispering, maintaining eye contact with Josephine in an almost hypnotic way. "I'm... hungry!"
Josephine jumped at the word in fear and looked wide eyed at the zombie in front of her. This was it wasn't it? Get the human girl to a secluded area, break her guard down, and then tear her flesh from the bone! Oh god she probably tasted horrible considering all the disgusting food her mom made her eat.
"I, I, I-"
Zed was laughing, unable to keep the ruse up any longer, but Josephine did not find the exploitation of her fear of his kind funny at all. Angrily, the human got up from her chair and made a direct line for the exit.
"H-hey, hold on!" Zed stopped his laughing and went behind Josephine, setting out an arm to close the door again. "Wait, Josie, I'm sorry. It was poor taste, I know. Please just, don't lea-"
"It's Josephine." The cheerleader interrupted hoping that her shaking hands weren't noticed. Josephine wasn't used to very many people taller than herself and the teen was already decently over six feet. With his hand next to her head and keeping her from running away, she felt more nervous than usual. She took a deep breath and let it go. "Or Jett."
"Jett?" The zombie asked in question as the human slowly turned around to look at him. "Why Jett?"
"My fri... people call me that. It's easier to say than Josephine and I really don't like Josie." This zombie wasn't her friend. He was her predator. There was no way she was going to let anyone call her Josie. "Jett."
"Alright..." Zed drew out with a small smile, his eyes shining. The two stood there for a few seconds - human and zombie - just looking into the other's eyes.
Josephine's dad had stories about barely surviving zombie run-ins due to their vicious and relentless nature. One of the family's favorite pastimes was to watch Deading the Dead, a movie series following an attractive officer who went around killing zombies for the betterment of the community.
And yet... there was no way this creature in front of her was a zombie. No way, not at all. He was too emotional, happy, easily excited, and patient to be one of those ravenous beasts on the television.
Before she could quiz the zombie on his zombie-ness, Josephine was once again cut off. This time it was Zed who had glanced at the clock in the room and let out a curse at the time.
"I gotta go before the bell rings." Zed said sheepishly, taking a step from the human girl and rubbing his neck. "I almost caught last time."
"We almost got caught this time too." Josephine let out without thinking much, her eyes turning annoyed. "You need to be more careful."
"Why, are you worried about me?" Zed teased with a wag of his eyebrows. "Is the little human worried about the big, bad zombie?"
"I'm not little." Josephine said sourly, crossing her arms. She wasn't sure if she was offended because he had called her, the five foot ten human, little or because she was a five foot ten human. "I'm unnaturally tall according to my mom."
Zed frowned and examined the girl's emotions. Josephine never seemed to be self conscious but he could see it now. She was struggling with her own self-worth every single day.
"I think you're perfect the way you are."
A pat on the shoulder and a smile later, the zombie cleared the room to go talk to the coach and left a short-circuiting Josephine staring after him.