As warned by his beloved girlfriend, Bucky's three scheming assistant captains spoke with the principal about the 'unreasonable' punishment. The next morning when classes began, Principal Lea immediately called Bucky to her office to get his side of the story. Though Bucky voiced his concerns about the zombies being bullied, Principal Lea didn't seem to care. She was more concerned about possibly losing the Cheer Championship than some 'monsters' being bullied for who they are.
Though Bucky wanted nothing more than to defend the zombies, he couldn't do anymore without raising the suspicions of Principal Lea. Instead, Bucky proposed the compromise suggested by Eliza with a modified touch. The perpetrators would be banned from practice for the rest of the week and miss the first game. It wasn't the punishment he wanted, but Principal Lea agreed, nonetheless.
So during the first game of the season, there were only six members of the squad cheering for the football team, but they could have used a lot more to boost the spectators' spirits. It was nearly the end of the second quarter, and it was quite obvious that Zed's teammates were letting him be pummeled on purpose. They weren't blocking for him and would throw terrible passes that he could barely catch.
When half-time came, Eliza sneakily texted her boyfriend on her new phone, complimenting on how well he and the five remaining cheerleaders were doing. Of course, Bucky couldn't answer right away since he was busy performing the half-time show.
Well . . . she thought she was being sneaky.
"What are you doing?"
Eliza jumped at the little girl's voice, having been completely distracted. Zoey—Zed's younger sister—could be best described as a spunky eight-year-old, green pig-tailed zombie who loved cheer, though she had been chided before that zombies don't cheer.
Zoey gasped a little too dramatically once she noticed the device she has never seen before. "Is that a cell-phone?"
"No," Eliza denied sternly while shoving the phone from into her pocket. "It's just a gift from a friend."
Before Zoey could ask more questions, the crowd cheered as the teams emerged from the locker rooms. Once Zed appeared from the opening, he locked eyes with Eliza before motioning his head for her to follow. Curious by what her friend could possibly want, Eliza quickly descended from the bleachers to follow him.
When she made it to the alleyway between the bleachers, she found Zed was sitting on the conveniently placed bench with her laptop placed in front of him. As sat across from him, Eliza wondered, "What do you want?"
"I need you hack into my Z-band." Zed confessed while opening the device and turning it toward her direction. "I need a little zom-boost so I can win the game."
"I can't do that, Zed," she denied before closing her laptop. "You could get hurt."
"But you hack yours to play video games," he reminded.
"That's different!" Eliza exclaimed in a frenzy. "If I don't do this right, I could end up placing a virus that would make your Z-band malfunctioned. The Zombie Patrol would come after you, send you to zombie solitare, and then have you killed."
"You're being dramatic," Zed insisted, as he had no idea what happened to her father. "If I win the game, it could be a big win for all of us. We won't be stuck in the basement anymore. Everyone could join the clubs they want and finally have classes with the humans."
Truthfully, Zed's speech softened Eliza just enough for her to contemplate the idea. She would be so happy if she had classes with the humans. It would give her a chance to see Bucky more without humans or zombies becoming suspicious of them.
How can she be so love-struck when they've only been together for five days?
With a sigh, Eliza looked around before opening her laptop, typing a few things here and there. In less than a minute, she announced, "Done!"
Zed raised an eyebrow in uncertainty. "That's it?"
She nodded before instructing, "Swipe to the left for the zom-boost. Always swipe left, never right. If you swipe right, it will corrupt the system. Left, not right. Got it?"
"Got it." Zed got off the bench and started to walk to the field.
"Hey!" Eliza called out. When he turned back toward her, she rolled her eyes in annoyance as she said, "If you smell smoke, stop, drop, and roll."
With a nod and tossing his helmet in the air, he rushed on to the field to join the others.
After tampering with his Z-band, no one could stop Zed. Making his first touch-down on his own, his teammates finally started helping out. The opposing team scored no more points while Seabrook ended up winning by a landslide in the last quarter.
Once the game was over and the victory was claimed, Addison ran onto the field to give Zed a hug in congratulations. After stumbling at the forceful impact, Zed embraced the human as well, their hug quickly becoming romantic.
Their carelessness of their display of affection surprised Bucky, mainly because he had to hide his with his girlfriend. Within that moment, his phone vibrated to signal a message. When he checked it, he wasn't surprised to find it was from Eliza.
Eliza: As you can tell, Zed likes her.
Bucky sent a message to her. 'And Addison likes him?'
Eliza: Are you mad?
Bucky paused for a split moment before quickly texting, 'How can I be? After all, I love you and you're a zombie.'
Eliza: And, as I said before, I have deep affection for you that grows when I think of you, which is more than I want to admit.
Bucky sighed as he read the last text, watching as the zombies went down the bleachers to congratulate Zed on his victory. "What could go so wrong with a boy and a zombie?" Bucky wondered out loud as he started gathering his belongings from the sideline.
Maybe things will be fair for the zombies now that Zed won a game.
But the trio were still determined to try something to prevent zombies from being liked.
When Zed won the first game, zombies were given better food in the cafeteria. The human custodian moved the garbage cans and fixed the light over their table.
When Zed won the second game, the gate separating the humans and zombies were removed. Zombies were now allowed to attend classes with the humans.
The new changes made Eliza and Bucky more than happy. Although they had a year difference between them, they managed to share most of their classes. Admittedly, Bucky jumped when he heard Eliza's voice in his first class, asking if she could sit by him. Their classmates were quite surprised when Bucky made room for her, then proceeded to sit with her in the rest of their shared classes.
After their first class together, they moved to the tables at the back of the classrooms. It became the perfect spot since no one could see them hold hands or pass notes to one another. Although, more than once, a classmate caught Eliza laying her head on Bucky's shoulder during long, drawn out lectures. The couple ignored the stares, insisting that the zombie girl had a headache, just to help maintain their cover.
When Zed won the third game, zombies were allowed to join clubs. Since they were technically interacting outside of the classrooms, the humans began sitting with the zombies during lunch.
Although everyone was accepting of it, Eliza couldn't have been any more uncomfortable. On one particular day, a male cheerleader and a football player decided to sit on either side of her. They just wouldn't stop staring at her in a dopey manner. Feeling a vibration in her pocket, Eliza discreetly checked her phone, seeing a message from her boyfriend. 'Need my help?'
Eliza looked up to see Bucky staring at her expectantly from across the cafeteria. He sent another message: 'Do you want me to say something? I can take their spot and sit next to you.'
With a smile and shake of her head, she responded: 'How about I go sit next to you?'
Seeing her boyfriend's reaction made her happy in ways that she couldn't explain. His face lit up like a child experiencing an unbelievable miracle when he read the text. When he adverted his gaze, Eliza was already halfway through the cafeteria.
After trying so hard to keep them a secret, Eliza found herself overly-relieved of an obnoxious weight when she walked to the cheerleaders' main table. Offering a small smile to her boyfriend for encouragingly pulling out a seat for her, Eliza gladly took the seat next to Bucky, eating her lunch like she was there the whole time.
"Uck!" Stacey exclaimed, snarling her nose in disgust. "Excuse me!"
Almost timidly, Eliza adverted her gaze slowly to the three assistant captains. "Yes?"
"What are you doing?" Tracey questioned rudely. "This table is for cheerleaders only."
"Yeah," Lacey agreed in the same hateful tone. "No freaks allowed."
The zombie flinched at the insult while Bucky fumed at it. "Eliza is my classmate," he explained calmly, though he was internally fuming inside. "We sit next to each other all the time in class. She complained to me about feeling uncomfortable sitting with humans she didn't know, so I offered to have her sit with me. She is fine here."
"Fine," Tracey spat in disgust before a sinister plot came to mind. "But she looks like she needs a drink."
Before the couple could figure out what he meant, Tracey grabbed the two closest smoothies and poured it over the zombie's head. No one else, besides those at that table, saw the disrespectful action. They were all too busy watching the main zombie table.
Eliza didn't show her anger. Instead, she calmly stood from her seat, grabbing her bag as she did. "I'm going to clean up in the locker-room," she mumbled to Bucky.
"I'll find you a change of clothes," Bucky promised in the same quiet tone. "I should have an extra set in my locker if you go to the boy's locker-room. Give me a minute and I'll meet you there."
With a small, sad smile, Eliza walked out of the cafeteria with none of her zombie friends noticing. Once she slipped through the entrance, Bucky adverted his attention to the male assistant captain with a sharp glare. "What were you thinking!"
Tracey shrugged nonchalantly. "She looked like she needed a drink. Why would you care? She is nothing more than a filthy, disgusting zom—"
BAM!
Tracey clutched his eye at the sudden brute force inflicted on him, which also knocked him back on the table. Bucky stood over him with a slight snarl on his lips. "Disrespect my girl one more time," he warned menacingly, "and you will wish that you were the one dead."
Roughly grabbing his bag, Bucky dramatically stormed out of the cafeteria, leaving an uneasy tension at the table.
"His girl?" Lacey repeated with a snarl of her nose. "Is he dating a zombie?"
"We'll figure that out later." Stacey reassured with a schemeful smile. "But since he's gone, want to mess with his cousin?"
"Absolutely," Tracey agreed as he held a hand to his blackened-eye. "We'll make her pay for ratting us out."
The locker room was just like any average one that existed. It had lockers, bathroom stalls, and showers. The color scheme was green, pink, and white since those were the school colors.
While Eliza tried to wash the gunk off her, Bucky searched his locker for something suitable for her to wear. Within a couple minutes, he found a pair of gray sweatpants, a men's black tank top, and his cheer captain jacket. After Eliza changed into the new outfit—finding herself loving how comforting his jacket felt on her—she continued to try to wash the sticky mess out of her hair while Bucky rinsed her clothes in the sink before placing it in trash bag.
Squeezing the excess water out of her hair and placing it back in her usual hairstyle, Eliza gazed at herself in the mirror with a sigh. "We will never be accepted," she deduced. "We will only cause conflict like we did today."
Bucky went up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist as he pulled her close to her comfortingly. "We will make it work," he reassured with a kiss on the top of her head. "We just have to try a little harder. We can't let this little bump defeat us."
"It's defeating me. . ."
"Hey." Bucky turned her around and easily sat her on the counter so they would be looking at one another. "Cheer up. Zombies are starting to become more accepted because Zed is winning more and more games. Everything will be fine."
"Aren't you a little jealous?" Eliza wondered curiously as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "I mean, more people are going to the football games to watch them play instead of the cheerleaders. Doesn't that make you mad?"
"Why would I be mad? I get to see you every game," he insisted as he rested his forehead against hers. "I get to see you light up every time Zed makes a touchdown, smile when you watch us cheer, and laugh every time that little girl that stands with you makes a joke."
A small smile appeared on her face at the mention of the girl. "Her name is Zoey," Eliza revealed.
"She is Zed's little sister and loves cheer. She is your number one fan, next to me, of course. She has a big crush on you."
Bucky chuckled softly. "Good to know I have an effect on more than one zombie." He gave her an encouragingly smile. "You okay?"
With a slow nod, Eliza gave him a loving kiss as gratitude. "Thank you. . ." She paused for a moment before insisting, "But you may not get your jacket back for a while."
"I am fine with that." He kissed her forehead tenderly. "I love you, Eliza. There is nothing that will change how I feel for you."
When Zed won the fourth game, the zombies were allowed to have lockers next to humans. The assistant captains were more irritated than usual.
The trio kept Addison away from Zed at all cost. They would escort her to class just to make sure she wouldn't try anything. It didn't work very well because Addison managed to plant a surprise in his locker. Confetti blew up in his face when he opened the locker, where she left a note letting him know she was cheering for him on the inside.
When Zed won the fifth game, the zombies decided to celebrate. Zed invited Addison to the celebration—
Not knowing another human-zombie couple would be there.
