It was Sunday, the day after they had their first time working with the Z-Patrol on Project Moonstone. Addison had just finished eating lunch with her parents and started working on some homework when her cellphone rang. She knew from the ringtone it was Zed, so homework forgotten for the moment, she happily answered.
"Hello?"
"Hello beautiful, are you busy tonight?"
"I have some homework to do that I just opened, but I should be done with it in about an hour. What's up?"
"How do you feel about going on a date tonight? Just the two of us. We've been so busy with sports and the moonstones we haven't got much chance to be just us. Plus give ourselves a night of fun before school ends."
"I think that sounds great Zed, but you know it's a school night so we'll have to be back at a reasonable time."
"Whatever you need Addison."
"What do you have in mind?"
"I was thinking dinner and movie."
"That sounds fun. Have any movies in mind?"
"Yeah, I was thinking of that new Bohemian Rhapsody movie. I love that song, and I'd love to see a movie about it."
"Oh yeah that sound's great, I've been wanting to see that too. And where would we go for dinner?"
"How would you like to be surprised?"
"I'm fine with that. I'll trust your judgment. Will it be in walking distance then?"
"Of course, but if it's too far I can always give you a ride. Zombie strong and all that. Especially if I use my moonstone, you'd be as light as a feather."
"You know we can't do that yet. Hopefully just a few more weeks. But I'll see you tonight Zed."
"Bye Addison. I love you."
"I love you too."
Addison hung up with a smile on her face. There was nothing she loved more than spending time alone with Zed. And it had been a few weeks since their last real solo date without the rest of their friends with them. Whatever he had planned, she knew she would love it. So with her head filled with happy thoughts. She dove back into her homework in front of her.
A few hours later. Addison was sitting on the couch when she heard the doorbell ring. "Bye Mom and Dad, I'll be back later!" She yelled.
"Have fun tonight you two!" Missy called out from the kitchen.
Addison opened the door and smiled seeing Zed standing there on her porch just like always.
"Good evening Addison. You ready to have some fun?"
"You know I am." Addison smiled and stepped out the door and gently grabbed onto Zed's hand. They started walking down the street, equally loving the feeling of the other as close to them as possible. "So where are we going to eat?"
"Well, if its OK with you I thought we could eat in Zombietown. There's this sandwich shop that's basically a Subway, except its all vegetarian obviously. But if you want normal food, we can go somewhere in Seabrook. It's your call."
"I always love trying zombie food. As long as they don't put canned caulibrains on my sandwich I think I'll be fine. How different can it be? I will always be happy to see more of Zombietown with you."
"Great then shall we?"
"We shall." They walked off still chattering back and forth about their days. They had both finished the rough drafts of their papers for school tomorrow, Zed had spent some time playing with Puppy and Zoey like usual and Addison had been texting both Bree and Bucky back and forth over planning cheer stuff for the summer.
They eventually made it to the restaurant. LATE NIGHT BITE Addison read the sign up above while Zed held open the door for her.
She stepped into the restaurant, it was just as clean and nice looking as any restaurant in Seabrook, but it was obvious the décor and tables and chairs were pretty much all from the sixty's with some zombie-style decorations and graffiti on the walls but that was it. Zed and Addison walked up to the counter and this part looked fairly newer and had a set up just like a Subway where a worker was waiting with a smile to take their order.
There were a few other patrons already spread around the room and eating their own sandwiches, but Addison wouldn't call the place too busy. There wasn't even a line at the counter so they walked right up to it.
"Good evening you two. How can I help you?" The worker asked them with a smile. Addison smiled back at him and read his nametag Alexzander
Addison was still scanning the options on the menu boards above the worker's head and motioned for Zed to go first.
"I'll have a footlong on wheat. Extra Teriyaki Caulibrains." Zed ordered.
"Coming right up." Alexzander smiled back as he quickly sliced the bread and started filling it with the caulibrains and everything else as Zed listed it off. When he was finally done after a squirt of honey mustard, the sandwich was so stuffed full that Addison doubted she would even be able to fit her mouth around it. But she had a feeling Zed would do just fine given his usual appetite.
Next up Addison was finally ready, and while she didn't get any caulibrains, which came in a surprising variety of flavors. She wondered why Zevon only ever made them plain? She had a six-inch sub with plenty of vegetables on it. It looked just as good to her as if it had been made in Seabrook. She couldn't wait to try it.
Zed paid for their food and they both grabbed water from the fountain drinks and sat down across from each other at an empty table. They still had plenty of space to themselves and they could hear the murmurs of conversation flowing around them.
They both dug in and immensely enjoyed their delicious meal.
"This is so good Zed. Does Zombietown have lots of restaurants?"
"We have three, this, a pizza place, and a smoothie bar/coffee shop, plus Coach brings his Froyo stand around here a lot."
"Well, I want to try those other places sometimes too. This is so good."
"So you're ok with zombie food?"
"You know I am, and this is just vegetarian stuff, can I have a bite of yours though? I wouldn't mind trying some teriyaki caulibrains."
"Of course, you can." Zed was almost done with the first half of his sandwich but he passed the other half closer to her. "Pops only ever buys the basic flavor for some reason, since both he and Zoey are fine with it. I think they always taste like-"
"Sweaty gym sneakers?"
"Woah, how'd you know?"
"You do say that a lot."
"Because it's true."
Addison took a bite and chewed thoughtfully for a few moments. She had been right before, she could just barely get her mouth around the sandwich and had to press it down some. "Ooh spicy." She said, licking her lips.
"Do you like it?"
Addison took a sip of her water. "Well, you can probably guess vanilla Seabrook doesn't do much in the way of spices either. Its good but I don't know if I could eat a whole sandwich of them, or if they're better than Zevon's recipes."
"You know what? I'll take it." Zed smiled and took his sandwich back from Addison since he had already put away the first half. "I think you don't know what you're missing."
"Don't talk with your mouth full." She chastened him with a smile.
Zed closed his mouth but kept a smile on his face and sent her a wink. When they both finished eating they held hands across the table and kept up lively conversation enjoying their night together for a while before they left for the movie.
When they were finally ready to leave, Zed once again held open the door for Addison and then they walked hand in hand a few blocks away to the movie theater in Zombietown. In the past few months, it had been modernized so now it played all the same newly released movies the theater in Seabrook did. And as Zed pointed out, unknown to most humans, it was quite a bit cheaper for the same experience.
But when they finally made it to the theater they were surprised to see Coach standing outside on the sidewalk with his froyo cart and wearing his pastel pink apron. He just finished serving two customers before they caught his eye and he smiled at them.
"Hey there you two! There's my star player and cheerleading champion?"
"Hey Coach, how's it going?"
"Its going great Zed, business is booming. Yesterday I finally went to the shelter and got myself a cat! Want to see him?"
"Sure." Zed nodded.
Coach pulled out his phone and showed them a picture of a ginger cat with green eyes. "His name's Rusty. He's been super friendly to me so far and loves to play, but every time I open the door he tries to run outside. He's got a fiery spirit. My great aunt Edna and my Mom love him already."
"Awwe he's adorable." Addison cooed.
"He sure is." Coach smiled and put his phone back in his pocket. "So what are you two up to?"
"Date night, we're about to go see Bohemian Rhapsody."
"Lucky you two, I haven't seen that yet either. I've been so busy lately, that I think everyone on both sides of Seabrook have memorized my afterschool routes. No matter where I go I am just hounded most days. Plus you know I've introduced more flavors that the werewolves and zombies have been loving too so that's good. I've been thinking about investing in another cart. The warmer it keeps getting as we get closer to summer, the demand keeps growing."
"Really Coach? I don't suppose you're looking for any help then?" Zed asked.
"Oh I am, I would really appreciate it, I don't even know where to start on that front."
"How would you feel taking me on?"
"My star player? Of course Zed. Now I know I make this look super complex but it really isn't. If you can recover a fumble I trust you can scoop yogurt." Coach laughed.
"I think I can handle it."
"Well, then. The job is yours Zed, but come to my office at school tomorrow and I'll give you an application so I can have everything on record and stuff and we'll talk more details once I know more. But don't worry, if you work for me you'll still have plenty of time for football workouts in the mornings this summer. We need to come back bigger and better than ever next season."
"That sounds great Coach. Thank you so much. Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow, but we better get going before we miss the start of the movie."
"Of course, don't let me keep you two with my rambling. But do you want any? On the house, call it your hiring bonus."
"Sure, I'll take a caulibrains mocha crunch." Zed nodded happily.
"Coming right up, and for you Addison?" Coach asked while scooping the first dish.
"I'll take peanut butter and bones. Thanks so much Coach. And if you need a reference for Zed, I wholeheartedly endorse him."
"I'm sure you do. But that won't be necessary," Coach laughed, "if he works even a fraction as hard as he does in football and basketball, we'll be selling so much froyo the whole town will be sick of us." He handed Addison's cup over to her. "Have fun you two!"
"Bye Coach." They both waved and hurried into the theater.
"Well, that came out of nowhere. Looks like I have a summer job now."
"Congratulations, I know you're going to do great, and I bet Coach will be an amazing boss."
"Yeah, I think it will be fun too. And it sounds like I'll be busy all summer long then."
"Now I just need a job too."
"You could have asked Coach, it would be awesome working together."
"I think we both know if we were running a stand together we'd get pretty distracted."
"And who says that's a bad thing?"
"It's fine, I'm sure I'll find something we still have a few weeks of school left. If nothing else I can ask my Mom for something to do at City Hall, she says they have an internship program or something but it sounds pretty boring, like just filing stuff and reading reports all day."
"Yeah, I wouldn't want to do that either. If I had to do that all summer, I'd be happy to go back to school, and that would just be wrong. Well besides football and having an excuse to walk you to school every day."
"I fully plan on seeing you every day this summer no matter what, unless I have to be out of town for something," Addison promised.
"Good, I fully agree, I don't know what I would do if I couldn't see you every day."
"I know. Now let's get our tickets."
"Do you want any popcorn?"
"You can get some if you want. I'm already full from the sandwich and froyo."
"Got it." Zed paid for the tickets then walked up to the counter and got a bag of popcorn and water for each of them then they made their way into the theater and sat down close to the back, it was only a few minutes left until start time, so it was already pretty full of other zombie patrons, but they had plenty of space that they could still feel like it was just the two of them.
Right as the previews for the upcoming movies started, Zed was already chomping down wholeheartedly on his popcorn, nearly halfway through the bag when Addison reached over and grabbed some herself.
"I thought you were full?" He teased her.
"Maybe I have a little room. It just smells so good." Addison said. "Is that problem?"
"Of course not, what's mine is yours." Zed smiled and moved the bag closer to Addison's reach.
The movie soon started and both enjoyed it, laughing out loud at the jokes, and whispering their own commentary throughout that made each other crack up. One joke Addison made, almost made Zed spit his water onto the people sitting in front of them, but he was able to contain himself. Just barely.
Over the course of the movie, Zed at one point playfully yawned and stretched his arm out behind Addison's head. She just smiled back at him and pushed back the armrest between them so they could snuggle closer and she could rest her head against his shoulder and his hand gently cradled hers.
The movie finally finished playing and once the lights came on they both stood up and walked out the door hand in hand. Once they left the theater they started talking about their favorite parts of the movie for a bit until the conversation shifted to other topics.
"Tonight has been so great Zed. I don't care what we do, as long as I'm with you I'll always have fun. This was a nice break from everyday life."
"I'm glad you enjoyed it so much. Even trying my zombie sandwich?"
"Yes of course I did. It wasn't the caulibrains I had a problem with, it was the spiciness."
"If that was too spicy for you, you should see the stuff I cook."
"You can cook? No offense because I know I'm not one to talk, but when do you cook?"
"Sometimes, obviously Pops does it most of the time because he's actually good at it, even if some of his recipes aren't my favorite. But when I do, hot sauce is almost always a must. For me at least, Pops and Zoey can't take the heat as much as I can."
"Well then, you better make me something yummy this summer. But let me control the spiciness."
"Whatever you want beautiful. I'm really glad you enjoyed tonight." Zed's voice turned from playful to serious within a few moments. "You know I always want to spend time with you, and I agree it could be anything from doing homework to going to the movies, but there was another reason I wanted to take you out tonight..."
"What is it Zed?" Addison stopped walking beside him and looked at him head on, neck craned up to look in his eyes.
"I just want to apologize again for scaring you when I was sick. I-"
"Stop right there, you have literally nothing to apologize for. It could have happened to anyone. Could you have been more careful? Possibly, but I know how your brain works Zed. I don't care why you did it, and what happened, all that matters to me is that you are safe and now we are making sure it never happens again. So no more apologizing." She said sternly, then she stepped forward to tightly hug him, while his arms snaked their way around her.
"OK Addie, but."
"No buts, stop apologizing. Or…or no kisses for a week!" She threatened.
"You wouldn't dare, also there is no way either of us would make it. Heck, I'd probably go full zom by Thursday even with both a moonstone and Z-band."
"Fine, just stop apologizing. But is that a challenge I hear?"
'Oh Z no it is not. Why would you try to torture both of us for no reason? Plus we have like two weeks of school and track left. You want us to both be on our A-games right?"
"If Eliza could hear you right now…"
"She knows just as much as everyone else I'm crazy for you. Like I said, as long as we're together I don't care what we do. But I really like kissing you. Sparks fly, like electricity I might die if I forget how to breathe."
"OK, I'm just kidding." Addison stepped up to her tiptoes to meet Zed's lips for a moment. "I feel the spark too, every single time. You think you'd make it till Thursday, I'd probably be rogue Addison by Wednesday afternoon until I found you again."
"You could never be called rogue, you're perfect."
"And so are you. You're exceptional Zed."
They met once again for a kiss, this time Zed leaning down to meet Addison in the middle. They held on to each other for as long as possible until they had to breathe again. When they separated they had giant grins on their faces.
"Yeah, I admit, I don't ever want to go a week without doing that unless I absolutely have to, like at cheer camp or something."
"Why did you have to mention cheer camp? That was like the longest two weeks of my life. The cheer stuff you're doing this summer isn't like that is it?"
"No, well, there will be two weeks that we host the Cheer summer camp for Zoey and the rest of the Mini Shrimp. Remember? I crushed Cheer summer after cheer summer as long as I can remember."
"Right, of course. So how does that work exactly?"
"I will be busy for two weeks, but it's only weekdays. We'll have a sleep-away camp at the same place our Cheer Camp was at. One week for the older kids, one week for the younger kids. It's so much fun, but I know I'll be missing you just as much."
"But you'll be home on the weekend right?"
"Absolutely. I don't know everything about actually running it yet. I still need to get everything figured out with Bree, Bucky, and Coach Leah. But I'm pretty sure I'll get to have my phone with me this time, so I'll still call or at least text you every day. And we can send each other letters again. That was fun."
"Yeah, it was. So when is this?"
"Not till July so we have plenty of time to make a plan that we can both survive without each other for two weeks."
"Who knows, maybe I'll just camp out with the wolves that week? We can just happen to hang out near your camp. I'm sure Zoey would love to have me there."
"We'll see," Addison laughed, "and I'm sure Zoey is your only reason, you crazy zombie."
"Plus you know, Pops might like having the house completely to himself for once."
"Oh yes, by himself does that mean no lonely Zed whining upstairs? Eliza was very detailed when she told me how much you annoyed her that week."
"Of course she did. But I have nothing to hide, I'm crazy for you. By chance has she spilled any real details on her and Wyatt? I mean, once I met you I couldn't shut up about you. That is an exact quote from Eliza. She's refused to tell me anything."
"Actually yeah, Bree, Willa, Wynter, and I cornered her in the library one day and encouraged/badgered her to share a few things, but she swore all of us to absolute secrecy from all you guys."
"Please?"
"Nope, sorry I promised Eliza."
"Pretty please with brains on top?"
"No, and don't look at me like that, its not going to work." Addison glanced away from the puppy dog eyes he was making at her.
"Then as much as I don't want to do this, I guess its my turn to declare a week of no kissing."
"I thought we agreed we'd never make it?"
"Oh, I will. Just to prove I can." Zed crossed his arms with a smirk.
"Fine, if I tell you something will you promise to stop your torture?"
"Only because its you." He smiled, seeing her give him the puppy eyes now.
"Eliza's happy. She knows she can be herself around him, with or without the Z-band, and for once, she says she has a reason beside zombie rights to look forward to school. They have been hanging out a lot. Apparently, she's started teaching him zombietongue and she's learning to howl. Plus now that she made the wolves' phones, they text all the time. But don't tell her I said anything."
"My lips are sealed, only for you. Because they belong to you." Zed leaned down and kissed Addison again.
"I know, my lips only belong to you too. How about we both agree to never torture ourselves by staying away from each other."
"You know I would never do that intentionally. I agree. This summer is going to be amazing. Hopefully busy but not too busy, but it will be awesome to not always have homework or school nights hanging over our heads whenever we want to do something together. But nothing really interesting? And by that, I mean something I can tease her about."
"No, and I won't help you make Eliza mad. That sounds like a death wish to me."
"You probably have a point, good thing I'm already undead."
"I'm pretty sure if anyone knows how to make a zombie dead-dead, its Eliza."
"I'm sure you're probably right."
As they continued their walk, it started to lightly sprinkle at first, but then quickly turned into a downpour. So they ended up running back the last few blocks. Zed couldn't help himself and jumped in every puddle, getting both of them even more soaked while relishing Addison's delighted screams.
They finally took shelter on Addison's porch and caught their breath.
"That was fun!" Zed grinned.
"Are you cold or anything?"
"No, it's like seventy degrees, I'm fine Addie I promise."
"Good."
"Say, do you like kissing when it's raining?"
"Oh yeah, I always thought that would be so romantic." Addison sighed wistfully.
"Well let's finish tonight on a high note then." Zed gently lifted Addison's chin and with his other hand, swept some of her white, wet strands of hair away from her face and gently leaned down to capture her lips with his own. Addison was doing the exact same to him, gently holding the side of his head, while her other arm held onto his. They stayed locked in that position for a few delightful moments, feeling sparks fly until a clap of thunder in the distance reminded them to break apart.
"I love you Addison."
"I love you too Zed."
"If this has to be goodnight, I better get going."
"Do you need a ride?"
"Don't worry, it's warm out, and I think the thunder and lightning was miles away. Plus running in the rain is fun. Get a nice run in before bed when I call you later."
"Alright then." Addison opened the door and stepped inside for a moment. "Take this with you at least. She handed him a pastel blue umbrella."
"Is there by chance peanut butter on this one?"
"I'm afraid not." Addison smiled. "Use it tonight and you can bring it back tomorrow morning."
"Sounds like a plan. But I don't think it will help much considering I'm already soaked through. What will you be doing after I leave?"
"Taking a shower, so my hair isn't all messed up at school tomorrow."
"You could never be messed up, you are always beautiful."
"I know, just like you will always be handsome."
"Goodnight Addison."
"Goodnight Zed, text me when you get home. And remember to take a warm shower again. I expect you to be here to walk me to school tomorrow."
"Don't worry, I feel totally fine, and this time I really mean it. Besides if I do get sick or weird, we know the moonstone should heal me like that." Zed snapped his fingers. "Just like last time, but you don't have to worry about anything."
"I know I don't. Goodnight Zed. I better get up to my room before I leave a puddle on the floor."
"Goodnight Addison." Zed finally opened his borrowed umbrella and started jogging his way home. Overall this night had been a major success. Any time spent alone with Addison was always great, plus now he had a job lined up for the summer. He knew his dad would be happy. Plus there were a few things Zed knew he wanted to start saving for, and for those the sooner the better.
AN: Zombies 3 is so great and I love all the new songs. As of right now I have no plans to incorporate it into this story anytime soon, but I won't rule it out in the future.