"What about these cargo pants?" Zane asked, holding up yet another pair to his hips.

Owen flopped back against the bench in the dressing room. "Dude, just pick a pair of pants already! Camo is camo!"

"These are more of an olive shade," Zane mused.

"Guys are not supposed to care this much about their appearance."

"I've never owned a pair of camouflage cargo pants before. And it seems like everyone's wearing them these days."

"That's because it's the zombie apocalypse!"

Zane shook his head and ducked into the changing stall to test the fit. As he zipped and buckled the pants, he said loudly, "They aren't even showing it on the news anymore. You're blowing one little incident of skin lesions completely out of proportion."

The curtain flew to one side, and suddenly Owen's finger was in Zane's face. "And you're blowing it UNDER proportion!"

"That's not even a thing."

Zane grabbed Owen's finger and twisted it back until Owen screamed, "Uncle!"

Wringing out his hand, Owen said, "Geez, are you on steroids or something?"

He ignored his brother and instead checked out his own butt in the mirror. "Do the flap pockets make my ass look wide?"

"Just buy a pair of pants already! You told me we were going to GameStop."

"We will, after. I just don't want to get the wrong kind of pants. It's so hard to fit in at this school."

"Fine. Get those ones." Owen pointed to a pair hanging from a hook in the stall. "They make your ass look sooo fine..."

Zane scraped the curtain closed in front of Owen's face. "Shut up."

But he tried that pair on again and marveled at his brother's fashion sense.

"Are you still trying to look hot for Harmony?" Owen asked as they left the store.

"She is my girlfriend."

"Is she?" Owen asked. "Is she?"

"Yeah, pretty much. She's coming over Friday night so I can cook her dinner. I'm going to rent a chick flick and try to get to second base."

"Whoa, fast mover," Owen said with heavy sarcasm. "You ought to get a horror movie. Nothing gets a girl to cuddle with you faster than when she's afraid for her life."

Zane gave his brother a look. "Since when would you know anything about that?"

Owen shrugged. "You don't know everything about me."

"Have you ever played Call of Duty: Black Ops?"

"Yeah. Duh. Hasn't everyone?"

Zane didn't say anything.

"Is that why we're going to GameStop? Seriously? Man, you need to get your head out of the books. My friend Jeff has that game. I'll tell him to come over if you want to play it."

"You're the best little brother ever," Zane said, grappling Owen into a headlock and giving him a noogie.

"Gah! Someday when I'm as big as you, you'll regret that!"

***

The pants did not impress Harmony. The detailed explanation of making a hairspray flamethrower did not impress Harmony. Nor did Zane's new knowledge of playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. He raked a hand through his short hair and gave conversation one last try.

"I'm working on the menu for Friday night," he said, quirking his lips into what he hoped was a flirty smile. Just to get some kind of reaction, he leaned over and bumped her with his shoulder. "I hope you like your meat a little... spicy." He waggled his eyebrows and immediately felt like a total perv.

Harmony stared into the depths of her locker like she couldn't remember why she had opened it. Finally she closed the door and walked away without even looking at Zane.

He watched her go.

"You ever heard the expression, 'She's just not that into you'?" came a voice behind him.

The voice had come from a short Japanese girl with purple streaks in her hair and hipster glasses.

"Uh... Tamiko, right? You're in my history class?"

"Call me Tammy." She shut her own locker door and looked up at him. "And you should just give up already. She's clearly not interested."

"I consider it a challenge."

Tammy grinned. "I consider it stupid. But it does mean you're tenacious. I like that in a man."

"Thanks, I think." Zane turned and nearly crashed into Wilson.

"What up, dude? Oh." Wilson had caught sight of Tammy standing behind Zane. He narrowed his eyes. "I see you've met my arch nemesis."

"Arch nemesis?"

"She took over first chair saxophone in concert band," Wilson said.

Tammy shrugged and flicked one of her purple braids over her shoulder. "Not my fault you're not technically proficient enough to hold onto the top spot."

"Yeah, well, I'm on the football team now. I'm friends with guys like Zane here. Cool people. Unlike you and your band geek friends."

"You are still in band," Tammy said.

"Just for class credit. I'm not in marching band."

Tammy stepped forward, and Zane couldn't help but smile when Wilson flinched. "You're still a band geek at heart."

"Zane, come on." Wilson tried to play it off. "Don't we need to do some cool guy football stuff or something?"

"Not really." After an elbow to the gut, however, Zane changed his tune. "Yeah, sure. Cool football stuff. Let's go."

"See you in band, Wilson," Tammy said loudly.

"Damn." Wilson pulled his baseball cap down low. "What'd you have to go and talk to her for?"

"You'd make a cute couple," Zane said.

"No. No way, man. That girl is pure evil. I mean, if you ever wanted to take a break from Harmony, she's the one girl that would be even worse."

"She's cute. Why don't you like her?"

"Dude, come on! You just think we should date because we're both short, and Harmony Gutierrez has short-circuited your brain. Didn't you hear me? She CHALLENGED me to a saxophone duel and she won! She's evil, and never in this world would she like me."

Zane shrugged. "If you say so."

"And going back to this Harmony thing, I mean, DUDE. That girl has done so many drugs, she's burned off all her brain cells. Vacant, man. She's totally vacant."

"I think she's just playing hard to get."

"No way. She might be easy on the eyes, but it's like she's on a different planet. A planet where there's no facial expressions."

"I think you're wrong. She smiled at me the other day."

"What? When?"

Zane didn't have a chance to answer. They'd just arrived at homeroom, and Ross waved them over frantically.

"Guys! Come check this out!"

Already Nikki and her friend were crowded around Ross's iPhone, and several other kids were peering over his shoulder as well.

"Look, my brother is friends with this guy who knew someone who was at that party last weekend. The one at Levi Marsh's house."

"Ground zero," Wilson whispered in awe.

Zane swallowed thickly.

"Anyway, my brother, you know he's at UCLA, and he got this video on his phone and sent it to me this morning. Look."

Ross tilted the phone and cupped the base so the sound carried.

The video showed a girl attempting to take a selfie with her best friend, but realizing that the phone was set to take video instead of a still shot, then there was a lot of shaking and the loud pumping music in the background turned to screams, and then the screen went dark.

"See, Zane? That was no skin lesion she was screaming about." Ross gazed steadily at Zane, challenging him.

"That video proves nothing. They could have been getting raided by the police."

"How do you explain the growling, then?"

"Yeah," echoed Nikki.

"Um, drug dogs? Those girls looked completely wasted."

Ross shut off his phone with a click and slid it into his back pocket. "You know, I think your girlfriend is one of them."

Zane felt his skin go cold. "Harmony wasn't in that video."

"No, I mean she's one of the zombies," Ross said.

"That would explain everything!" Wilson said. "They said the first symptoms are a lack of energy and pervasive apathy. That's Harmony to a T."

"What's apathy?" Ross asked.

"You know, when you don't care about anything?"

"Come on," Zane pleaded. "That could describe every hipster out there. Are you saying all hipsters are zombies?"

Ross waggled his finger in Wilson's direction. "You've got something there, Will," he said. "Everyone knows Levi is Harmony's dealer. Maybe he even gave out some new drug that made everyone turn into zombies."

Zane looked around at all the nodding heads. "What is wrong with you guys? Maybe you could try getting Harmony some help for her drug abuse problems instead of gossiping about her. No wonder she acts the way she does." He backed up and sat down at his desk. "I don't want to be part of this kind of cruelty."

Some part of what Zane said seemed to ring true, and the hangers-on wandered back to their seats. Ross looked like he was trying to come up with more proof, and Wilson appeared torn between trying to impress Ross or siding with Zane. Finally the teacher came in and Wilson took his seat on the other side of Zane. The class was abnormally silent through the morning announcements, although when the bell rang the normal commotion ensued.

"Look, man," Wilson said, scurrying along after Zane. "I'm sorry if it seemed like we were ganging up on Harmony. You know, maybe we haven't really given her a chance. It's just – you know, we've gone to school with her forever, and she's always been like that. So we kind of make fun of her a little."

"It's mean," Zane stated.

"And I can see that now. Here, you know what? We should invite her to sit with us at lunch. We'll really try to see it from your perspective. I mean, she is pretty hot. You're probably exactly what she needs to turn her life around."

Zane considered this. "Maybe I am."

All morning he felt like Superman. He was going to get Harmony off drugs and bring out her full potential. He couldn't wait to ask her to sit with him at lunch and introduce his new friends to the real Harmony.

"You're looking really pale," Ross said when Zane and Harmony sat down. He squinted at Harmony's face. "And apathetic."

Zane blanched.

Harmony was unfazed.

"Perhaps you're still a bit tired... from going to Levi Marsh's party last weekend?" Ross asked.

"I'm fine," Harmony said flatly. She picked at the food on her lunch tray but didn't actually put anything in her mouth.

"So you're not denying you were at that party?" Ross continued.

"Come on, man," Zane said.

"Yeah, we were there," Harmony said.

Inside his head, Zane facepalmed.

" 'We'? 'We'?" Ross's voice became progressively louder. "Who's 'we'? Was it you, Zane?"

Zane winced. "We left super early. We were there for, like, two minutes."

"Did everybody hear that?" Ross crowed to the whole table. "Zane and Harmony were at the zombie outbreak ground zero!"

"Dude!" Wilson said, looking betrayed. "You never told us that."

Ross stood up and folded his arms. "Looks like the new kid has something to hide."

The other guys on the team grumbled. Zane felt his brain kick into panic mode.

"Guys, come on! Do I look infected to you?"

Wilson looked from Zane to the rest of the team, as if wondering who to side with. He chirped, "Zane didn't have any skin lesions when we checked yesterday. And he's clearly not apathetic."

"He may not have been infected yesterday, but he's been fooling around with her!"

Zane stood up, facing Ross down across the table. "Look, man, just because you don't like my girlfriend doesn't mean you have to throw around accusations like that. Come on, Harmony, we're leaving."

"Don't go," Wilson whispered.

"That's right, just walk away," Ross taunted.

Zane pulled Harmony up from her seat, since she didn't appear to be moving. "You people are unbelievable," Zane said. "Harmony's not infected with this stupid zombie virus that doesn't even exist! I thought you guys might give her a chance but clearly you just like making other people feel bad about themselves, just so you can feel better about yourselves!"

"Go cry to the guidance counselor about your feelings," Ross spat.

It was tough, but Zane knew better than to respond any more to Ross's insults. He just had to walk away. At least he still had Harmony to talk to.

"I'm so sorry about those guys," Zane said once they had settled on a bench in the courtyard outside the cafeteria. "They're all jerks. I guess I picked the wrong people to be friends with."

Harmony gazed out at Main Street and the cars zipping past the school.

"Look, I know you're probably mad, but..." Zane gripped Harmony's hand in his. "I really like you. And I'll fight for you."

That seemed to spark something in the girl. She tore her eyes from the monotony of cars and looked at him. Really looked at him, for once. "Thanks," she said.

He smiled. In her muddy green eyes he finally felt that connection he'd been yearning for, and knew it was the right moment. He bent his face to hers.

Their lips pressed together.

He hadn't expected her lips to be as cool as her hands, and for a moment he wasn't sure what to do. Then she parted her lips and he relaxed, pulling her close, kissing her deeper...

A sharp pain on his lip made him pull away suddenly.

"Did you just... bite me?"

Harmony smiled. Zane felt goose bumps crawl up his arms despite the warm September sun. She blinked up at him, but the smear of blood on her teeth turned the expression into something that for a split second looked sinister and hungry.

Then she wiped her mouth and muttered, "Sorry."

"It's okay," he said quickly. He wiped at the blood on his lip.

"You taste good." Coyly she rested her chin on her shoulder and gazed at him. "I can't wait for dinner on Friday night."

He couldn't help but smile back at her.