Why I Quit Zombie School Read Free Page B

listen to me. His own twin brother didn’t even flinch. He —”
    “He was in shock, Matt,” Jamie said. “The kids were in shock. That’s what happens sometimes when people see something shocking, somethingtotally horrible. It’s like their brain freezes. It doesn’t compute.”
    “Jamie is probably right,” Dad said. “They won’t react till later. Then it will hit them. The brain is funny. Sometimes it protects itself from —”
    “I don’t believe it,” I said, shaking my head. “No way. If you were there, you would agree with me. It wasn’t normal. It was totally weird.”
    Jamie snickered. “There you go again, Matt. You’re in this school for ten minutes, and what do you do? You have to turn it into a horror movie.”
    Dad turned his gaze out the window. “Hey, look. A soccer game,” he said. “Are you going to try out for the team?”
    He was changing the subject. I could see I wasn’t getting anywhere with them. I decided to shut up.
    After lots of hugs and promises to call every day, they left. I watched them walk down the long hall, then disappear down the stairwell.
    Silence. I dropped onto my narrow bed, my brain whirring.
    My first time living away from home. My first day in a new school with all new kids and teachers.
    Did I feel lonely? Not exactly. Instantly homesick? Not really. Afraid? No, not at all.
    I couldn’t describe how I felt. I just knew I was kind of emotional. I didn’t feel like crying. But I knew I’d start crying if I let myself go.
    I decided that setting up my room might cheer me up.
    I’d brought a carton of my horror collection stuff. I knew I wouldn’t have much room. So I just brought my favorite things.
    I had one bookshelf above the desk where I could put things. I pulled out my scale models of my favorite classic horror movie monsters. I had Frankenstein and Dracula, of course. Perfect replicas of the original movie characters. And I had a nice-looking Godzilla and a Wolfman with real animal fur on his face and back.
    My cousin works at the SyFy Channel. He sent me posters of their crazy monster movie characters. He sent awesome posters of Sharktopus, and Mansquito, and Frankenfish. I had just enough wall space to hang all three.
    Fixing up the room made me feel a little more at home. But I still felt kind of weird.
    I took out my monster-makeup kit and stood in front of the mirror over my dresser. I always liked to scare Jamie by making up my face, turning myself into a hideous ghoul or monster.
    I started to dab black makeup around my eyes. Then I made my face pale white. I marked in deep ruts in my skin to make it look like my flesh was coming apart.
    I don’t know why I started turning myself into a ghoul. I knew Jamie wasn’t around to scare. It was just something to do, I guess. Something to remind me of home.
    Or maybe I could stagger down the hall and scare a few kids. It might be a way to meet some new friends.
    I colored my lips black. And I painted a stream of bright red blood trickling down my chin.
    Not bad. I looked like a creature who had just come back from the dead.
    I was admiring myself in the mirror when I saw someone reflected in the glass. In the mirror, I saw her appear in the doorway to my room.
    Franny. The girl I’d met when I first arrived at school.
    She was staring at my back. She couldn’t see my face.
    I’ll give her a little scare,
I decided.
    I spun around quickly, my eyes wide, my mouth hanging open.
    And waited for her scream of surprise.

8
    “How’s it going?” Franny said. She took a step into the room.
    I froze, openmouthed, my eyes deep in black sockets, bright blood trickling down my ripped-up face.
    Franny glanced around the room. “Awesome posters,” she said. “Did you see the one about the half boy, half spider?”
    “Uh … sure,” I said.
    Jamie would have screamed her head off. What was up with Franny? She acted like my face was totally normal.
    Why didn’t she ask me about it?
    “Are you