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Monday, June 13, 2011

Chapter 3: Friends and Zombies

McKenna sauntered into her home room with thoughts of Paris, but not the good kind of thoughts. Oh, how she wished her mother wouldn’t have used a brown paper bag to pack her lunch! Now she’d have to carry around these thoughts all day… or at least until lunch time.

“Uh, McKenna, are you ok? You look like a zombie in an apocalypse!” This greeting was not out of the ordinary, and when McKenna looked over to see her best friend Greg she wasn’t surprised that he was sitting atop his desk then sitting casually in his chair like a normal person.

“Good morning to you too, Greg!” McKenna replied enthusiastically. “You look like a half-eaten human in an apocalypse!” Zombie jokes were the foundation of their friendship. McKenna sat down in her desk and tried to rearrange her features to match her usual happy outlook on life. McKenna loved people and was a glass-is-half-full type of gal, so the world expected her to be happy 24/7 and she usually was, but sometimes she only hit 22/7 because everyone has their sad moments.

“Hey, McKenna!” McKenna turned toward the classroom door and was pleased to see Laura peering through it.

“Hey, Laura!” McKenna said brightly.

“Did you want to hang out after school and finish our AP Lit project?” Laura questioned across the room.

“Yeah,” McKenna got up and skipped to the door. “I don’t have anything else to do, but how about we do it at your house so that we actually have electricity. My mom’s still on her save-the-electricity-bill kick.”

“Sure thing. Blast, I’m gonna be late for Jensen’s class, so I gotta go. I’ll see you in lunch, ok?”

Lunch? Brown paper bag? Paris? Taxi? Dang it! She’d gone a whole two minutes without thinking those thoughts and Laura brought them rushing back in with her use of the L-word. She’d have to have a chat with Laura about activating memories that McKenna was trying to repress!

The tardy bell shrilled through the school and the class began to settle down. McKenna returned to her seat and pulled out her notebook. She snuck a quick peek over at Greg and mouthed the words 'zombie face' and then turned to face the front of the classroom.

She might be having troubles keeping her thoughts from wandering today, but no one needed to know that! She’d put on her happy face and worry about Paris and taxis later.

One thing she knew for sure. If her mom insisted on her bringing lunch from home, she was going to have to invest in a lunchbox, because there was no way she was going to eat out of that brown paper bag.

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