Zombie Queen of Newbury High (6 page)

“Mia, honestly, I don’t know why you take these things so personally. I told you that you’re breaking the laws of nature by dating Rob in the first place. Besides, this sort of experience will be invaluable for me when I’m running my own prom-queen campaign.”

“You are unbelievable. And what are you going to do with all these if Samantha doesn’t get on the ballot?”

“Oh please, don’t be so ridiculous. Of course she’ll be on there. Samantha is the person guys want to be with and girls want to be.”

“Really, because in my experience all the girls I know want to kill her,” Mia retorted.

“Yes, but your friends are hardly the movers and shakers of Newbury High.” Grace didn’t even bother to look up. “Anyway, if you want someone to blame, then go see Principal Keegan since he was the person who barbarically decided to get rid of the prom court and only let nominees have one day to try and canvass for votes.”

Mia couldn’t even be bothered to respond as she shook her head and left the kitchen. As always, it was completely useless to talk to Grace. Besides, she had her Ho Hos and Rob Ziggerman to think about. Not to mention taking another peek at her dress. Life didn’t really get much better than this.

five

“
T
here you are. I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” Candice panted as she came to a halt at Mia’s locker the next morning.

“Sorry, I had to catch the bus, because would you believe the entire car was full of the cupcakes that Grace made to help Samantha with her prom-queen campaign and Mom didn’t have time to make two trips?”

“Grace is helping Samantha?” Candice arched an eyebrow before frowning. “Why am I not surprised?”

“Yeah, and don’t even get me started on the fact that she used my laptop to make up a prom-queen video clip for Samantha’s Facebook page. Unbelievable.”

“Anyway, this will cheer you up,” Candice assured her. “I’ve got some Oreos for you.”

“Why are you giving me cookies?” Mia looked at the double packet her friend was holding out to her.

“Because you like them, of course.” Candice shrugged. “Why else?”

“Er, well, I guess that’s as good a reason as any,” she said as she took the packet and opened up her locker. “And . . . Hey! What’s going on?”

“Boy, someone really did tidy up in there,” Candice commented as she leaned over Mia’s shoulder to see what the problem was.

“Actually.” Mia coughed as she stared at the neatly stacked towers of cookies and candy that were now inside it. “I’m talking about why my locker suddenly looks like a bake sale. How are people breaking into it? I’ve really got to get a new combination.”

“Oh, right.” Candice wrinkled her nose. “That is weird. Who would do that?”

“I have no idea. Did I miss a memo or a school announcement?” she demanded.

“Of course not.” Candice shook her red hair just as Samantha came storming toward her with a scowl etched across her face and her shirt cut even lower than the one she’d been wearing yesterday.

“Mia Everett, I want to talk with you.” Samantha came to a halt and put her hands on her hips in an exaggerated pose, while ignoring Candice altogether. “I don’t know what you think you’re playing at, but it won’t work.”

“I’m not playing at anything,” Mia said brusquely. “Rob asked me to the prom first. Why is that so hard to accept?”

“I’m not talking about Rob.” Samantha rolled her mascara-coated eyes in disdain, and Mia blinked.

“You’re not?”

“I just came from the office where these were printed so they could be handed out this morning. I want you to explain yourself,” Samantha demanded as she pulled a piece of paper out of her bag and thrust it in Mia’s face.

“It’s a ballot.” Mia shrugged. “And I’m guessing it’s for the senior prom king and queen. But you know, Samantha, if you’re canvassing for votes, here’s a tip; it might be a good idea to try the nice approach. I mean, giving out free cupcakes can only get you so far.”

“So is that what you’ve been telling people?”

“What do you mean? Why would I be telling people anything?” Mia stared at her blankly before finally grabbing the ballot that Samantha was still waving around. For a moment she studied it before finally looking up in astonishment.
“I’ve been nominated for prom queen?
”

“Oh my God,” Candice yelped from next to her. “Did you just say ‘prom queen’?”

“That’s what it says.” Mia held up the ballot. “Though how it happened, I have no idea.”

“Oh, don’t play dumb, Mia. You were obviously gunning for this all along, but if you think for one minute you can come in here and steal my crown, then you’ve got another think coming. And you can start taking down all those stupid posters, too.”

“Posters?” Mia blinked as she glanced around and realized that practically every senior locker was plastered with flyers saying
Vote Mia for Queen
.

“I don’t know what you did to suddenly make yourself the focus of everyone’s attention, but I can tell you that it’s not going to work.” Samantha flicked back a lock of golden hair and then glanced at Mia like she was something on the bottom of her shoe.

“Well, if that’s the case, then I don’t why you are even bothering to talk to me,” Mia replied.

“I couldn’t agree more, and normally I wouldn’t bother to waste my time.” Samantha gave a dismissive shrug as she unzipped her Coach purse and pulled out a box of chocolate truffles. “However, I needed to give you these, so I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone. Actually, speaking of birds, can you smell that?”

“Smell what?” Candice’s nose twitched.

“Chicken.” Samantha leaned forward and sniffed Mia’s arm. “Something smells like chicken. I might go to the cafeteria and see if they have any.” Then, without saying another word, Samantha turned on her ridiculously high heels and strutted off in the other direction as Mia and Candice turned to each other.

“Wow,” they both said at the same time before Candice widened her eyes.

“Hey, I wonder if this has something to do with the spell you did yesterday? Perhaps it didn’t just make Rob love you, it made everyone love you? You know, next time we go back there, I think I’d better get one for myself, because if it can make you prom queen, imagine what it could do for my health issues?” Candice’s voice was thoughtful as she ripped open another packet of beef jerky.

“Mia, can I talk to you for a moment? We have a problem,” a vaguely familiar voice said, and she spun around to where Chase Miller was standing. He was wearing the same jeans he’d had on yesterday, though the retro T-shirt and the bags under his green eyes both seemed fresh.

“Hey, it’s New Boy. I didn’t know you were friends with him. Actually, I didn’t know he was friends with anyone. He doesn’t strike me as a talker,” Candice pronounced as she waved her beef jerky at him. Then she turned back to Mia and said, “Mind you, I guess talking is overrated, and he sure is tasty looking. I wonder if he has some cookies for you, too?”

“Uh, Mia, this really is important.” Chase gave an urgent cough, and Mia wished Candice wasn’t talking in such a loud voice.

“I’m thinking Fig Newtons,” Candice continued, oblivious to Chase’s embarrassment. “Don’t ask me why, but he just looks like that sort of guy. Oh, and Mia, don’t forget to remind him to vote for you.”

“You realize he’s right here and can hear you?” Mia said to Candice.

But before she could reply, Chase said, “It’s about yesterday. You know the incantation for the spell you gave me—”

“Hey, he knows about the spell?” Candice interrupted in surprise. “Are you sure that’s wise? I mean, yes, he’s cute, but you know what they say about the quiet ones—”

What?
Chase Miller wasn’t cute. He was too tall, his hair was too short, and not to mention the fact that he was crazy. Of course he hid it well under his unassuming exterior, but now that Mia knew the truth about him, he wasn’t fooling anyone.

“The point is,” Chase cut in, “we have a problem. I used the two pages of incantation you gave me along with a reversal potion, and the virus should’ve been stopped, but for some reason it didn’t work.”

“Two pages of incantation? I thought there were three?” Candice frowned for a moment. “Because remember it took us a while to decipher her writing. She should think about doing those things on a computer in future. There would be a lot less margin for error.”

“You’re right.” Mia nodded before turning to Chase. “Are you sure I only gave you two?” she asked.

“I’m positive,” Chase assured her in a tight voice.

“Oh.” Mia frowned. “Well, I wonder where the other one is, then?”

“Probably in your bag,” Candice suggested. “It’s always such a mess in there you can never find anything. Remember I looked it up on the Internet once because I was worried that you might’ve had some kind of strange ‘messy’ disease?” Then she turned to Chase and gave him a reassuring smile. “But it’s okay—apparently she’s just really untidy.”

Mia shot Chase a rueful glance as she pulled open her bag and dug around until she found the extra piece of paper. “Actually, Candice is right—I was getting confused. It’s been a bit of a stressful week with this whole Samantha-trying-to-steal-my-prom-date thing. I guess I just made a mistake.”

“Look, could I speak to you privately for a minute?” He glanced over to where Candice was engrossed in her beef jerky.

“But didn’t you say yesterday that you would leave me alone now?” she reminded him. “Besides, class starts in ten minutes and I really want to try and catch Rob.”

“Yes, well yesterday I thought this thing was containable, but since you forgot to give me the complete incantation we have a problem.”

Mia rolled her eyes and dropped her voice so it was little above a whisper. “Please tell me you’re not still thinking about this zombie business. I mean, yes, I think my spell did do something because everyone is being really nice to me. I can even see why Grace likes being popular so much, because it’s cool when people give you things. But honestly, you’ve got to stop with this crazy idea. These are just regular kids with a healthy disposable income that they want to spend on food for
moi
.”

“Just give me five minutes so I can show you something.”

“Do we really have to do this again?”

“
Please
, Mia, I just need five minutes,” he said desperately in a low voice, cautiously glancing around him.

“Okay, fine.” She let out a sigh before turning back to Candice. “Look, I’ve got to talk to Chase about, er, biology—but I’ll see you in class. Save me a seat?”

“Not so fast.” Candice narrowed her eyes. “I want to know what’s going on between you and . . . Oh, is that a steak sub I can smell? You guys go ahead, I’m just going to the cafeteria to see what’s for lunch.” Candice trotted off in the other direction.

Okay, that was odd. Candice really had to slow down with the vitamin supplements because they were obviously wreaking havoc on her hormones.

“Well?” She folded her arms once Candice had gone.

“Actually, I don’t think the hallway is the best place to talk about it. Let’s go in here.” Chase headed toward an empty classroom, and Mia rolled her eyes and reluctantly followed him. Once they were inside, he locked the door and pulled his laptop out of his backpack.

“Okay, so what’s this all about?” she demanded as she watched him bite into his full bottom lip in concentration.

“In a nutshell, the zombie virus you released has moved into the second stage, which means it is no longer reversible, and by lunchtime on Thursday it will become fully active.”

“Ugh, okay, that’s enough.” Mia held up her hands. “Look, I know I humored you yesterday, but that was because I was preoccupied about Rob. The thing is, you can’t keep talking about zombies as if they’re real. I mean, seriously, how can you expect me to believe that every single student—”

“And teacher,” Chase interjected.

“Fine. That every single student and teacher who was at the senior assembly will turn into a zombie come twelve o’clock Thursday. It’s ridiculous.”

“Look.” He took a controlled breath and seemed to clench his jaw. “I know this is a lot to take in and I know you don’t want to believe me, but it’s true. Would it help if I gave you some proof?”

“What, like eating my brains or something? No thanks,” she retorted before frowning. “And anyway, you were at the senior assembly. I saw you standing at the back rolling your eyes while Rob gave his speech for being football player of the year, which by the way, was very rude of you.”

Chase didn’t look remotely apologetic as he shrugged. “Yes, you’re right, I was there.”

“So, if I really did turn everyone into zombies, then why aren’t you trying to eat me?” she demanded as Chase ran a frustrated hand through his short hair.
Ha! Try and answer that, crazy boy.

“I explained how the virus works. Right now everyone is only in stage two. They don’t start eating flesh until they hit stage four. As for me, I’m immune to the virus in any form.”

“Oh, well, isn’t that handy,” she replied.

“Actually.” He tightened his jaw and Mia blinked in surprise. If she didn’t know better, she would almost say that he was mad. “ ‘Convenient’ is the last thing I would call it. I’ve got a mutant gene, which we think came down through my mom’s side. It means that while I can still be killed by a zombie, I can’t be infected with the virus, no matter how it is transmitted, nor can I carry it. Unfortunately, less than one percent of the population has the gene and scientists haven’t worked out a way to transfer it to anyone else yet.”

“And me? Am I going to turn into a zombie?”

“No.” Chase shook his head. “You were the one who did the incantation, which makes you immune, too.”

“Fine, so I turned everyone into zombies except for you and me, which means you can’t prove it. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to class.”

“Mia.” He gently grabbed her arm just as she headed for the door and pointed to the laptop. “If you want proof, come and take a look at this. It’s an outbreak that we contained last month.”