Zombie Queen of Newbury High (11 page)

“I have no idea what it means, but it might be handy to know,” Chase conceded.

“Well, I’m pleased you’re both so happy about it,” Candice muttered as she touched her eyes and mouth to no doubt check for sagging skin.

“No one is happy,” Mia assured her friend as Chase started up the engine again. “So what happens now? Did you get all the ingredients?”

“I did, so we just need to mix it all up and then wait until tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Candice protested. “That’s a long way off, and who knows what sort of irreparable damage this is doing to my body. Plus, I have serious doubts that my parents’ medical insurance will cover my zombie-rehabilitation expenses.”

“We still have some time before the virus moves into stage three,” Chase promised. “And we need to do it at school so that we don’t miss anyone. We just have to hope that no one is out sick.”

Mia gave an adamant nod of her head. “No complaints from me, and if you want, we can go back to my house to do it. Grace has cheerleading practice and my mom works late on Wednesdays.”

“Actually, if you don’t need me I might just go straight home,” Candice said as she smothered a yawn. “I think all of that protein is starting to make me tired.”

“Sure,” Chase said as they headed up Crescent Grove to the nicer part of the Twilight Zone, where all the houses looked like they had been supersized with long driveways and
Gone with the Wind
-style pillars at the front. Candice’s was the most supersized of them all.

“Thanks for the lift,” Candice said as Chase leaned into the backseat and opened the door for her. Mia noticed her friend’s face was pale and strained.

“That’s okay,” Chase said. “And since your car’s still at school, I’ll come by and pick you up in the morning if you want.”

“You will?”

“Of course,” he said as he gave her a double-dimpled smile. “And Candice, try not to panic. Now that we’ve got all the ingredients and the full incantation, there’s no reason why the reversal shouldn’t work. So don’t be thinking you’re dying. Okay?”

“Okay.” Candice managed a nod, but it wasn’t until she had disappeared up the path and into the enormous house that Mia turned to him in surprise.

“That was really sweet of you.”

“It’s nothing. It can’t be easy for her. The rest of the people who are infected probably don’t even realize it, but since Candice is aware of what is happening, not to mention seems concerned about her health, I just didn’t want her to worry.”

“Well, it was still very nice of you. Not everyone gets Candice. Her dad is a financial wizard and her mom works in real estate selling massive condos. They have more bathrooms than we have bedrooms. Problem is her folks work so hard that they’re hardly ever at home. That’s why she’s a bit of a hypochondriac. She had the flu when she was about eight and her mom took the day off to stay with her. I think she’s been trying to replicate it ever since.”

“Well, turning into a zombie would certainly get their attention. Though probably not in a good way,” Chase said as he started the engine to make the short drive to her own house. As he drove, Mia couldn’t help but study him.

There was definitely more to Chase Miller than met the eye. Not that she’d met any other zombie hunters before, but she wouldn’t have expected them to be so kind or so calm under pressure. She started to understand that part of the reason she hadn’t succumbed to a complete meltdown was because of Chase’s soothing presence. For a moment she wondered what Rob would be like under the circumstances, but she realized that was just futile since it was never going to happen. Besides, Rob was kind as well. Maybe a bit more self-centered than Chase, but he wasn’t purposefully cruel like Samantha and most of the other popular group. And anyway—

“Are you okay?” Chase suddenly asked, and Mia realized she had been staring at him the whole time.

“Oh, right.” She flushed as he turned right at the end of the leafy street and headed down Moonshine Drive. “Yeah, I’m fine. Well, as fine as I can be, I guess,” she said, and wondered if he’d try and reassure her like he’d done with Candice—maybe use his dimples. But he just shrugged, and once he pulled up outside her house, he turned to her.

“So, are you sure it’s okay to do this here? I don’t want to get you in trouble.”

“I think I’ve managed that all on my own. Anyway, it’s fine,” she assured him as he once again reached across her and opened her door. This time Mia was aware that his arm grazed hers. She jumped slightly and got out of the car. This zombie business was obviously affecting her nerves. Chase walked around to the trunk and pulled out a large brown bag and they both hurried inside.

“My room’s upstairs.” She nodded for him to follow her up, but it wasn’t until he stepped in that she realized how odd it was to be spending so much time with a guy who two days ago she probably wouldn’t have been able to pick out in a lineup.

“Wow, you really do like
Buffy
and
Angel
.” Chase put the bag down on her bed and looked around at the numerous posters that were plastered all over the wall. Suddenly she felt like a twelve-year-old girl as she caught sight of all the clothes that were scattered around the place.

“You probably think it’s dumb,” she said as she started to scoop them all up. Next to the bed was one of Grace’s magazines that Mia had been secretly looking at to figure out how to do her hair for Friday. She used her foot to kick it out of sight.

“Why? Because I know that vampires don’t really exist?” he teased, and Mia felt her eyes widen as she thrust all the clothes into her closet.

“Did you just make a joke?”

“Yes, but don’t tell anyone or else they will kick me out of the zombie hunters’ club.”

“That was another joke,” she pointed out as she caught sight of all her DVDs strewn across the floor by the window. She darted over but he stepped in front of her.

“Mia, you don’t need to clean up for me. I thought we’d both established that organized chaos was okay. Besides, we’re only here to mix this stuff together. And speaking of which, we should probably get started.”

“Oh, right. Of course,” Mia agreed. Besides, it wasn’t like she cared what Chase Miller thought of her room. More to the point, judging from his reaction, he didn’t care, either. He was just doing his job. Though she should probably remember that if Rob ever came up to her room, then she would definitely need to clean up since it appeared he was a bit of a neat freak.

“So, according to Candice’s translation, it’s a pretty standard mixture, though since I don’t make them as often as Algeria probably does, it might take a bit longer.”

“As long as it works, that’s okay,” Mia assured him as she cleared some space on the floor and Chase started to pull out bottle after bottle of ingredients. Then he set up a large mortar and pestle and flattened out Candice’s instructions.

“Right,” he said. “If you can read it out loud to me, I’ll get to work.”

“Okay, two teaspoons of rock salt. But it needs to be ground not crushed.”

“Ground rock salt coming up.” Chase opened a bottle and carefully measured it out before glancing back up to her for the next ingredient. Mia grinned as she continued to read, all the time watching as his steady hands mixed and measured. If she was doing it, it probably would’ve turned out into a soggy mess like when she’d been forced to make muffins in home economics, but she got the feeling that Chase never made mistakes like that. Even under duress he seemed cool, calm, and collected. No wonder he was such a good zombie hunter.

Finally he looked up at her as he gave it one last stir. “Okay, it’s done,” he said as he started to put lids back on all the bottles. Mia didn’t know whether to be relieved or a little concerned at just how easy it all appeared to be.

“So what now?”

“Now we need to figure out the best place to do the spell. We want everyone to be in one place.” As he spoke, he stood up and stretched his legs just as there was a noise from out in the hallway. Mia instantly jumped to her feet and grabbed her water bottle before glancing at Chase.

“You don’t think it’s—”

“Technically it shouldn’t be,” Chase said in a low voice, but all the same he nodded for her to stay where she was. No problem there, since her feet didn’t feel capable of moving, and she watched as he inched his way to the door. Mia’s heart started to pound as the sound of footsteps in the hallway got louder. It almost sounded like someone was racing toward them. Did zombies race? She had a feeling they didn’t, but then again, what did she know?

And not for the first time she felt the panic start to rise in her chest. This was real. She had turned everyone into zombies. Zombies that wanted to eat her. She used her hand to try and fan down her face before Chase could realize just how terrified she was.

The footsteps were getting closer now, and Mia slunk farther back toward the bed. She glanced over to where Chase was flat against the wall next to the door and he was holding some sort of metal-looking baton high above his head. Then, before she knew what was happening, the door flew open and a deranged creature charged toward her.

ten

“
G
race?”
Mia shouted in surprise as she realized the deranged creature was in fact just her sister (whose face was, to be fair, a mask of fury). In an instant, Chase lowered his arm and slipped out of the room into the hallway and Mia shot him a grateful smile since right now she wasn’t up to explaining what they had been doing.

“Don’t you ‘Grace’ me,” her sister snapped as she came to a halt in the center of the room and folded her arms. “I can’t believe you made people nominate you for prom queen.”

“Of course I didn’t make anyone nominate me,” Mia retorted as she tried to gather her frayed nerves.
I merely turned them into zombies and made myself the top of their food chain. There’s a big difference.

“Oh, really.” Grace narrowed her lips. “And you’re trying to tell me that it happened because people like you?”

“Yes,” Mia said instead.

“Well, you might be able to fool everyone else, but you can’t fool me. I know exactly how you managed it.”

“You do?” This time Mia felt a surge of alarm go racing through her. Grace didn’t look like the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she had supersonic hearing that would make the Bionic Woman proud. Somehow she must’ve overheard Mia talking to Chase about it. Why hadn’t Mia double-checked that her sister wasn’t home instead of just assuming she was at cheerleading practice?

“Yes, and I’ve got to say that it’s pathetic,” Grace said as she stared directly at the numerous bottles and the bowl of zombie potion sitting on the floor in the middle of her bedroom.

“Look,” she said, “it’s not all my fault. If Samantha hadn’t tried to steal my prom date then none of this would’ve happened.”

“At least Samantha has the dignity to run an honest campaign, but apparently you’ve been spraying water on yourself like some Playboy Bunny. What I don’t get is how on earth you thought that would get you any votes?” Grace demanded.

Mia glanced down at Chase’s sweatshirt, which was still a little damp, before looking up at her sister again. “So you think that’s why people want to vote for me?” she double-checked.

“Well, duh.” Grace rolled her eyes. “Anyway, Samantha is really upset. Unfortunately, we’ve already checked with the office, and you’re not allowed to withdraw.”

“Withdraw?” Mia shot her sister a blank look. Thanks to the whole zombie crisis, she really hadn’t given too much thought about her prom-queen nomination in the first place. Well, she had, but her initial excitement had quickly been curtailed when she had found out just
why
she had suddenly become so popular.

“I said you’re not allowed to withdraw,” Grace repeated as if she were speaking to a six-year-old. “But you’d better not do anything embarrassing at your speech tomorrow—”

“Speech? What speech?”

“You see, this is the reason you don’t deserve to even be on the ballot in the first place.” Grace waved her arm in the air in disgust before once again adopting her know-it-all voice. “At your senior assembly tomorrow, all the nominees get to do a five-minute speech on why people should vote for them. And I’m warning you—”

“Enough.” Mia marched over and started to guide her back toward the door. “I don’t need my fifteen-year-old sister telling me what to do. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got more important things to worry about.”

“You are so pathetic,” Grace muttered before turning and marching off.

A moment later, Chase slipped back into her room, obviously undetected by Grace. Mia shook her head in annoyance. “Man, what is she so upset about? I mean, why is it so unbelievable that I’ve been nominated for prom queen? Well, okay, so perhaps I did use the forces of darkness to make it happen, but that’s beside the point. The point is that I’ve got a good mind to do a speech just to annoy her and Samantha Griffin.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Chase shook his head, and Mia looked at him in surprise.

“What? How hard could it be? And it’s not that I asked to be nominated, but it’s a bit insulting that Grace doesn’t think I can—”

“Mia, that’s not what I meant. It’s just that we both forgot about the other senior-class assembly. That’s when we can do the reversal spell.”

“Oh.” Mia widened her eyes in understanding. “You’re right. It’s perfect. Anyway, it’s probably for the best since I was lying about the speech thing being easy. I probably would’ve been terrible, and I wouldn’t have a clue what to say.”

“I’m sure you would’ve worked something out.” Chase shrugged as he started to gather everything up before carefully pouring the potion into a spare bottle. Once he was finished, he held it out to her. “So do you want to take this or should I?”