A List of Best Intentions

“LOCAL HOOLIGANS CRASH MOVIE SET”

Yep.

It wasn’t like you could see us totally clearly in the picture that went along with the headline, but you could definitely see a couple of crazy teenagers sticking out of a Jeep. And when I saw the paper the next Monday, I smiled to myself.

“Crazy kids,” my dad sighed at the breakfast table, sipping his coffee.

“We’re a stupid bunch,” I chuckled.

When I got to school, I was still trying to reel my mind back in after the past couple of weeks. I was still zoned out – thinking about Elton and Charlie and stuff, about how I’d made a little bit of amends with them. I was on a high.

Once I caught a glimpse of Cody in first period, though, I could sorta tell his weekend sucked.

He waltzed over to my desk, pale and snorting back snot, and slammed his hands down.

I looked up at him and gasped. “Holy crap, what happened to you?!”

“Kara happened.”

“Oh.”

“She thought it’d be funny to lock me out when it was raining on Saturday,” he ranted. “I swear, my sister…oh! And get this – she was on the phone the whole time I was out there!”

“Aw, sibling love…” I laughed. He looked so miserable it was funny.

Cody grunted and wiped his nose. “Yeah, I’m feelin’ it…”

He was about to walk away when a foreign hand came out of the corner of my eye and handed me a paper. I took it, but when I turned to see who had given it to me, the giver receded.

“IT’S ZOMBIE TIME!” it said at the top.

I smiled. Cody looked over my shoulder.

“Um, I’m making a movie,” a small voice said. It was the kid who gave me the paper, fiddling with the sleeves of his jacket. “It’s about…zombies.”

“Huh,” Cody mumbled, sounding congested.

“I’m looking for actors,” the boy added. He messed with his shaggy, tangled hair.

I hit Cody’s shoulder and shook his arm. “Hey, we can go eat brains!” I grinned.

The kid laughed, a hyaw-hyaw-type laugh. “Exactly. Do you know anyone who’d wanna be in it?”

Cody and I looked at each other and shrugged.

“Well, I know a kid who was just in a musical down in Westburg,” I said, referring to Elton.

“Really? Which musical?” he asked.

“The Blues Brothers.”

The kid snorted and rolled his eyes. “Never mind. That movie’s nothing but overrated fluff and stupid humor.”

I kinda half-smiled. Whatever.

“Know anyone else?” he urged.

Cody slurped up some snot.

His eyes got wide and he stared at Cody. “You…you…look like a zombie!”

“Um, thanks…I think,” he said back.

He grabbed Cody by the shoulders and looked him over. After a moment of awkward gaping and staring, the boy gushed, “You have to be in my movie!”

“Uh, okay?”

He backed away and shoved out his hand. “Nick Jackson, future filmmaker!”

Cody looked at me and smiled crookedly. “Cody…Thomas. Er…student. And this is my friend, Kevin…”

Nick glanced at me and shrugged. “Eh. Hm…he can be the guy who gets eaten.”

I looked at him funny, wondering what I’d just gotten into. Most of the stuff I’d done thus far had been stuff I voluntarily chose to do, and that was really the first time something came to me.

~~~~

I didn’t know who this Nick Jackson kid was. I didn’t know he was making a movie, and I especially didn’t know why.

Those questions would be answered soon enough, though.

Nick later invited Cody and me to chill with him after school in the courtyard to talk about the movie. I said whatever; I was sure I could bum one of those new cell phones from a rich kid for when I had to call for a ride later. Cody fidgeted, but agreed to it.

I’d just got done doing a killer musical and crashing a movie set. The idea of something else along those lines intrigued me. And, heck, maybe Cody could get a taste of that life too.

After school, Cody and I met up outside the cafeteria while other kids scurried toward their buses, and waited for Nick to show up. The crowd rushed past us. Soon, the school was quiet and the buses had left.

“You think that kid tricked us?” Cody asked casually.

“Nah,” I mumbled. I had second thoughts, though, even if I didn’t wanna admit it.

We waited a while longer. Cody sighed impatiently and started tapping his foot.

“Psst!”

Cody and I glanced at each other upon hearing the strange noise.

“You hear that?” I said.

“Hey!” The noise turned into a word.

We both turned to our right, where the sound came from, and lo and behold, peeking around the corner was Nick. This time, though, he was wearing a cape.

“Cody and Kevin, right?” he said in a harsh whisper. “Get back here. We were wondering if you were bailing on us.”

We looked at each other, shrugged, and followed him.

Watching his cape flutter in the wind almost magically, we walked to the back of the cafeteria – back behind this tool shed that the janitors always used. I’d never been back there before. And judging by the attire Nick was dressed in, I was scared that I’d get some kind of magic spell cast upon me. Cody looked around our surroundings worriedly.

Nick stopped and looked over his shoulder, then he snapped his fingers. “You two. You will not discuss the location of this clubhouse as long as you are outside. Understand?”

“Yep,” Cody and I agreed.

Before us was a group of trees with black sheets hanging from clotheslines strung between them. It looked secluded – scary, in a way – and Cody snickered quietly.

Nick pulled aside one of the sheets and snapped his fingers again. “You may enter.”

Cody motioned for me to go in first.

I ducked and swooped in, and the first thing I could see was a fire. Cody followed.

When I peeled my eyes away and glanced around, I caught glimpses of several illuminated faces – creepy faces. I flinched, though Cody was cool about it.

“Are you guys zombies?” he asked, a sarcastic flair to it that only I caught.

“Who’s asking?” a rather deep-yet-feminine voice replied.

Cody snorted back some mucous. “Cody.”

“Trespasser!” a huskier voice threatened. One face lunged forward, a chubby face clearly matching the voice. “Get out!”

Nick ran into the tent. “Guys, it’s cool! I invited them!”

“Why did you invite two outsiders to our realm?” a girl spoke up. From the light of the fire, I saw bluntly cut black bangs over piercing blue eyes.

“They wanna be in our movie,” Nick answered.

“Our movie is only for people in our circle! Unless…” the deeply womanly voice asked. When the light of the fire shined on it, I saw the speaker – a tall, pale bro with these real strong eyebrow ridges, but his face was hairless.

I ain’t gonna lie…I was scared, man.

“…Unless you advertised our movie to the mainstream!” the girl gasped. “Nick, we told you not to!”

I turned around. Nick looked like he was gonna scream in terror. “Guys, if we were the only ones in it, it’d be boring! Come on!”

The chunky guy stepped closer to him. “You know what this means, Nicholaius…”

Cody and I exchanged a look of “What…?”

“Look, they wanna work with us, and so why not?!” Nick reasoned, flailing his arms in panic. “Now can we get working on this? I’ve wanted to film this since I was ten!”

We all hushed.

The girl sighed. “I dunno…what do you think, Magathis?”

The creepy eyebrow guy – Magathis – grunted. “Fine. You, Nethrezar?”

The fat kid rolled his eyes. “Sure…”

“What about you, Ryannathorn?” Nick urged.

The girl gave a crooked smile and looked at Cody and me. “I guess we’re making a movie,” she agreed.

Nick reached up at the roof of the sheet fort and shrieked at the top of his lungs, prompting his fellow…peers…to do so as well.

“By the powers of Shanticlair, you two have the good will bestowed upon you!” Nick announced.

Cheers ensued from the others.

Cody elbowed me and mouthed out, “What a bunch of nerds.”