A List of Best Intentions

Well…Cody was right. We were dealin’ with a couple of dweebs.

I mean, they were the kinda people who always wore black and hissed at the preppy people. I heard about ‘em….but I never really saw ‘em in real life.

I didn’t have any classes with “Magathis,” “Nethrezar,” or “Ryannathorn,” and I don’t think Cody did, either. Matter of fact, I didn’t even have any with Nick. But every day, Cody and I went back to the sheet fort – or, “The Lair,” as they called it – to do some zombie stuff. Mostly, what we did was talk about the script Nick had written, which only amounted to about 20 or so minutes.

I guess Ryannathorn was doing the makeup. (Her real name was Ryanna, FYI. I had classes in elementary school with her and even went to her seventh birthday party. She lived in my freakin’ neighborhood.) Magathis and Nethrezar were zombies. Cody was the lead zombie. I was the guy who was trying to outrun those zombies, and Nick was the director.

You know, I put “Make a Movie” on my list, but not “Star in a Movie.” I guess it didn’t matter, though. It was hella sweet, either way.

The third day of discussing the movie, Cody and I were on our way to The Lair when Nick dropped by and sheepishly asked if he could walk with us.

“Sure,” I agreed.

“Okay, good,” he sighed. He darted his eyes around like he was expecting the sky to fall. “Um…I wanna ask you guys something.”

“Shoot for it,” Cody told him.

Nick bit his lip and sucked in his chubby cheeks. “Do you think we’re…weird?”

Cody and I shared a confused expression. “Nooo!” Cody said, throwing in some blatant sarcasm I’m surprised Nick didn’t pick up on.

“Oh, okay. Good,” Nick laughed. “I was scared. Not a lot of people would wanna work with us.”

I held my tongue. Cody looked like he had a cramp from holding in the laughter.

“We’re gonna start filming today. I borrowed my mom’s video camera,” he said excitedly. “Ryannathorn is doing the makeup. She’s working on Magathis and Nethrezar right now. God, I can’t wait!”

I smiled. I guess I was used to kids bein’ passionate about stuff by then.

“How long d’you have this written out?” Cody asked.

“Oh, for five years, at least,” Nick responded. “And it’s almost Halloween, and I wanna have it done before then.”

“Well, Halloween’s…what, the week after next? Yeah, it’ll be done,” I shrugged.

“I hope so. I wanna show my guild the movie just in time for it.”

Cody looked at him funny. “What’s a guild…?”

“Oh. Heh.” Nick snorted and fixed his hair. “Well, me and the gang…we found a way to hack into Warbuilder…”

“Oh, that’s that game all the nerds play, right?” I said, letting it slip. Oops.

Nick shot me a dirty look. “Well, sort of,” he continued. “Well, we hacked into it and…edited it, I guess you could say. Heh. We use the Internet to play so we can play with each other, basically.”

“How is that even possible?” Cody asked, puzzled.

“Beats me,” Nick shrugged. “All I know is that we can talk to each other when we play and go on missions together. It’s a heck of an idea.”

“Maybe you’ll patent it someday. Be a trendsetter. I bet if we don’t die, people’ll be making a bunch of zombie movies in the future, too,” Cody joked.

“You never know,” Nick grinned.

~~~~~~

It ain’t easy eating brains.

I mean…man, I wasn’t even playing the role of a zombie, but as soon as we started filming, Nick kept yakking at us over stupid stuff. I’m talking, like, “Cody, groan louder!” or, “Magathis, limp harder!” It was dumb.

And I was laughing. Until it was my turn to appear.

First of all, Nick took notice of my attire.

“Kevin, hat off. Ray Freeman, the everyman, does not wear a hat.”

Okay, I could take that. Felt weird without my beanie, but whatever.

“And the overshirt. I mean, something that blue? Ray does not stand out like that.”

I complied. Grudgingly.

Nick stared at me, baffled. “And your facial hair…”

“I’m not shaving my goatee,” I snapped.

“Fine! Whatever! I’m only the director…”

I hate to be critical, but basically, all I did as the character Ray Freeman was run away from the zombies, pretty much. It was kind of stupid, honestly, and I wasn’t much of a runner.

Throughout filming, I had to wonder whether or not this was worth it. And judging by some of the “I hate my life” looks Cody was sending me, he felt the same way.

Nick was chasing after us half the time with his big-ass handheld camera, sometimes shouting commands we couldn’t even hear. The zombies weren’t really that fast, so I didn’t have to run too quick, thankfully. (The makeup was dope, though.)

It was hard to imagine this turning out as anything above cheap and overall…bad. I hate to say that. And at first I didn’t even wanna admit it. But it was true…

As fate would have it, we ended up filming the whole shebang in one afternoon. It took a couple of hours, though it was a hell of a lot shorter than I thought it’d be.

The ending showed me lying on the ground, trapped in front of a wall, when the zombies got me cornered. And as they closed in on me, I screamed… only to be revealed later as one of them.

Curiosity nagged me when we were done. I wanted to watch it immediately after it was made, but Nick told us all that he’d have it edited by the next day.

“How?” Cody inquired. “If I tried to do that, I’d crash my computer…”

“I know a guy,” Nick assured.

Nobody else bothered to object. Not even his troupe.

~~~~~

I guess it was smart of us not to question Nick, ‘cause he was tellin’ the truth – the next day, he came to school with a tape in his hands, all smug.

Cody and I ran into him on our way to first period. He was wearing the cape he always wore, but something about him seemed to shine that day, unlike the normal dark aura he gave off.

“D’you get it done?” I asked him.

Nick’s face broke into a huge grin. “You bet your ass, I do!” He yanked open his backpack and tore out a VHS tape, looking so pristine and clean. It seemed to sparkle, even in the dimly lit hallways.

Cody smirked. “We’re gonna be movie stars, Kev.”

“I know!” Nick gushed. “I’m gonna show it to the guild this Saturday before Halloween. You guys are invited, too.”

That’s right! Halloween was only ‘bout a week away. “Sweet, we can come?” I clarified.

“You sure no one’s gonna cast a spell on us?” Cody asked. Once again, his rather bitter sarcasm flew over Nick’s unkempt hair.

“Oh, you won’t have to worry about that. They’re kind people, generally,” he assured. “Am I gonna see you there? We need all the actors in the flesh.”

I elbowed Cody knowingly. “Or, to eat the flesh. Haha, get it?”

Nick snorted and doubled over in laughter. “Yeah, ‘cause they’re zombies! Hah!”

“Oh ho ho, you’re punny, Kevin,” Cody chuckled.

I was in a fantastic mood the rest of the day, which really wasn’t all that different from the usual. I dunno. It felt special to me, anyways.