Chapter two: Zombie Land

2.    Zombie Land

“Sorry.  Not all of us are as lucky as you.  My dad didn’t pass me down a barely used Subaru. I worked hard for my rust-bucket, as you call it, and it suits me just fine.”  Chase sounded a little defensive.  I wasn’t trying to be insensitive or brag.  I know that I was lucky that my father gave me the car, but he didn’t give it to me because I was special; he seriously never used it.

Since I became old enough to drive, he quit driving almost all together.  Well, until he got his electric car.  There isn’t anywhere he goes that doesn’t have a port for him to charge his car.  He loves rubbing in gas prices with me.  “So Luc, what did it cost you this week to fill up The Subaru?”  No matter what cost I tell him, he always replies, “Ha, isn’t that something? I haven’t been to a gas station in months!”  Sometimes, I wish my mother would have taken his car, so she could deal with his banter. I would have loved to have her Beetle. 

It was nothing personal about Chases’ car, sure it was fun to pick on, but really I just wanted to take my car because mine has AC. 

“Hey Chase, get it right.  It’s not a Subaru it is The Subaru.”  It was a joke between us.   My father would always refer to the car as if it were a name of a fierce wrestler.  “Hey Dad, can I take your car to the movies?” “You can take The Subaru anywhere if you are back by curfew.” 

“Let’s be honest, The Subaru comes with one feature your ride doesn’t—AC.  Unless, you want to go to the ball looking like you just ran ten miles in your Tux, with a date that you peeled of the concrete, I suggest we take the Ru.  But, hey, it’s your call.” I teased.

It was so easy to make Chase laugh.  After we laughed at my dad, it was easy to finish our plans for the ball tomorrow.  We agreed that he would drive to my house by 5:30, so we could take pictures with my parents, then he would leave his rust-bucket, oops—I mean car, at my house.  He would drive my car to his parent’s house to continue our model session then to the ball. 

We had a bet wagering on who would be the first to want to leave.  He bet I wouldn’t make it to see Andrew and Claire be crowned.  I bet he wouldn’t make it past two songs with my awesome dance moves.  I foresaw a faked injury on his behalf. 

I hadn’t thought of them until he mentioned their names.  After he mentioned them, my eyes scanned over the zombie infected lunch room.  I was surprised so many of them were here today, even considering the juniors that were in attendance. 

I was so grateful to have Chase, especially when I came into the lunchroom, or when I was walking out into the parking lot after school.  When I was alone, I felt like I was trapped in another dimension. 

Looking around the room, not one person was eating.  I wasn’t either at the moment, because I just finished eating my salad.  Chase was picking at some fries, but everyone else still had trays filled with food. 

Besides the movement of hands taping on their gadgets the cafeteria was still.  Everyone was on their gadgets; phones, tablets, computers, or whatever device that held their fixations.  I was so out of the loop for my age.  I bet out of the majority of the lunchroom 90% of them were on Caption-It.  

Caption-it is the way my generation socializes with each other.  They basically put every trendy social-media app from the generation before together; changed chats to sticky-notes and utilized the front-facing camera. 

It is addicting because whatever someone post you can add cartoons to caption their words, or if they post a picture or video you can caption the image. 

The Caption-it plague hit my school so fast we were given a conference week off.  The administration had to evaluate the situation and make adjustments to the school policies and rules.  It was such a spectacle, I heard Mr. Volte showed up in person to our academy. 

The week we returned to school we all were given new handbooks with a special section dedicated to Caption-it and other internet mingling.  

We are only allowed to use our phones and or gadgets on a lunch hour and in the parking lot.  The following week teachers and staff members began sending us caricature request on Caption-it. 

I had an account once, before my parent’s got accounts, but I deleted it once I saw how socially handicapped it truly was.  The only fun I had on Caption-it was with Chase.  We use to have a ball captioning our photos.

Otherwise, it was a gossipy, attention-needy, socially discriminating internet wormhole.  I deleted my account in the beginning of sophomore year.  That is when my relationship with Claire changed.  It wasn’t just with her.  It was with most people I used to actually have face-to-face conversations with. 

They took it so personally if they lost one caricature on their comic strip.  I hadn’t realized at the time that if we weren’t Caption-it friends, then we weren’t real life friends either. 

I looked over at the table Chase and I use to sit at.  It looked as if they were playing musical chairs, but they were all taking turns taking pics of themselves with their ‘besties’.  I could imagine them uploading their pics to Caption-it with titles like, ‘Me and so-and-so eating lunch last day of senior year.’

Okay, they probably were writing things more clever, but it was so annoying.   Instead of genuinely having an experience on their last day, they were staging moments in their life to post. 

Claire jumped on Andrew’s lap and took a pic of them.  Of course she took the picture, because once she got her own camera phone, she wouldn’t let anyone take a picture of her or with her unless she did her own ‘selfie.’  She was convinced nobody knew how to proper take her picture but herself. 

My belly ached imagining what the post of her and Andrew captioned.  I didn’t wish that it was me per say, but I thought she was lucky to be able to take pics with him in the first place. 

“Ah…there it is,” Chase mused. 

“There what is?”

“I was going to ask when exactly you lost your count when I saw you two talking at study hall.  But I figured you would yak my ear off about it.  You haven’t said anything.  But, I know.” 

“Yeah.  You do know.  I also know how much you love to aggravate me with Andrew teases. I figured you would have asked me about it, while flattening my ego or something.  I wouldn’t want to take that fun from you.  Besides, you distracted me with all that prom talk.  All that talking about you in a tux, well…”

He threw a fry at my head.  “Oh no!  That was close, luckily it didn’t poke your eye out.  How else would you stare at them?  You call them zombies, but you should see the way you ogle at him.”

“I lost my count at thirty days, but I guess it shouldn’t take me too long to get it back.  Considering, in a couple days I plan on never seeing Him or Claire again.  I was staring at them thinking at first, how we use to sit there with those zombies.  Then, I wondered what Claire posted about her selfie with Andrew.  Jealousy maybe.  And finally, I wondered if she was sitting right next to him messaging him about our disagreement today.”

Chase wanted the dirt about our disagreement, so I told him.  He thought it was lame and I was a stupid girl at the end of my story.  He assumed it was going to be a real catfight.  “You did it all wrong Lucy.  She is selfish and you know that.  The only reason why she cares that you didn’t tell Mr. Montgomery is because you not going this fall screws her.  She can careless about your future.  She just wanted to sponge off you as a roommate.”  All I could do was laugh, because he was right. 

He pulled out his phone and began tapping around like the zombie-heads.   “The title of her post is: My love and I getting ready to start a new chapter in our lives.  Do you want to see the pic?”  I threw more fries at him then he hit me with. 

“You know Luc, you are right.  Can you believe we use to sit there with them?  Okay, you can believe it, because we did.  But, what were we thinking?  I can’t wait for Arizona.” 

I knew what he was really saying.  He was really saying that he can’t believe that he dated Courtney.  But, I wasn’t going to dig that burn any deeper, “Either can I Chase.  That is why I am following you there buddy!”

The rest of the day flew by.  I didn’t feel that my math test went as bad as I dreaded, so I was pleased.  When Chase and I walked down the stairs into the parking lot we both gave each other a high five, “Way to go Buddy. “  I pushed Chase to the side off the sidewalk, because the zombie-heads were coming drone into their gadgets. 

They never paid attention to where they were going, but somehow still managed to move as a crowd.  Ironically, we were standing next to an old sign that read: DON’T TEXT AND DRIVE.  I laughed at it and pointed, “They should update this thing to say: DANGER.  DON’T TEXT AND WALK.”  I caught Chase by surprise when I asked him to pull out his phone and take a pic of us by it, for memory sake.  “Really?  Lucille not only wants to participate in a selfie, she encouraged it.” 

“Who else is going to take it?  It isn’t like anyone will pay attention to us now.” But after I said it, I saw Mr. Montgomery.  I called out to him and he took our picture.  Chase uploaded it to Caption-it being sarcastic.  “Does this mean you are going to return to Caption-it to stalk Andrew, oops I mean, to see our picture?” 

“Ha-ha, funny.  Not a chance.  Email me it though.”  Chase gave me a hug and left me to fight the zombies alone.  All this time I thought he was walking me to me car, when really he was just leaving too.  He had my front row spot and left me stranded. 

While walking to Ru, I noticed that many people sat on the hoods of their cars to continue to text, or message.  I hadn’t noticed that in a while.  It is the only new change in our society that I completely, wholeheartedly agree with.  And, we all have Mr. Volte to thank for it. 

Although it was a major problem, texting and driving before Mr. Volte lost a close family member, little effect or change was happing to prevent it.  Then, when he lost someone close he helped develop a device to prevent texting and driving.  Once the device is installed into your car, it won’t allow you to start your vehicle until your phone is connected to it. 

It automatically works as a hands free phone.  These days hardly anyone actually speaks on the phone personally, unless it is an emergency.  I always just leave my phone plugged into it. I actually had to upgrade my phone to be compatible with the device.  Because, it is now a law for all minor drivers to have it installed before we get our license.  We have to register our cars, Safe Drive device and our phones with the DMV. 

Like all things that have a positive, if you look closer into it you can find negative.  That was always the case with all these new updates and new rules to our new more up-to-date society.  The majority of the kids I knew hated the Safe Drive device. 

It wasn’t long before people started making apps and new phones that had a hands free text.  So technically, there was still texting and driving.  People just said aloud what they wanted to text and the phone would do it for them. 

Many people would believe that was a win-win solution, but it isn’t.  There are still accidents from people getting so frustrated with the voice processor.  These voice processors often confuse words and sentiment.   The sentiment of meaning is what drives me the craziest with all technology.  It is so hard to be sure of one’s meaning over text. 

I felt a little numb or off when I got to my car.  The whole day felt so off though, starting with waking up.  Normally, when I got to my car after school I immediately occupied my mind with busy work, anything to not think of Andrew.  But today I had nothing to occupy my mind, because I had no more homework or studying. 

I took off this week at work, so I wasn’t going to be going there anytime soon.  I thought about tomorrow and the ball.  But, I made my dress months ago and my mom bought me all the accessories to match at her last art fair. 

I looked at the radio and almost considered it, but my gut reacted in warning.  I haven’t listened to music in so long. I genuinely missed it, but I had to take a break from music because every song seemed to be singing my song.  Rather it be a sloppy love song, or a miss you so much my heart can barely take it, or a hey will you notice me and my pure jealousy song; whatever the song, it always reminded me of Andrew somehow. 

Even though I wasn’t in a hurry to leave, I started my car and put on my seatbelt.  I looked over at my phone sitting in its device.  It was blinking, I decided to listen to see what I missed.  I pressed the hands free button on my radio and turned up the speakers.  “Hello Lucille, you have five missed calls and three missed text.  What would you like to address first?” 

I felt utterly stupid as I talked out loud to myself, “Calls.”  “Five missed calls from your contact Mom and no voicemails.”  Grunting to myself, I wondered if I should be worried.  While feeling guilty for wondering if I should worry in the first place.  But, knowing my mom it was probably something silly. 

I then prompted to seek out who text me, I received two text from Claire and one from my mom.  Again, I struggled with the feeling of guilt and or the lack of.  Who do I want to know first?  Okay, Mom I’ll bite, “Read text from Mom.”  “Where are you?  Are you coming home or not?”  Annoyed I asked for Claire’s text, “Luc I don’t know who you are anymore.  You were rude and I think you should apologize.  I have a life without being selfish.”  I felt so bad hearing her first text as the next one went on, from lunch time, “Last day of school and you rather sit with Chase alone then with me and everybody, whatever.”

What?  I was confused because I haven’t sat with them at lunch all year!  I prompted my phone to text my mom, “I just got out of school, on my way home. See you in thirty minutes.”