Free Greatest Zombie Movie Ever by Jeff Strand

teachers and for light vandalism, but he’d been suspended once for stealing somebody’s jacket out of their locker. (He didn’t even want it.) And there were rumors—though they were never confirmed—that he liked to start the occasional fire.
    Mr. Clark told a pretty blond girl that she could go in to see the principal. She wiped a tear from her eye, went into Ms. Weager’s office, and shut the door behind her.
    Justin sat down next to Patrick. They’d shared a couple of classes and knew each other’s names, but they weren’t friendly enough that it was typical for Justin to sit down next to him and start talking.
    â€œHow’s it going?” Justin asked.
    â€œThe usual.”
    â€œCan I ask you a hypothetical question?”
    Patrick raised an eyebrow. Either he wasn’t comfortable with hypothetical questions, or he didn’t know what “hypothetical” meant.
    â€œPurely imaginary,” Justin assured him. “One hundred percent. This is only to satisfy my curiosity.”
    â€œAsk it.”
    Justin lowered his voice to a whisper. “Let’s say that somebody wanted to in this completely made-up scenario…be inside the school during certain hours.”
    â€œYou want to break into the school after dark?”
    â€œNo. Definitely not. I just want to know if such a thing is possible. It’s research.”
    â€œYeah, it’s possible. When are we doing it?”
    â€œWe’re not.”
    â€œHow about tonight at ten? Can you sneak out?”
    â€œSeriously. I’m just gathering information.”
    â€œI’ve got new spray paint. Eight different colors. I’ve got this turquoise shade that would go perfectly with the door to the chemistry lab.”
    â€œI wasn’t looking for spray paint activities.”
    â€œI’ve got this realistic-looking plastic finger that we could drop into Mr. Schmidt’s aquarium. It’ll make people think the fish bit off somebody’s finger. It’s a great prank because it causes no harm to the fish.”
    â€œWhat if Mr. Schmidt thinks they’re too vicious to live?”
    Patrick thought about that. “Well, he’d figure out that it was a fake finger pretty quick. It’s not squishy or anything. I don’t think there’s any real chance that anybody would seek revenge on the fish.”
    â€œThanks for your help,” said Justin. “I don’t have any plans to use what you just told me, but it’s good to know. I appreciate it.”
    â€œNo problem.”
    â€œI hope you don’t get into too much trouble for whatever you did.”
    â€œI taped a tuna sandwich underneath my desk on Friday.”
    â€œWhy?”
    Patrick shrugged. “Attention, I guess.”
    â€œGood luck to you.”
    â€œThanks.”
    Justin walked down the hallway. If he were a superhero, he’d be Frustrated Man. (This was why he worked in the horror genre instead of making up superheroes.) Most of their amazing production value was supposed to come from filming in the school. And it was essential to the plot. What were they going to do without it?
    He would never, ever consider breaking into the school, but it was nice to know that the option was available, even if he would never, ever consider following through on it. Still, having options was good.
    When he reached his locker, Alicia was waiting there for him.
    â€œHi,” he said, playing it cool. Cool people said hi without following it up with ninety seconds of babbling.
    â€œHi,” she said. “How’s the script going?”
    â€œAmazeballs,” said Justin, even though cool people probably didn’t say amazeballs.
    â€œI can’t wait to read it!”
    â€œI think you’ll like it. You get to kill a lot of zombies. I mean, a lot . Record-setting. You’ll be a question on Jeopardy! someday.”
    She grinned. Justin had now set his own record