Sam was a zombie child, but even zombie children have to go to school. Today was his first day.
He got to school a bit late, so all of the other (perfectly normal) children were already in their seats. He had to lurch to his seat at the back of the class with all of them watching. He heard the whispers and saw them pointing, and he felt sad.
The teacher asked all of the children to say their name and something that they like to do. When it was Sam's turn, he wanted to say "watch TV" but all that came out was "URRRGGGHHH". The other children laughed at him, and he felt even sadder.
The teacher started talking about the letter "A". The boy sitting next to Sam showed him a picture of a Zombie with a finger in his nose. Sam realized that the picture was supposed to be him, and he felt sadder still. The teacher chose that moment to ask him a question and got mad at him for not paying attention. Now he felt sad and embarrassed.
At recess, the other children played running games and he couldn't run. He saw a squirrel and staggered toward it, and all of the other children stopped what they were doing to watch. So he stopped and the squirrel got away.
At lunch, all of the other children had sandwiches, carrot sticks, and juice boxes in shiny new lunch bags. He had a greasy paper bag containing a dead chipmunk. When he started to eat it, the teacher said he couldn't because chipmunks eat peanuts and the school was peanut-free. Now he was sad, embarrassed and hungry.
In the afternoon, some skin fell of his face right in front of everybody. Some children laughed and some just looked scared. They all moved their chairs away from his. The teacher called the janitor. A grey little tear slid down what was left of Sam's cheek.
A little girl with a ponytail came over to him and said: "Don't be sad Sam." That made him feel a bit better.
When school was finally over and Sam started to shuffle home, the same little girl came over to him to ask if he wanted a drive home with her Daddy. She introduced him to her Daddy as "my new friend Sam." Sam stopped feeling sad and even grinned a little.
When her Daddy asked him where to drop him off. Sam pointed at the first house he saw. He didn't want the little girl to know that he stayed in the cemetery.
The Daddy waited to see that Sam got into his house safely. It wasn't his house but he pretended it was and tried to open the door. It was locked. The Daddy said that Sam should come back to their house until his parents got home. He did.
The little girl and Sam sat in her kitchen. The Daddy gave them each a glass of milk and a cookie. They ate in silence. Sam hated cookies and the milk was gross, but he pretended to like it.
When the little girl went to the bathroom, Sam reached into her family's fish bowl sitting on the counter and ate one of the goldfish. The Daddy saw him do it and sent him home. Sam wanted to say: "Sorry about the fish and thank you for being so nice", but all that came out was "URRRGGGHHH!"
It was a horrible day.
The End.
Moral of the story: The little girl made a new friend on the first day of school. She invited him home and left him alone with her Daddy for just a minute. When she got back, her Daddy had sent him home and didn't say why. She thought he was jerk. But he wasn't a jerk. He was a nice guy who made a good decision and then spared his daughter having to know why he made that decision. What was this zombie kid going to eat next? The cat? The girl? His daughter was mad at him for the rest of the night but that was okay because she was safe. Sometimes Daddies do things that seem bad but are actually good. Cut them some slack.
