Girls Save the World in This One - Ash Parsons Page 0,26

She gets queasy about blood, and it does feel weird staring so we ease past the girl and start down the next aisle.

After we get a little farther Imani turns and points at a table. A framed picture stands on a wire rack. In the picture, an anime character rocks back with a shooting nosebleed. It’s an image I’ve seen before in anime and manga to show something like how that character’s mind is being blown by the beauty of another person.

“I know who that girl just met,” Imani says. “James Cooper.”

8

Autograph Alley, where the B and C movie stars will sign for most of the day, is at the edge of the exhibit hall. The alley is opposite a wall of windows. They’re not as big as the ones in the atrium, and they are tinted more, but they still let in enough light to break up the fluorescent glare.

I realize my eyes are actually tired when I look at the windows. James Cooper’s indoor sunglasses make more sense now.

We stop at a vending machine tucked in the corner for some drinks and then walk to a cluster of upholstered chairs set against the windows.

Imani flops into a chair.

“How am I so tired already?”

“’Cause you got up at five a.m.?” Siggy asks.

“Lightweights,” I tease them.

“Isn’t your next stop just right there?” Imani asks, pointing down the Alley. An unbroken line of tables covered in black tablecloths face the windows. Celebrities stand behind the tables, talking in pairs or small groups, or interacting with fans. Every four or five feet a different ZombieCon! banner hangs against the curtain wall behind the tables, showing who the celebrities are and what they are famous for, in horror specifically, in case you didn’t already know.

“Yeah. She’s gonna be down there somewhere,” I say, but I don’t try to pick her out of the motley assortment of people standing or sitting behind the tables. For one, that doesn’t really feel like the right way to see one of your faves for the first time, just squinting at a legend from a cushy chair, for God’s sake. For another, I’d rather just not anticipate her until I’m standing right there.

Janet O’Shea, scream queen extraordinaire, Mother of Zombies, and one of the original stars of the first, most iconic zombie movie of all time, and also the first zombie movie I ever saw: Fight the Dead.

She’s here!

Siggy flops into the chair next to Imani. “Why don’t you go get her autograph, and we’ll wait here.” She twists off the cap of her bottle.

“Good idea,” Imani says. “I’m gonna send Tish a picture of her crown. She’s going to love me forever. What should I ask for in return?”

“Less photo shoots?” Siggy offers, but we all know that Imani actually treasures their sister time together, helping Tishala get just the right image.

“Maybe she’ll have to clean our bathroom for a month?” Imani says.

“Bingo,” I say.

“Where is Tishala, anyway?” Siggy asks Imani. “She didn’t try to tag along with you at the last minute?”

Imani smiles. “Nope! Mom had my back. She offered to take Tish out on a ‘girls’ day.’ Lunch and pedicures.”

“Oh, that’s sounds nice!” Siggy smiles brightly.

Imani snorts. “Well, Tish turned it into a craft store spree instead of a pedicure, and driving around looking for new locations to take pictures rather than lunch.”

“I’m guessing your mom doesn’t really mind,” I say, and Imani smiles and shakes her head.

“That girl is a mess,” she says fondly.

“Go on, June,” Siggy says to me. “We’ll stay here and I can check in with Mark. Win-win.”

I would feel braver if my friends came with me, though.

“Go ahead,” Siggy says, smiling. “You’re going to love her.”

Which is a funny thing to say, but exactly right, because I already do love her. Even though her character is mostly the quintessential helpless-girl, and even though she doesn’t make it through the zombie apocalypse (none of them do, that’s the way it goes), she at least makes it through