Double Feature: Attack of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies/Bride of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies (The Russel Middlebrook Series Book 3) by Brent Hartinger Page A

talking about which was the world's best amusement park ride.
    "Oh, Tower of Terror!" Gunnar said. "At Disney World. No contest. There are higher drop rides, but none of them have Tower of Terror's atmosphere."
    "I like the Haunted Mansion," Em said.
    "Oh, yes," said Min. "That's a classic."
    "It doesn't have as many of those cheesy animatronic robots, like Pirates of the Caribbean," Em said. "So it seems less dated. Plus it has a better sense of humor."
    "But you've got to love those fireflies on Pirates of the Caribbean," Min said.
    "Indiana Jones is good," said Otto, playing footsie with me under the table. "I used to like those simulator rides, like Body War or Star Tours. But they just don't hold up. You ride 'em once, and then it just feels like you're being jerked around in the back of a truck."
    "There's this ride called Poseidon's Fury?" said Gunnar's cousin Myron. "At Islands of Adventure in Orlando. You go into this temple, then down into the city of Atlantis. And at the end, they turn this huge room into a tiny room really, really fast! It is so cool!"
    "Tower of Terror!" Gunnar repeated. "It's clearly the best! I can't believe you guys can't see that."
    Weirdly, this talk of amusement park rides was depressing me. I wasn't sure why, because ordinarily I loved amusement park rides. I reached for the relish tray, but the baby corn was all gone, and that made me sad too.
    Next we talked about gay teen movies.
    "They all suck," Otto said.
    "Except for Beautiful Thing ," Em added.
    And that was pretty much all we had to say on that topic!
    Finally, we even had sort of a Thanksgiving-esque conversation about everything that had happened to all of us lately, and what we were grateful for.
    "It's been an amazing year," Min said reflectively. "Think about it all. This time last year, we hadn't even started the Geography Club."
    "And I hadn't met Em," Gunnar said, smiling at her.
    "And I hadn't met Russel," said Otto.
    "You'll meet someone too," I said to Min, worried she might feel left out not having someone in her life.
    "Uh-huh," she said, taking a big drink of her ice water.
    Suddenly Gunnar said, "I don't want this to end."
    Em looked around the tabletop. "Too late," she said drolly. She was right. Like six Very Hungry Caterpillars, we'd chomped our way through every little morsel of food. The turkey, of course, had been picked completely clean.
    "I don't mean dinner," Gunnar said. "I mean this." He nodded around the table. "Us. I really like things the way they are right now. I don't want to just graduate from college, get a job, and buy a house in the suburbs." He glanced out toward the dining room. The conversation of the adults sounded like an otherworldly moan. Gunnar softened his voice. "I look at my parents' lives, at how boring they are. They don't have friends—they have dinner party guests! I don't want to ever be like them. Do you think we have to?"
    "No!" said Myron. We all looked at him. "We can have whatever lives we want. If people have boring lives, it's because they choose to have boring lives. If their friends are stupid, it's because they choose stupid friends. We don't have to end up like our parents. We don't ."
    Myron was only eleven years old, but he was surprisingly precocious. No one could have said it better.
    And it was right then that I realized why I was suddenly feeling so sad. It wasn't the conversation we'd been having, not even this latest, serious part about growing up and turning boring. It was because right then, at that table at least, my life was perfect. I had told Declan McDonnell the truth about high school—that I hated it. But that was just the school part. The rest of my life was pretty amazing. And right then, I was with a guy I loved and who loved me, and friends I loved and who loved me too. Like that night on the lake in the rowboat with Otto, life at that moment was absolutely perfect.
    But it wasn't going to stay perfect for long. For one thing, I'd have to go home