up,â said Justin.
âGo ahead,â said Gabe. âItâs your room.â
Justin mopped up more sweat. âOkay. So. Um. Yeah. I wanted to be fully committed to the project, and now I am. If we fail, none of us will have a girlfriend until we move to a new town, so this is exactly what we wanted, right?â
âIâm not sure it is,â said Gabe.
Justin said, âWe have twenty-eight days to shoot this movie. Twenty-seven if you donât count today. But weâll count today, so twenty-eight. Lots of people have made movies in twenty-eight days. Itâll be fun.â
âIâm in,â said Gabe. âCompletely in. I want to make that clear because Iâm about to say a bunch of negative things.â
âAll right. Letâs hear them.â
Gabe stood up and walked over to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers calendar that was on the wall. Justin didnât like football or any other sports. But his dad had bought him the calendar, and displaying it was a small price to pay to make Dad happy.
âWe have twenty-eight days before I leave,â said Gabe. âBut only three weekends, if you donât count this weekend.â
âLetâs count this weekend.â
âFine. Three and a half weekends. So technically we only have seven full days. Weâre not skipping school to make this movie.â
âI never would have suggested such a thing,â said Justin.
âThat doesnât count work. I donât know my schedule yet, but Iâll probably have to work two or three of those seven days. Bobby works Tuesdays and Thursdays. You work Thursdays and Saturdays. What are we going to do about that?â
âIâve thought about that,â said Justin, even though he really hadnât, âand I figured we could call in sick.â
âFor a full month?â
âNot every day of the month necessarily.â
âWhat happens when they find out we were making a movie?â
âThen theyâll know it was a noble cause.â
âNo way will my mom let me call in sick,â said Bobby.
âDoes she have to know about it?â
âIf weâre trying to make a giant epic spectacle, then yeah, the news will probably get back to her.â
âAnd also youâre forgetting one big thing,â said Gabe.
âWhat?â
âFinals week.â
âOkay. Yes, thatâs a pretty big thing. Weâll work around it.â
âWe have to study.â
âI know. Iâm not saying that we have to flunk our exams for our art. Weâll figure it out.â
Justin went over to the easel, turned over a new page on the pad, and wrote Things to Worry about Later at the top. Under that, he wrote Schedule .
âWhat about money?â Gabe asked.
Justin wrote Money underneath Schedule .
Gabe shook his head. âAs the producer, I say we stress about money now.â
âWeâre going to keep this cost-effective. Weâve already got the camera. Cast and crew will work for a screen credit obviously. Weâll use locations that we can get for free like the school. We take it for granted, but our school has tons of production value. What about product placement? If we show the Monkey Burger logo up close, they might give us free food.â
âWould they want their restaurant featured in a movie called Zombies with Flesh Stuck in Their Teeth ?â asked Bobby.
âThatâs not the name of the movie! That was never going to be the name of the movie! For now, letâs call it Untitled Epic Zombie Movie . Does that work for everybody?â
âIf this is just a temporary title, how about The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever ?â
âNo, that sounds egotistical.â
âUEZM isnât a very good acronym,â said Bobby.
âThen donât acronym it. Weâre getting sidetracked.â
âRight,â said Gabe. âLetâs get back to money.â
âIf