Orange Slice on the Sidelines
I sat on the bleachers like a total loser, watching them play padel like they'd been born with racquets glued to their hands. My parents were forcing me into these "social integra...
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I sat on the bleachers like a total loser, watching them play padel like they'd been born with racquets glued to their hands. My parents were forcing me into these "social integra...
The orange peels stuck to Maya's sweaty palms like a second skin. Cross country practice had ended twenty minutes ago, but she was still running laps around the empty track, her sn...
Maya's hair was supposed to be caramel highlights. Instead, it emerged from the salon looking like a failed science experiment — patchy orange strips against her dark brown curls, ...
The August heat wrapped around Maya like a suffocating blanket. She adjusted her bikini strap for the third time, hyper-aware of everyone at Jen's pool party. The water sparkled wi...
Jordan slid the vape across the cafeteria table like it was contraband. Which, technically, it was. "Dude, it's a pyramid scheme," I said, pushing it back. "For candles." "It's n...
Maya pressed her back against the cafeteria wall, phone clutched like a weapon in her sweating palm. Her best friend Sarah's text burned bright on screen: "Find out if Tyler likes ...
The power cut out at exactly 11:47 PM — right as Maya was about to send That Text to Jason. "No, no, NO." Maya groaned, flopping backward onto her beanbag chair. "The universe is ...
I felt like a **zombie**. Actually, zombies had more life in them. At least they stumbled around with purpose—brains, fresh flesh, the whole zombie apocalypse routine. Me? I was ju...
Maya's phone buzzed with a text that made her stomach drop. *Group chat: Jason said what about ME???* She stared at the coaxial **cable** snaking across her bedroom floor—her life...
Maya's iPhone buzzed against her thigh, twelve notifications lighting up the screen like tiny fireflies. She didn't look. Couldn't look. She was running. Her sneakers slapped the...
The pool glittered like liquid diamond under the July sun, but my stomach twisted like a wet towel. Another pool party where I didn't belong. I clutched my iphone like a lifeline,...
My hair was supposed to be copper highlights. Instead, it came out orange. Like, traffic cone orange. I spent twenty minutes hyperventilating in the bathroom before Mia's party, de...