Bear Mode On

Leo stared at his cracked iPhone 12, thumb hovering over Maya's Instagram story. She'd posted something five minutes ago—a golden retriever at the beach. He'd been crushing on her since September, and his entire personality had become about casually liking her posts at exactly the right time.

"You coming?" Connor yelled from the driveway. "Padel with Maya and Chloe, remember?"

Leo's stomach did a full rotation. Padel. Of course Connor had invited the one girl Leo couldn't form complete sentences around. His neighbor's massive Great Dane, Buster, chose that moment to squeeze through the fence gap and tackle him.

"Buster, no—" Leo faceplanted into the grass, phone flying. "My life is actually a tragedy."

"Bro, you good?" Connor was losing it. "That dog just ended you."

They arrived at the padel courts, and Leo was still picking grass out of his hair. Maya was already there, stretching in those oversized athletic shorts that everyone was wearing. She smiled at him, and his brain short-circuited.

"What happened to you?" she asked.

"Bear attack," Leo said automatically, then wanted to evaporate. "I mean, my neighbor's dog. Buster. He's basically a bear."

Maya laughed, and it was the best sound he'd ever heard. "I love bears. They're my favorite animal."

"Same," Leo lied smoothly. "Total bear stan."

The game was a disaster. Leo missed every ball, but Maya kept giggling at his terrible serves, and he was pretty sure she was making fun of him but also maybe not? During a water break, his phone buzzed in his pocket—his mom had found his iPhone in the yard. The screen was shattered.

"That's rough," Maya said, leaning closer. Her shoulder brushed his arm, and his heart rate skyrocketed to concerning levels. "But hey, at least you've got a valid excuse now. You can tell everyone you fought a bear."

"Bear mode activated," Leo said, trying to play it cool while internally screaming. He looked at her—really looked at her—and realized he didn't need to be anyone else. This weird, clumsy version of himself? She seemed to like him anyway.

"Wanna get boba after?" Maya asked. "Unless you have to go fight more bears."

Leo grinned. "Bears can wait."

His phone was broken, Connor was making fun of him, and Buster had probably destroyed something else by now. But standing there on the padel court, with Maya smiling at him like that, Leo figured life couldn't actually be that bad.