Bear with Me

The rec center's padel courts were my summer sanctuary, which was exactly how I ended up in this situation. Maya was across the net, looking unfairly good in her oversized hoodie, while I was sweating through everything.

"You're staring again," she called, hitting the ball straight at my head. I dodged like my life depended on it.

"Am not. Just strategizing."

The social pyramid at Jefferson High had been brutal since freshman year – invisible enough to be safe, visible enough to be lonely. But this summer, with Maya and our weird little padel routine, I felt like I was finally running toward something real.

Then my phone flew out of my pocket during a particularly embarrassing dodge, sliding under the fence into the woods behind the rec center.

"I'll get it," Maya said.

"No way. Those woods are creepy."

"What, scared of the big bad wolf?" Fine. I'd go, because that's what you do when you're fifteen and crushing hard – you do stupid things.

The woods were darker than expected, the air thick with something sweet. Papaya? Weird. I found my phone near a stream –

– and heard something behind me. Something big. Something that breathed like a bellows.

I turned slowly. Standing ten feet away, munching on someone's discarded papaya, was a black bear. A legit bear, looking at me like *I* was the intruder.

I did the mature thing. I stood there, shaking, and whispered, "Hey big guy. Just passing through. No papaya here, just awkward teenager energy."

The bear stared, made a judgmental huff, and ambled away.

Maya burst through the bushes. "Dude, are you – OH."

We didn't move for a minute. Then she started laughing, the relief-fueled kind that makes your stomach hurt. "We almost died."

"Technically he was eating papaya. Maybe he's vegan."

"You're an idiot." Then she was hugging me, and everything else didn't matter because I'd survived a bear encounter with the coolest girl I knew.

Walking back, shoulders touching, Maya said, "You handled that. You stayed calm. That was kind of badass."

"I was terrified."

"Me too." She squeezed my hand. "Bear with me?"

I laughed. "Did you just –"

"Shut up, I've been saving that all summer."