Breathing Underwater

Maya's **hair** plastered against her forehead like seaweed, chlorine burning her eyes. Again.

"You're overthinking it," Chloe said, flopping onto the pool deck beside her. "Just swim, you know?"

Easy for Chloe to say. Chloe wasn't the one who'd transferred mid-semester and accidentally let it slip that she'd been state champion at her old school. Now everyone expected.

"I can't," Maya muttered, checking her phone. Third notification from Jake: *you coming to the party tonight?*

Her **palm**s were already sweating, and she wasn't even at the party yet. Social situations felt like swimming laps without knowing how many — exhausting, endless, everyone watching.

The truth? She'd lied about being state champion. She'd barely placed at regionals. But in a new school, in a new state where her mom had dragged them after the divorce, Maya had wanted to be someone. Anyone other than the girl whose dad left.

"You're **running** those negative laps again," Chloe said, poking her arm. "I can literally see your brain spiraling."

Maya laughed despite herself. Chloe was like that — somehow seeing right through people's waterproof exteriors.

"What if I drown?" Maya whispered. "Like, metaphorically. What if everyone finds out I'm a fraud and I sink?"

Chloe sat up, suddenly serious. "Here's the thing about **swimming** — you don't have to be the fastest. You just have to keep moving forward. Even when your lungs burn. Even when you're tired. Even when you're scared you'll hit the wall too soon."

She shrugged. "Also, Jake's been asking about you since you walked into homeroom. So maybe work on the party panic first?"

Maya's phone buzzed again. *forget the party. pool's open late. want to swim?*

Maybe some people saw you even when you were trying your hardest to stay invisible.

"Yeah," Maya texted back, heart pounding like it does right before you dive in — that terrible, beautiful moment between air and water. "I'd love that."

Her hair was still wet. Her palms were still sweaty. But for the first time in months, Maya thought she might finally breathe again.