Canonball into the Deep End

Maya stood at the edge of the **pool**, clutching her towel like a security blanket. The graduation party was in full swing—Spotify playlist bumping, seniors showing off their college merch, and Jason, her crush since seventh grade, actually looking in her direction for once.

"You gonna stand there all night or actually get in?" Chloe called out, already doing laps with perfect form. Chloe, who'd made varsity swim team as a freshman. Chloe, who probably didn't understand paralyzing social anxiety.

"Just warming up," Maya lied, knowing full well she'd been "warming up" for twenty minutes.

The **water** sparkled under string lights, deceptively inviting. But Maya's brain was already spinning through worst-case scenarios: slipping on the wet deck, doing an accidental belly flop, somehow forgetting how to swim despite lessons every summer since kindergarten. It was giving major overthinking energy.

"That's **bull**, Maya." Jason appeared beside her, drying his hair with one hand. "You're literally the fastest person on the track team. Since when are you scared of a little water?"

She shrugged, grateful he couldn't hear her heart practically beating out of her chest. "Track's different. There's solid ground underneath."

"So?" He grinned. "I'll race you to the other side. Unless you're scared I'll dust you."

"Please." Maya rolled her eyes but dropped her towel. "You wish."

She cannonballed in.

The shock of cold water cleared everything else away—no overthinking, no anxiety, just pure motion. She surfaced to find Jason already halfway across, definitely cheating with a head start.

"Oh you're going down!" she yelled, cutting through the water with everything she had.

She beat him by a full body length, surfacing to applause from half the party. Jason pulled himself up on the deck, laughing and splashing water everywhere.

"Okay, okay, you win," he said, holding up his hands in mock surrender. "Remind me to never challenge a track star to anything athletic ever again."

Maya floated on her back, staring up at the stars visible between the party lights. Something in her chest loosened. Whatever happened next—college, friendships, the terrifying uncertainty of adulthood—she'd figure it out. Same way she'd figured this out.

One dive at a time.