Catfish and Orange Hair

The pool water shimmered like liquid sapphire, but Maya's stomach was doing backflips that had nothing to do with the three slices of pizza she'd just inhaled. This was it – Tyler's legendary end-of-summer party, and she was finally going to talk to him. After three years of existing in his general orbit without saying more than "here's your homework," tonight was different. Tonight, she was wearing her lucky orange bikini – the one that made her feel like a person who did things like talk to boys at parties.\n\n"You good?" Jasmine asked, snapping her fingers in Maya's face. "You've been staring at Tyler for like, twenty minutes. It's getting creepy."\n\n"I'm fine," Maya lied, adjusting her bikini top for the fiftieth time. "Just plotting my approach. What's the move? Casual swim-by? Dramatic cannonball entrance?"\n\n"How about not overthinking it?" Jasmine suggested, pushing her toward the pool.\n\nBut before Maya could execute her highly detailed twelve-step plan, disaster struck. A calico cat – Tyler's neighbor's, apparently – darted through the party with something orange and flopping in its mouth. A goldfish. A very alive, very unfortunate goldfish that had been enjoying a peaceful existence in a bowl on the patio table approximately thirty seconds ago.\n\n"NO!" Tyler yelled, splashing out of the pool.\n\nWhat happened next was a blur. Maya, operating on pure adrenaline and zero thought, lunged for the cat as it scrambled toward the pool's edge. She managed to grab the goldfish – which the cat dropped, apparently not that into it after all – but in her momentum, she faceplanted directly onto a abandoned spinach artichoke dip plate.\n\nSilence.\n\nMaya sat up, green spinach stuck to her forehead like some kind of terrible crown, a very confused goldfish flapping in her cupped hands. Tyler stood there, shirtless, dripping pool water, staring at her.\n\n"So," he said, and Maya's heart stopped. "That's... not how I expected tonight to go, but that was kind of awesome?"\n\nHe extended a hand. "I'm Tyler. And I think your fish needs to go back in his bowl."\n\nMaya wiped spinach from her forehead, still clutching the goldfish like it was her only lifeline to sanity. "Maya. And I think I need to never show my face here again."\n\n"Nah," Tyler said, grinning. "Anyone who'll tackle a cat to save a fish? That's someone I want to know."\n\nLater that night, Maya would discover she had spinach in her teeth for approximately four hours. She'd also discover that Tyler thought her orange-streaked hair was "actually really pretty." And sometimes, she'd learn years later, the most perfect moments aren't the ones you plan – they're the ones where you're covered in dip and saving a fish from a cat while everyone watches.