Chlorine Dreams and Curveballs

The baseball cap pulled low over my eyes wasn't enough to hide the fact that I was lowkey freaking out. Everyone at Chloe's pool party seemed to know exactly who they were supposed to be, while I stood there in my swim trunks, feeling like I'd wandered into the wrong dimension.

"Yo Jake! You gonna float or what?" Tyler called out, doing a cannonball that sent chlorine-scented water spraying everywhere. I forced a laugh, but honestly? My stomach was doing backflips.

See, the thing was, I'd finally worked up the nerve to ask Chloe to hang out after our **baseball** game yesterday. She'd mentioned she was really into **padel** now, and I'd nodded like I totally knew what that was. Spoiler: I didn't. I'd spent all night YouTube-ing padel tutorials like my life depended on it, which honestly felt kinda accurate.

Suddenly, Chloe's golden retriever, Buster, came galloping toward me with something in his mouth. A bottle. My **vitamin** supplements from my bag. NOPE.

"Buster! Drop it!" I lunged, but this dog had next-level evasion skills. He zigged, I zagged, and suddenly I'm tumbling straight into the **pool**, fully clothed, while everyone watches.

The worst part? Chloe was laughing. But not like, mean laughing. She jumped in after me, still in her cute sundress.

"Okay, that was iconic," she said, pushing wet hair out of her face. "Also, those were gummy vitamins, right? Because Buster looked way too excited about them."

And just like that, we were both underwater-laughing, chlorine in our noses, her dog proudly parading around with my stolen vitamins like they were his prize.

"So," Chloe said later, when we were sitting on the pool edge eating pizza. "You free next Saturday? My dad's padel court needs another player."

"Absolutely," I said, trying to play it cool. "I mean, I'm practically a pro."

She smirked. "Mhm. Sure you are, Baseball Boy."

Whatever. I'd take it.