Courtside Confidence

Maya's lucky **hat** sat crooked on her head, the brim bent from two years of nervous adjustments. It was her armor against the world—or at least against the humiliation that was definitely coming.

"You coming?" Tyler called from the **padel** court, spinning his racquet like he owned the place. Of course he did. Tyler owned everything, including Maya's complete attention span whenever he walked into a room.

"Just—adjusting my **vitamin** regimen," she lied, fumbling with her water bottle like it contained actual supplements instead of just nervous energy and maybe a little bit of hope. Her dad had packed her a multivitamin that morning, told her "nutrition is confidence," which was honestly the most dad thing to say ever.

The court was hotter than she'd expected. The other guys from Tyler's squad were already warming up, laughing inside jokes that didn't include her. Maya's heart was already **running** a marathon, and she hadn't even stepped onto the court yet.

"So," Tyler said, bouncing on his heels. "You ever play before, or..."

"Or what?" Maya challenged, pulling her hat lower. "Or I'm just here to aesthetic?"

That made him laugh. Actually laugh.

"Fair." He tossed her a racquet. "Show me what you got, then."

The first serve hit her racket with a comical clunk. The ball dribbled somewhere near her feet. Tyler's friends went quiet, and Maya felt her face heating up like she'd stuck it in an oven.

"Okay," she said, adjusting her hat until it nearly covered her eyes. "Okay, that was—that was a warm-up. That was literally just testing the equipment."

"Sure it was," Tyler said, but he was smiling. "Again."

By the third attempt, Maya's arms stopped shaking enough to actually return the ball. By the tenth, she was diving for shots she had no business reaching, sneakers squealing against the court, heart pounding from something that wasn't panic anymore. By the twentieth point, when she smashed a winner past Tyler's outstretched arm, the guys were cheering like she'd just won the Olympics.

"What did you put in that water bottle?" Tyler asked, genuinely impressed. "Actual magic?"

Maya adjusted her hat, grinning so hard her face hurt. "Vitamins," she said. "My dad said they'd make me unstoppable."

Later, as they sat on the bench sharing Tyler's snacks, Maya realized something: she'd spent the whole day **running** from the idea of embarrassing herself, but the embarrassment had never actually come. Maybe the confidence wasn't in the hat or the vitamins or any of it.

Or maybe it was just that Tyler had the cutest laugh she'd ever heard, and sometimes that was enough.