Courtside Confidential

Maya's new iPhone 15 felt heavy in her sweaty palm as she crouched behind the padded bench at the country club. Her dad had scored her a summer job working the snack bar near the padel courts, which mostly meant flirting with the rich kids and pretending to know what padel even was.

It was like tennis-meets-squash, apparently, and everyone at St. Jude's Academy was obsessed.

That's when she saw him: Liam, the junior who sat behind her in AP History, laughing with his friends on Court 3. He looked different without his hoodie—sleeveless, sweat glistening on his arms, moving with this easy confidence that made Maya's stomach do backflips.

Her fingers hovered over Instagram. She'd been lowkey stalking his profile for weeks, harmless, right? Just... appreciating from afar. But when he pulled his phone from his bag between sets, Maya froze. He opened someone's DM. Her DM. From the fake account she'd made just to see if he'd reply to random cool girls.

He was showing it to his friends, laughing.

Maya's face burned. She felt gross, like a total creep. Before she could think, she bolted toward the pool area, needing escape.

"Hey!" someone called behind her.

She kept running, right into the gated pool fence. But the latch was stuck from last night's rain, and she slammed against it, her iPhone flying from her hand and—SPLASH—into the deep end.

Perfect. Absolutely perfect.

"You okay?"

Liam. Standing there, still in his padel clothes, looking concerned.

"Yeah," Maya squeaked. "Just... my phone."

"That sucks." He grinned. "I'm Liam, by the way."

"Maya. I work at the snack bar."

"The girl who always gives me extra Gatorade?" He raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were cool, but you're basically my favorite person now."

Her heart did something illegal.

"About... earlier," he said, rubbing his neck. "With my friends? We were laughing because someone made a fake account trying to catfish me, which is honestly kind of impressive? I mean, whoever did it clearly did their research."

He smiled at her like he knew.

"Oh," Maya managed. "That's... weird."

"Yeah. Weird." He stepped closer. "But I figured I'd introduce myself for real. Just in case."

The pool guy fished out her waterlogged iPhone. It was dead. But maybe, just maybe, Maya wasn't.