Dead Tired on Deadline Day

Maya felt like a straight-up zombie as she dragged herself into third period. Two nights of crashing on AP history flashcards will do that to you. Her phone buzzed in her pocket—probably her friends roasting her for ghosting the group chat again.

"You look literally dead," whispered Jake, sliding into the seat beside her. His hair was actually combed today, which was suspicious.

"Thanks, you too," Maya shot back, managing a weak eye roll. "What's with the disguise? Hot date?"

Jake's ears turned pink. "No. I mean, maybe. I need you to be my spy."

"Excuse me?"

"At lunch. I need to know if Chloe sits at my table. Just watch her and text me the intel. I'll pay you in boba."

Maya sighed. "You realize this is peak middle school behavior, right? We're literally seventeen."

"Please. I'm desperate here."

She agreed, because honestly, free boba was boba, and besides, she'd been lowkey rooting for Jake and Chloe since homecoming. But lunch brought complications—Chloe didn't just sit at Jake's table. She sat right next to him, then spent the entire time talking about how much she loved their new track coach.

Coach Martinez, who Jake happened to hate for making them do hills every Friday.

Maya texted him the bad news. He read it, didn't reply, and spent the rest of the period staring at his tray like it held the secrets of the universe.

After school, Maya found him behind the bleachers, putting his stuff in his locker.

"Hey," she said. "You okay?"

Jake looked up. "Yeah. No. I don't know. She's all, 'Coach is so inspiring' and I'm just sitting there like, 'he literally made us puke yesterday.'"

"She'll come around," Maya said. "Or she won't. But you're not gonna find out hiding back here."

"I guess." He grabbed his track bag. "You coming to practice?"

"Nah, I've got history tutoring. But hey—next time you need relationship intel, maybe just talk to her instead of going full spy mode?"

Jake laughed. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right."

Maya watched him head toward the field, already running drills with the team. Her phone buzzed again—friends, this time. Where u at??? Party at Kai's!!

She typed back: omw, heading home to change first. And for the first time all day, her zombie-self felt almost alive again.