Diving Blind

The chlorine stung my eyes as I slid underwater, holding my breath until my lungs burned. Surfacing, I wiped my face and spotted Jayden laughing by the snack table with his perfect hair still somehow dry. I'd been spying on him from behind this potted plant for twenty minutes like a total creeper, which was pathetic even for me.

"You good down there?" Maya called, cannonballing into the **water** beside me. She was the only person who actually talked to me at this thing, mostly because I'd been assigned as her lab partner and she felt bad.

"Just vibing," I lied, treading water like my life depended on it. In reality, I felt like a **zombie** from pulling an all-nighter finishing that stupid English essay. My brain was barely functioning, and now I was at a pool party pretending to be social.

Maya snorted. "You look like you're about to pass out. Also, Jayden keeps looking over here, so maybe your creepy spy routine is working."

I felt my face burn hotter than the sun blazing down on us. "That's such **bull**."

"Is not! I saw him!"

But before I could process that information, Tyler Davidson—captain of the swim team and overall human Golden Retriever—decided to demonstrate his new **bull**-riding technique on the pool floatie. Naturally, the inflatable immediately bucked him off, and he crashed into the water right next to us, creating a wave that sent me spluttering toward the edge.

"My bad!" Tyler yelled, surfacing with a grin. "Trying to channel my inner rodeo star."

Maya was dying laughing. I couldn't help it—I cracked up too. And that was when Jayden actually swam over.

"Hey," he said, looking at me with those stupidly perfect dark eyes. "You're in my Bio class, right?"

I choked on nothing. "Yeah. I sit behind you."

"Cool." He treaded water for a second, like he was working up to something. "You coming to the game Friday? Everyone's going after."

"Maybe?"

"Definitely come." His smile was genuine. "It's way better than watching Tyler attempt extreme sports."

I floated there, stunned, as Maya silently freak out beside me, doing excited little splashes. Maybe freshman year wasn't going to be completely terrible after all. Sometimes you just had to dive in blindly and trust you wouldn't drown.