Electric Blue

Maya stood at the edge of the pool, clutching her swim cap like it was some kind of armor. The end-of-summer party raged around her — music thumping, seniors doing cannonballs, Jason Chen's laugh cutting through everything like he owned the universe.

"Yo Maya, you coming in or what?" Kelsey called from the water, grinning with that perfect effortless confidence Maya had been trying to fake since seventh grade.

"Yeah, just," Maya started, but her brain went full zombie mode. Dead inside. Thoughts wobbling like expired Jell-O. Why was this so hard? She'd been swimming competitively since forever, but something about standing there in her two-piece while everyone looked felt suddenly impossible.

Then the sky tore open.

Lightning cracked across the horizon, electric veins stitching through purple-gray clouds. Everyone screamed and scattered — sudden chaos, towels flying, people grabbing their phones.

Maya's straw hat, the one she'd spent forty-five minutes positioning just right, caught a gust and went skipping across the pool deck. Straight toward Jason.

He caught it, mid-laugh, water dripping from his hair, and their eyes locked. Something in her chest did this stupid little flip thing.

"Nice save," she managed, and wow, her voice actually sounded normal. Not like she was dying inside.

"Nice hat," he shot back, grinning. "Was gonna make a run for it anyway. This storm's about to go full apocalyptic."

They ended up on the covered porch together as rain started sheeting down, watching the lightning fork through the sky, talking about nothing and everything. His knee kept bumping hers accidentally. Maya's pulse kept doing that stupid little skip.

Maybe swimming at this party wasn't the point anyway.

"Hey," Jason said as the storm started to break. "You doing anything tomorrow? There's this zombie movie marathon at the Riverdale. Kinda lame, but..."

Maya smiled, actually smiled. "I think I might be into lame."