Electric Blue Summer

My hair was supposed to be sun-kissed caramel. Instead, thanks to a DIY box dye disaster, it looked like I'd stuck my head in a bowl of electric blue Kool-Aid. I was freaking out—Pool Party of the Year was in two hours, and I was already on thin ice with the popular crowd since the Great Trampoline Incident of May.

The backyard was already packed when Maya dragged me through the side gate. Being the new girl meant I was permanently at the bottom of the social pyramid, but maybe—just maybe—I could fake it till I made it.

"You're literally spiraling," Maya whispered, handing me a soda. "Your hair is fine. It's... edgy."

Edgy. The word every terrified freshman wants to hear.

I spotted him immediately—Tyler, by the diving board, doing that thing where he flips his wet hair out of his eyes like he's in a slow-motion music video. Maya elbowed me. "Stop spying on him. It's creepy."

"I'm not spying, I'm observing from a tactical distance," I protested, but she was already wandering toward the snack table. Typical.

The afternoon dragged on in a blur of splashing and strategically applied SPF. I'd spent forty-five minutes hiding near the decorative pyramid of red Solo cups, pretending to be fascinated by the condensation patterns, when Tyler actually swam over.

"Hey," he said, treading water. "Nice hair."

My stomach did that thing where it forgets how to be an organ. "Thanks. It's... new."

"I like it. It's brave." He grinned. "Wanna race to the other side?"

Before I could process that Tyler—the actual Tyler—was challenging me to a swimming race, the sky opened up. One minute it was perfect pool party weather, the next: lightning forked across the sky like something out of a superhero movie. Rain started coming down in sheets while everyone screamed and scrambled for the patio cover.

We ended up squished under the same umbrella, shoulder to shoulder, both drenched and laughing.

"So," he said, still catching his breath from the dash out of the pool. "About that race."

"Rain check?" I asked, trying to sound casual while internally losing it.

"Definitely." He looked at my electric blue hair, then directly at me. "Hey, good thing you didn't blend in with everyone else. I wouldn't have found you."

The lightning flashed again, and for once, I didn't care about being at the bottom of any pyramid. Some things are way more important than fitting in.