Electric Dead

The community pool smelled like chlorine and teenage desperation. Maya dragged herself through the water, feeling like a total zombie after pulling an all-nighter to finish her AP History paper. Her arms moved on autopilot, lap after lap, while her brain floated somewhere between exhaustion and anxiety.

"Maya! Wait up!"

She groaned internally. It was Jason—the cute lifeguard who'd been giving her heart palpitations since June. She treaded water, trying to look casual instead of like a dead person walking.

"Pool closes in ten," Jason called from the edge. "Storm's coming in."

And then it happened—CRACK. Lightning split the sky, purple and terrifying, illuminating everything in a strobe-light flash. For a second, Maya saw Jason's face perfectly, saw something in his expression that made her stomach flip.

Everyone screamed and scrambled for the locker rooms. Maya grabbed her towel, but something made her pause. Jason was still there, standing near the diving board, looking at her.

"You coming?" he asked, as rain started pelting down.

"Yeah," she said, but she didn't move. Neither did he.

The rain poured harder. The lightning flashed again, closer this time. And suddenly they were both running—not toward shelter, but toward the pool's covered picnic area, laughing like idiots, soaked to the bone, electrified by the storm and each other.

"I've been wanting to talk to you all summer," Jason said, breathless. "You always seem so... I don't know. Present."

Maya almost laughed. Her? Present? She'd been a zombie for months, drowning in grades and expectations and that constant feeling that she was somehow doing everything wrong.

"I'm actually pretty good at faking it," she said.

Jason smiled, and in that moment, Maya didn't feel like a zombie anymore. She felt awake. She felt seen. The lightning flashed one more time, and neither of them looked away.