Electric Orange Summer

The **lightning** crackled across the sky, illuminating everything in that split-second way that makes ordinary things feel epic. Maya clutched her solo cup, watching the party unfold like a disaster she couldn't look away from.

"You gonna stand there all night?" Jordan appeared beside her, holding a suspiciously bright **orange** soda that matched his entirely-too-cool vintage tee. "The social **pyramid** isn't gonna climb itself, you know."

Maya rolled her hard. "Some of us aren't trying to climb anything. Also, that shade of orange on you? It's doing things to my retinas."

"That's the point, Maya." His grin was infuriatingly confident. "Visibility. You're too busy being cryptic emo girl in the corner. People think you're plotting something."

"Maybe I am."

"Maybe you're just scared." He nudged her. "Like that time at camp when you freaked out about the **bear**."

"That was an actual bear, Jordan. An actual one. It ate our trash."

"And you survived. You're basically a warrior now." He gestured toward the crowded living room where the popular kids were doing that thing where they all laughed at nothing. "This? This is just people. Way less dangerous than bears."

Maya watched them—the effortless way they moved, the inside jokes she didn't understand, the casual confidence she couldn't fake. High school was just one long exercise in feeling like everyone else had received a manual she'd missed.

"What if I go over there and it's weird?" she said quietly.

"Then it's weird." Jordan shrugged. "Then you come back here and we make fun of them for being basic. Win-win."

Another flash of **lightning** outside, closer this time. The rain started hammering the roof.

Maya took a breath. "Okay. But if I die of awkwardness, I'm haunting you forever."

"Deal." He punched her shoulder. "Go be brave, bear-slayer."

She walked toward the light, toward the noise, toward whatever happened next. And for the first time all night, she wasn't thinking about how it would look if she failed. She was just thinking: let's see what happens.