Electric Poolside

Maya's hair frizzed in the humidity, exactly as she'd feared it would. The pool party of the season—Chloe's annual kickoff to summer—and she was already spiraling.

"Dude, you good?" Jordan asked, splashing water from the pool.

"Yeah, just... my hair's doing its own thing today."

"It looks fine, you're overthinking it again."

Jordan was right. Maya was always overthinking everything—her curls, her outfit, whether she should even be here. She pulled out her iPhone, thumb hovering over Chloe's Instagram story. Everyone looked perfect in the photos, all golden skin and effortless vibes.

Then Alex emerged from the pool, water streaming down dark skin, that unreadable expression on his face like a modern-day sphinx. Maya's stomach did that annoying flutter thing. She'd been crushing on him since AP Bio, when they'd paired up for that frog dissection and he'd made her laugh so hard she'd almost dropped a lung.

Now he was walking toward her.

"Hey," Alex said. "You're not swimming?"

"Not feeling it today."

"Cool." He sat on the lounge chair next to hers, close enough that their arms almost touched. Maya's heart accelerated like it'd forgotten how to function.

The sky darkened. Thunder rumbled.

"We should probably go inside," Alex said, like he was reading a script instead of just being a normal human.

Then came the lightning—a flash so bright everything went white for a split second. Rain started pouring down, instantly flattening Maya's curls against her forehead. She looked ridiculous. She knew it.

Alex laughed. "Okay, that's legendary timing."

Maya looked at him. Really looked. His hair was plastered to his forehead. He had a piece of pool noodle stuck to his shoulder. He looked ridiculous too.

"You have something..." Maya reached out and pulled the noodle off his shirt.

"Thanks. I'm embracing the drowned rat aesthetic today, obviously."

They laughed together, running through the downpour toward Chloe's house, Jordan already livestreaming the chaos on someone's phone.

By the time they reached the covered porch, Maya's hair was a disaster, her makeup was gone, and she was laughing so hard her sides hurt.

Alex's phone buzzed. He looked at it, then back at her. The sphinx expression was gone, replaced by something else. Something softer.

"Hey," he said. "Next time, you should actually get in the pool."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I'll save you a seat."

Maya's curls dripped onto her shoulders. Her iPhone was dead from the humidity. Chloe would probably post about the storm being "literally so cinematic" in five minutes.

But right now, Maya didn't care about any of that. She grinned, rain still falling around them, feeling like maybe—just maybe—she could stop overthinking everything and actually start living.