First Crush on the Court

Jake shoved the last **baseball** glove into his gym bag, his heart pounding like crazy. Tryouts for varsity were tomorrow, and everyone knew Coach Reynolds only picked players who didn't choke under pressure. The problem was, Jake choked a lot.

"Yo, Jake!" Marcus called from across the locker room. "You coming to the **padel** courts later? Mia's gonna be there."

Padel. The sport all the cool kids played now. Jake had never even held a **padel** racket, but Mia—the girl he'd been lowkey crushing on since September—played every Saturday.

"Yeah, maybe," Jake lied, adjusting his backpack. His mom had started him on these nasty **vitamin** gummies that morning, claiming they'd help with "stress and focus." Right. Like fruit-flavored gelatin could fix his entire life.

The courts behind school were packed. Jake spotted Mia immediately—laughing with her friends, her ponytail swinging, her palm-sized phone in one hand. She looked effortless. Jake felt like a fraud standing there in his worn-out sneakers.

"Jake!" Mia waved him over. "You play?"

"Uh, yeah," he squeaked. "Totally."

She handed him a racket. "Show us what you got."

Jake's first swing hit the fence. His second went straight into the net. The third ricocheted off his own knee. Everyone tried not to laugh. They failed.

But then something weird happened. A rust-orange **fox** darted out from behind the storage shed, causing everyone to freeze. The fox sat on its haunches, watching them like it was judging their entire existence.

"No way," Mia whispered.

Jake stepped forward, forgetting his embarrassment for a second. The fox tilted its head, then trotted over and nudged Jake's sneaker with its nose.

"Dude," Marcus breathed. "That fox chose YOU."

Mia grinned. "Okay, that's actually kind of legendary."

Jake felt something shift inside him. Maybe being the guy who couldn't play padel wasn't the end of the world. Maybe being the guy the random campus fox liked was way cooler.

"Wanna teach me?" Jake asked Mia, gesturing at the court. "For real this time."

She smiled. "Yeah. I'd like that."

Later that night, Jake texted his mom: "Thanks for the vitamins. They actually worked."