First Match Jitters

Maya stared at the fluorescent green court, her heart doing that weird fluttery thing — like a trapped moth — that always happened before something huge. This was it. Her first padel match with the popular crowd.

"You got this, May," Liam said, bumping her shoulder with his. He'd somehow talked her into joining his weekend league, and now she was standing there in a borrowed skirt, holding a racquet that felt totally alien.

She was overthinking everything. Like always. What if she embarrassed herself? What if they realized she was a fraud who'd only watched YouTube tutorials?

The cable guy from the apartment complex walked past the court's viewing area, and Maya's brain flashed back to yesterday — her dad cursing at the TV, her little sister Moonbeam wailing because Bluey wouldn't load, and Maya frantically Googling "how to fix internet" while dodging their orange tabby Cat, who'd decided that exact moment to hack up a hairball on the router.

Her life was a mess.

"Earth to Maya!" Liam waved his racquet in her face. "You spacing on me again?"

"Sorry! Just... thinking."

"About how you're gonna crush this?" He winked, and she felt that annoying flutter in her chest again.

The first point happened in a blur. Her partner Luna smashed the ball, Maya scrambled to return it, and somehow — miraculously — they won the point. Luna high-fived her so hard her palm stung, and for the first time all day, Maya's shoulders dropped.

She wasn't thinking about the cable bill or her cat's projectile vomiting or her geometry test she'd definitely bombed. She was just there, in it, sweat dripping down her back, laughing when Luna barely missed a shot and screamed "MY BAD" dramatically at the sky.

By the third game, Maya's arms burned but she felt electric. Real. Like she wasn't just watching everyone else live their lives from the sidelines anymore.

"You're actually fire at this," Liam said afterward, as they all sat on the bench sharing lukewarm Gatorade.

Maya laughed. "I literally tripped over my own feet twice."

"Details." He grinned. "Same time next weekend?"

"Yeah," she said, and for once, she didn't overthink it. "Yeah, same time."