First Serve

Maya stood outside the padel court, her heart doing that weird fluttery thing that happened whenever she saw anyone from the popular crowd. Inside, laughter echoed against the glass walls. She clutched her racquet like a lifeline.

"You got this," she whispered, then immediately felt stupid. Who talks to themselves?

Her mom had pressed those gummy vitamins into her hand that morning—"B-complex for energy, sweetie, you have that big day ahead"—as if vitamins could fix social anxiety. Maya had taken them anyway, desperate for anything.

Mittens, her cat, had watched from the windowsill with those judging yellow eyes. Cats just know when you're being pathetic.

Now, standing outside the court, Maya realized her phone was at 2%. She reached for her charging cable, but the connector was bent, the wires exposed where her little brother had chewed it. Great. No playlist. No safety net.

"Hey, you coming in or what?" It was Sofia, the girl with the perfect hair who sat at the cool lunch table.

Maya's face burned. "Yeah. Just, um, my cable broke."

Sofia laughed, but not meanly. "Dude, I have like three in my bag. I'm basically a mobile charging station at this point."

Inside, something shifted. They played padel—terribly, both of them—and Sofia made jokes about how they were definitely going pro. They sat on the bench afterward, Maya's phone charging from Sofia's cable, and talked about everything and nothing.

Later, Mittens greeted her at the door with a slow blink. Maybe the vitamins hadn't fixed her, but maybe she didn't need fixing after all. She texted Sofia: "Same time tomorrow?"

The reply came instantly: "Absolutely." Maya smiled, already looking forward to it.