Fox at the Pool

The chlorine from the **pool** still clung to my skin as I sat on the edge, legs dangling in the water. Summer before freshman year, and I was already the girl who watched from the sidelines.

"Hey Maya!" Jake called from the **padel** court. "You gonna join or what?"

I rolled my eyes. Jake Martinez, with his perfect smile and dimples that made every girl swoon. I'd been crushing on him since seventh grade, when he knocked my books out of my hands and helped pick them up for five whole minutes.

The padel court was where all the popular kids hung out. Too exclusive for me. But today, Lila had dragged me along.

My phone buzzed. Mom again. "Did you take your **vitamin** D? You're deficient."

Ugh. Sometimes being a teenager meant having your mom text you about vitamins while you're trying to look cool at a pool party.

Across the pool, the new kid Ethan sat alone, reading. Dark hair, intense eyes. He caught me looking and gave a small, nervous smile. Not a Jake Martinez "I know I'm hot" smile — something real.

I grabbed a slice of **papaya** from the fruit tray. Who brought papaya to a pool party? Probably Ethan's family.

"Ethan," I said, trying to sound casual. "Is this your papaya?"

"Yeah," he said. "My mom's obsessed with exotic fruits."

I laughed, and he laughed too. The papaya wasn't weird anymore.

"So," he said, nodding toward the court. "You play?"

"Nope. You?"

"No." He stood up. "But we could figure it out together?"

Suddenly I was on the padel court with Ethan, both of us terrible at it, laughing when we missed the ball, not caring who was watching. Not even Jake.

As the sun set, I saw it — a **fox** darting along the fence line, red fur glowing golden. It paused, looking at me with amber eyes, before slipping into the shadows.

"Cool," Ethan whispered beside me.

"Yeah," I said. For the first time all summer, I wasn't watching from the edges. I was in the game.