Fox Orange at Home Plate

Maya stared at her reflection, the bathroom fluorescent unforgiving. The box hair dye promised "Sunset Copper" but her hair had turned out aggressively, undeniably fox orange. Her mom was gonna lose it—no way was she passing as "subtle highlights" before freshman orientation tomorrow.

But here's the thing: Maya actually kind of loved it.

The baseball field behind the middle school was empty, which meant she could spiral in peace. She plopped onto the dugout bench and pulled out her phone, thumb hovering over Sarah's Snapchat. Her bestie had been blowing up her phone all afternoon: *r u frreaking ur hair looks SO different in ur story!!*

Maya sighed. The truth was, she'd been feeling different all summer—like she'd been wearing someone else's skin and finally peeled it off. The fox-orange hair was just the most visible part.

"Nice color," a voice said.

Maya jumped. Liam from her English class stood there, baseball glove in hand, expression unreadable. She'd had a crush on him since November but he'd never looked twice at her. Well, her old her.

"Thanks," she said, suddenly conscious of how aggressively orange she really was.

He tossed a baseball toward her. She caught it instinctively—her dad had taught her to throw before she could read. "Wanna play catch? I need to warm up my arm before tryouts tomorrow."

They fell into an easy rhythm, the ball popping into gloves, the sun dipping behind the bleachers. Maya felt weirdly present, like she was exactly where she was supposed to be, fox hair and all.

"So," Liam said, releasing a throw that sailed perfectly into her mitt. "You joining the softball team?"

Maya paused. The thought hadn't occurred to her, but suddenly it made perfect sense. "Maybe."

"Cool." He grinned, and she noticed the way his eyes crinkled. "You've got a good arm. And the hair? It suits you. Makes you look like someone who knows what they're doing."

Maya smiled, a real one that reached her eyes. For the first time in forever, she believed he might be right.