Glowing at the Deep End

Maya's phone buzzed in her pocket as she stood at the edge of the pool, clutching her iPhone like a lifeline. The backyard party was already in full swing—kids from school she barely knew, laughter echoing off the fence, someone blasting Doja Cat through portable speakers. Her chest felt tight.

"You coming in?" called Jordan, this cute junior who'd actually texted her first this week. Maya's stomach did that nervous flutter thing. She'd been taking these new vitamin supplements her mom swore would help with "growing girl confidence" or whatever. Mostly they just made her feel slightly weird, like her skin was buzzing.

"Yeah, just... phone stuff," she mumbled, waving her iPhone vaguely. Jordan shrugged and disappeared beneath the water with a splash.

Maya dipped her toes in. The pool was that perfect blue-green, surface shimmering like crushed diamonds in the sunset. Everyone seemed so comfortable in their skin, so unafraid to be seen. Meanwhile, she'd changed her swimsuit three times before leaving the house.

Then she saw it—a faint glow coming from her own skin under the pool lights. Like, actual glow. She held up her arm and yep—she was definitely faintly radioactive-looking. The vitamin D pills? Something else?

"Whoa, Maya's lighting up the party!" someone joked.

But then Jordan popped up nearby, grinning. "That's actually sick though? Like you're literally glowing." A few others nodded, impressed. Maya blinked. She wasn't being made fun of—she was being... admired?

"Must be the vitamins," she said, and surprisingly, she laughed. Something unclenched in her chest. She slipped into the pool, the cool water wrapping around her like acceptance, her phone safely tucked away on dry land. For the first time all night, she wasn't watching through a screen. She was just glowing, literally and figuratively, in the deep end with everyone else.