Goldfish at the Padel Courts

The goldfish was dying. I mean, probably not actually dying, but Simon's pet—stupidly named Captain Fin—was floating sideways in the bowl again, and I was the one stuck housesitting. Simon was at sleepaway camp living his best life while I was stuck talking to a fish that clearly hated me.

"You're being dramatic," I told Captain Fin, who proceeded to bubble what looked like fish-sass at me.

My phone buzzed. MAYA: padel courts. now. emma's here with HIM.

Oh no. Not HIM. Lucas, who'd sat behind me in bio last year and somehow made my brain turn into static whenever he looked my way. I was supposed to be babysitting Simon's fish, not third-wheeling while Maya tried to make Emma jealous.

But then again, Captain Fin didn't seem to need constant supervision.

I grabbed my keys and literally started running—like, actual cardio, which I normally avoided at all costs. The padel courts were three blocks away, and my Converse were definitely not made for this.

When I got there, hiding behind the chain-link fence like a total creep, I felt like a spy. I was legit spying on my friends. This was a new low.

Emma and Lucas were hitting the padel ball back and forth, laughing at something. Maya was sitting on the bench, fake-smiling so hard it looked painful.

And then Lucas laughed—actually threw his head back—and I felt it in my stomach. That pull. That I'm-in-trouble feeling.

"You can come out, you know," a voice said behind me.

I nearly jumped out of my skin. It was Lucas's little sister, Chloe, holding—wait, was that a goldfish in a plastic bag?

"We won a goldfish at the carnival," she said, like this was normal. "Mom said I can't keep it. Want it?"

"I... literally already have one I'm babysitting?"

"Cool. We can be fish aunties together."

Just then, Lucas spotted us. He waved me over, and suddenly I wasn't the spy behind the fence anymore. I was just a girl with sweat-frizz hair and two fish, walking toward something that might actually happen.

"Hey," he said, smiling like he meant it. "Want to play?"

I looked at Chloe, who was already texting someone. I thought about Captain Fin at home, probably still floating sideways. I thought about running all the way here for what turned out to be absolutely nothing dramatic.

"Yeah," I said. "Yeah, I do."

Some days you're just running toward things you can't explain. Some days you end up with two goldfish and a padel date with the guy who makes your brain static.

Weirdly, I was okay with that.