Goldfish Attention Span

Maya's high school operated like a pyramid scheme of popularity—jocks and cheerleaders at the top, nerds in the middle, and everyone else scrambling desperately not to fall into the bottom layer. She'd been running from her spot near the base since freshman year, but somehow kept sliding deeper.

"You look like a zombie," Chloe said, sliding onto the cafeteria bench next to Maya. "Study grind got you living on caffeine and three hours of sleep?"

Maya nodded, staring blankly at her untouched tray. The AP History exam loomed like a storm cloud, and her brain felt like it had been replaced with cotton balls.

Chloe's phone buzzed. "Omg, look at this TikTok. It's that guy Lucas from English class—he's doing that goldfish challenge where he stares at himself for three minutes without smiling."

Maya snorted despite herself. Lucas had been crushing on her since September, dropping not-subtle hints like borrowing her pen every single day even though he owned approximately forty-seven of them.

"Speaking of," Chloe lowered her voice, "he asked Jake if you're going to Jackson's party Friday."

"I'm not really feeling it." Maya poked at her food. "Plus, Buster ate my homework yesterday. Literally. My mom's going to kill me when she finds out he chewed through my history outline."

Her golden retriever had developed a taste for academic excellence—or at least the paper it was printed on.

Chloe gasped. "That's actually iconic. You should tell Lucas that. He'll think you're hilarious."

"Hard pass."

"Maya, you're so picky. Lucas is sweet, he's cute, and he's been running this massive subtle campaign to get your attention all semester. What more do you want?"

Maya considered this. Maybe Chloe had a point. Maybe she'd been so focused on climbing the social pyramid that she hadn't noticed someone actually trying to build something real with her.

"Fine," Maya said. "I'll go. But only if you promise to save me from awkward silence."

"Deal. Now come on, we're gonna be late for Bio. And maya?"

"Yeah?"

"Stop running from everything that might be good. Not every moment needs to be perfect to be worth having."

The bell rang. Maya stood up, actually smiling for the first time all day. Maybe she didn't need to be at the top of any pyramid to find what she was looking for.