Goldfish in a Baseball Cap

Maya's dad's old baseball hat sat pulled low over her eyes, her default invisibility cloak since starting at Northwood High. Two months in, and she was still the quiet girl in the back, the one nobody noticed unless they needed someone to pair with in chem lab.

"You're doing WHAT?" her best friend Jaya practically yelled through the phone, forcing Maya to hold it away from her ear. "You, antisocial Maya, agreed to host the spring break party? At YOUR house?"

"I didn't agree," Maya groaned, flopping onto her bed. "Chloe just assumed. She was like 'Maya's house is perfect, her parents are never home' and everyone just nodded. What was I supposed to say? 'Sorry, can't, I have to babysit a goldfish'?"

Because that was the actual truth. Maya had somehow gotten roped into taking care of the class pet—a sad little goldfish named Bubbles—over break. She was currently staring at its bowl on her desk, feeling ridiculous.

The doorbell rang.

Maya's stomach dropped. Someone was here EARLY. She wasn't ready. The house wasn't ready. SHE wasn't ready.

She threw on the hat instinctively, heading downstairs.

It was Ethan. Freaking Ethan. The guy she'd been lowkey crushing on since October, standing there holding a tangled mess of HDMI cable looking completely lost.

"Hey," he said, giving her that slight nod that somehow managed to be both awkward and devastatingly cute. "Chloe sent me over early to help set up the Netflix situation? She said you guys were having cable issues or something."

Maya stood there frozen, hand gripping the brim of her hat like a lifeline.

"Actually," she heard herself say, "I never agreed to any party."

Ethan blinked. "Oh."

"But," Maya continued, heart pounding, "I do have this very sad goldfish that needs a friend. And my parents' TV is already set up with all the streaming services if you just want to hang out?"

Ethan looked at her—really looked at her, for the first time all year. Slowly, he smiled.

"A goldfish party? Honestly? That sounds way better than anything Chloe would've come up with."

Maya took off her hat.

"Yeah," she said, feeling something unfamiliar and warm spreading through her chest. "Me too."