Goldfish in the Deep End

The pool party at Jessica's house was exactly where I didn't want to be. The water glittered like something from a teen magazine, and somehow everyone already knew how to exist in this world where you could just cannonball into someone's backyard without questioning everything.

I'd been standing near the snack table for twenty minutes, clutching a plastic cup like it was a lifeline. My mother had forced me to come. "You're fifteen, Maya. You need friends who aren't books." As if books had ever disappointed me.

"Hey." A guy appeared beside me. Leo. He sat behind me in bio and drew detailed diagrams of cellular mitosis in the margins of his notes. "Having fun?"

"Oh yeah. Living the dream." I gestured vaguely at the pool. "Just appreciating the ambiance."

He laughed, and something in my chest did a weird flip thing. "Same. I'm mostly here for the free food. That's the beauty of being socially awkward at parties – people assume you're just focused on the chips."

I smiled despite myself. "True. Low expectations, high snacks."

We stood there for a moment, watching Jessica perform an elaborate pool entrance that involved way too much hair tossing for someone just jumping in **water**.

"You know what sucks?" Leo said suddenly. "My dad has this massive **pool** in our backyard, and I never use it. It's just sitting there, being expensive. Meanwhile, I'm over here analyzing the chip selection at someone else's party."

"That's actually kind of poetic," I said. "The boy who has everything but still feels like he's missing something. Very deep."

He groaned. "Please don't. I get enough of that from my therapist."

The sun was beginning to set, painting everything in shades of **orange** and pink. The party lights flickered on around the pool, casting rippling reflections across everyone's faces.

"You know what else is messed up?" Leo continued. "I won a **goldfish** at the carnival last year. Named him Pierre. That fish lived for six months and honestly had more personality than half the people here. He'd get all excited when I walked in the room. Little guy knew how to live."

"Pierre sounds legendary," I said solemnly. "Rest in power."

"Exactly." Leo paused. "Hey, want to get out of here? There's a park down the street. We could vibe, eat our weight in snacks, pretend we're interesting people."

"Absolutely," I said without hesitating.

We grabbed handfuls of chips and escaped just as someone's mom brought out a tray of something that looked suspiciously like **spinach** dip.

"That," Leo whispered, "is the scariest thing I've seen all night."

"Agreed," I said, and as we walked away from the glowing pool and the people who belonged there, I realized something: maybe I wasn't a goldfish in a bowl after all. Maybe I was just swimming in the wrong water.

"Hey Maya?" Leo said as we reached the park. "This is better, right?"

"Yeah," I said, and meant it. "This is way better."