Goldfish in the Deep End

The pool party at Jasmine's house was supposed to be Jordan's chance to finally level up his social status. Freshman year was halfway over, and he was still stuck in NPC territory while the popular kids lived their best lives as main characters. He'd spent forty-five minutes on his hair that morning, spiking it until his mom called him from downstairs.

"You wearing that?" she'd asked, eyeing his backwards snapback.

"Yeah, it's my thing now," Jordan said, though truthfully, he was hiding a cowlick that refused to cooperate.

Now he stood by the snack table, nursing a lukergonic, watching everyone else live their reel-worthy lives. That's when Leo showed up with a plastic bag sloshing with water. Inside, a tiny goldfish darted confusedly.

"What's with the fish?" someone asked.

"Won it at carnival," Leo said, like it was perfectly normal to bring a pet to a pool party. "His name is Gilligan."

"Bull," said Chloe, rolling her eyes as she adjusted her oversized sun hat. "You probably bought that thing for the aesthetic."

Leo didn't even argue. He just placed Gilligan on the table, where the fish swam in lazy, suspicious circles.

Then it happened — Jordan's nemesis since middle school, Marcus, shoved Jordan from behind. Not hard, but enough. Jordan's hat flew off, revealing the unfortunately flat spot where his hair had given up the fight. Silence rippled across the pool deck like someone had dropped a truth bomb in the deep end.

Jordan's face burned hotter than summer asphalt. He reached for his hat, but Leo was faster.

"Nice save," Leo said, setting the snapback on Jordan's head. backwards, which somehow made it cooler. "Also, Gilligan thinks your hair is fire, just so you know."

Chloe snorted. "Gilligan has terrible taste then."

"Gilligan is a fish of culture," Leo countered, and somehow Jordan was laughing, actually laughing, and suddenly the whole vibe shifted.

They ended up sitting around Gilligan's bag, talking about everything and nothing — their cringe TikTok drafts, middle school mistakes they'd rather yeet from their brains, the universal terror of gym class. The goldfish became their emotional support animal, a tiny witness to their most unguarded moments.

Later, Jordan texted his mom: staying out late, might be a minute. He wasn't an NPC anymore. Maybe he never had been.