Goldfish in the Deep End

Maya stood at the edge of the **pool**, her heart doing that annoying fluttery thing it always did when she had to do something scary. The sophomore class pool party. Jake was going to be there. Basically, everyone who mattered would be there.

The problem? Maya could barely swim.

"You got this," her best friend Chloe said, handing her a drink. "Just stick to the shallow end like a **goldfish**. Nobody's gonna judge."

Maya snorted. "Thanks. That's exactly the vibe I'm going for. Goldfish energy."

But then Jake materialized by the diving board, looking unfairly cute in his swim trunks. He waved at her, and Maya's brain short-circuited. Suddenly, sticking to the shallow end felt like admitting defeat. She'd been wanting to talk to him all year, and she kept telling herself she'd make her move. This was it.

Her brother's old **bear** costume from his mascot job at the car dealership flashed through her mind. He'd worn it to her middle school graduation once. Talk about mortifying. But at least he'd owned it, walking around in that sweaty polyester mess like it was totally normal.

Maya stripped off her cover-up and jumped in before she could overthink it.

The water closed over her head, cold and shocking. For a second, everything went muffled and peaceful. Then her feet touched bottom, and she pushed off, breaking the surface with a gasp. She was **swimming**. Not gracefully, but she was doing it.

Jake swam over, grinning. "Hey, you came."

"Yeah," Maya said, splashing water in his face like an absolute idiot. Why did she do that?

He laughed. "Good one."

They treaded water for a minute, talking about nothing and everything. Maya felt like she was unraveling some ancient **sphinx** riddle she'd been stuck on forever — how to just be normal around someone she actually liked.

"So," Jake said, looking at her with those annoyingly pretty eyes. "You want to get food after this? There's that taco place down the street."

Maya nodded, trying to play it cool even though her insides were basically screaming. Maybe sometimes you just had to jump in the deep end.