Goldfish in the Deep End

The chlorine stung my eyes, but not as much as the sight of Jake Reynolds—human equivalent of a golden retriever—standing by the **pool** edge wearing that ridiculous bucket **hat** his mom definitely bought.

"Yo Marcus, you gonna cannonball or what?" Jake yelled, while half the junior class watched like this was the Olympics and I was the only diver who forgot their trunks.

I was fourteen and shaped like a question mark, all elbows and uncertainty. The pool party of the year, and I'm mentally calculating escape routes. Could I fake an emergency? Choke on a **vitamin**? Spontaneously combust?

Just then, Kayla Chen—she of the perfect hair and terrifying confidence—appeared beside me holding a clear plastic bag. Inside: a **goldfish**, tiny and orange and definitely not supposed to be at the Hendersons' backyard blowout.

"My brother won him at the fair," she said, like this explained everything. "He's not allowed pets. Mom said flush it, but... I can't."

She looked at me with eyes that said *you understand, right?* And somehow I did, because that same week I'd pretended not to care when my friends started sitting at different tables, when being too much of anything became too much.

"We should release him," I said, before my brain could veto my mouth. "In the pool. He'll have a whole kingdom."

Jake overheard. "That's literally the dumbest thing I've ever heard. That's a coldwater fish, Marcus. He's gonna die."

But Kayla was already nodding, and something about her expression made me feel like maybe dumb was okay sometimes. Maybe dumb was just another word for brave.

We released the goldfish—his name was Bubbles, apparently—into the deep end. He swam like he'd been waiting for this moment his entire fishy life. Jake shook his head, but he was grinning. The cable knit of everyone watching us had loosened. Something shifted.

Kayla bumped my shoulder with hers. "Thanks, Marcus."

For three seconds, I wasn't Question Mark Boy. I was the guy who helped save a fish. I was someone who did something completely ridiculous and didn't die of embarrassment.

The goldfish probably lasted twenty minutes. But that feeling? That stayed all summer.