Goldfish in the Pyramid Scheme

The red plastic cups stood in a perfect **pyramid** on Travis's kitchen counter, glowing under LED strip lights like some sacred altar to teenage bad decisions. I stood there holding my third **water** of the night, pretending I was actually tipsy from the tap water because admitting I was the only sober person at junior year's biggest rager was social suicide.

"Yo, Bear!" someone shouted across the room.

I flinched. The nickname had stuck since freshman year when I accidentally wore the same UCLA hoodie three days in a row. Now it was just part of my identity, like being decent at math and terrible at talking to girls.

Maya appeared beside me, holding a suspiciously bright **orange** that she'd probably grabbed from the fruit bowl on her way in. She was the kind of pretty that made your chest hurt—a little bit intimidating, a little bit mesmerizing. We'd been paired for that bio project last month, and I'd spent six weeks convincing myself she thought I was a complete dork.

"Great party," she said, leaning against the counter next to me. "You doing okay? You look like you're solving complex equations in your head."

I laughed, surprised. "Just plotting my escape route before someone tries to convert me to the cult of Natty Light."

She grinned, and something in my stomach did that annoying flip thing. "Wanna see something weird?"

Before I could answer, she grabbed my hand and dragged me upstairs to Travis's older sister's room, where a lonely **goldfish** swam in endless circles in a bowl on the desk. Its name, written in purple Sharpie on the glass, was said Swimming Pool.

"His owner literally never comes home from college anymore," Maya whispered. "I feel like we should liberate him."

"Liberate him where?"

"I don't know. A pond? A bigger bowl? Somewhere he's not swimming in existential circles?" She turned to me, eyes bright with rebellion. "What do you think, Bear? You in?"

And just like that, I wasn't the shy guy in the corner anymore. I was someone who might help steal a college student's fish at 11 PM on a Friday with the most beautiful girl in eleventh grade.

"Yeah," I said. "Yeah, I'm in."