Goldfish Lessons

Maya's bedroom had become something of a sanctuary since the Incident at lunch. The Incident involved a piece of **spinach** stuck squarely between her braces while smiling at Ethan—the same Ethan who'd somehow managed to become the most popular freshman at North Valley High without seemingly trying.

"You've been in here for two hours," her mom called from the hallway. "Even your **goldfish** gets more social interaction than you do."

Maya flopped onto her bed, staring at the fishbowl on her desk. Bubbles had been her only confidant since middle school, which felt pathetic even by her standards. But Bubbles didn't judge. Bubbles didn't have a TikTok following of three thousand people.

Her phone buzzed. Another notification from the North Valley Confessions page.

"Does anyone else feel like Maya Chen has been acting weird since she got braces?"

She groaned into her pillow. This was it. This was her villain origin story. She'd become the **cat** lady who lived in the school basement and hissed at couples.

Wait—cat.

Maya sat up, scrolling through the confessions page until she found what she was looking for. The post from two weeks ago: "Someone's catfishing as Maya Chen on Snapchat and being weirdly mean to everyone."

She'd dismissed it then. Who would catfish as *her*? But now...

"Mom!" Maya shouted, grabbing her laptop. "I need you to drive me to school."

"It's 8 PM, Maya."

"Exactly. Nobody will be there to witness whatever I'm about to do."

The North Valley High **bear** mascot costume hung in the gym storage closet, forgotten since homecoming. Maya had helped organize the costume room for student council—she knew exactly where the spare key was hidden.

Twenty minutes later, she stood in front of the school entrance dressed as a giant bear, holding a hastily made poster board: "NOT MY SNAPCHAT. ALSO SPINACH IS A SCAM."

"You know," said a voice from behind her, "I was going to come talk to you at lunch today."

Maya turned around. The bear head spun awkwardly. Ethan stood there with a skateboard under one arm and a slightly crooked smile.

"Before the spinach incident," he added.

"Oh." The bear head muffled her voice. "Cool. Cool cool cool."

"Also, someone showed me the fake Snapchat account. I knew it wasn't you." He stepped closer. "You wouldn't tell someone their dermatology routine wasn't working. That's not your vibe."

Maya's heart did something embarrassing. "Thanks. I think."

"Want to get bubble tea tomorrow? My treat. No spinach."

"...Only if you never mention the spinach again."

"Deal."

As Maya walked home later that night, still wearing the bear costume because why not, she realized something: Bubbles had been right about everything. Sometimes you had to be a total disaster in front of the whole school to figure out who actually saw you through it.

And maybe, just maybe, that was worth a little temporary embarrassment.