Goldfish Operations

Maya's life was officially the most boring thing on planet Earth, and that included her mom's Tupperware collection. That was before Jason Chen accidentally liked her photo from three years ago — the one where she had braces and bangs (a mistake on multiple levels) — and suddenly she was conducting actual spy operations.

"You have to find out if he's going to Jordan's party," Lexi insisted, handing Maya a Reese's like it was a payoff. "This is CRITICAL intelligence."

"Since when are we the FBI?" Maya asked, but she was already scrolling. "Also, since when do you care about Jordan's parties?"

"Since I heard Tyler might be there." Lexi did a little dance that was equal parts terrifying and iconic. "Maya, this is our moment. We've been wallflowers since seventh grade. NO MORE."

So here she was, crouched behind a skateboard in the school library, literally spying on Jason Chen and his friends like she was in a low-budget teen drama. It was pathetic. It was exhilarating. It was definitely going to end in disaster.

Her brain was doing that thing again — the goldfish thing. Where thoughts just swam away and she forgot who she was for five seconds. Focus, Maya. You're a cool girl. You're a spy. You're NOT the girl who once said "hi" so quietly that someone thought she said "how are you" and then had to fake an entire conversation about their well-being.

She was so focused on being stealthy (very badly) that she didn't notice the cable snaking across the floor until her foot caught it.

Her bag went flying. Her phone clattered across the tiles. A highlighter rolled under a bookshelf like it was making a break for it.

The entire table went silent. Jason Chen looked up. His friends looked up. The librarian, Mrs. G, looked up with that expression that said she was mentally composing her resignation letter.

Maya's face burned hotter than the sun. This was it. This was her villain origin story. She would become the girl who wiped out in front of everyone, change her name to something mysterious, and move to a different country.

"You okay?" Jason asked.

And then — AND THEN — he did something that made Maya's goldfish brain completely short-circuit. He smiled. Not the fake polite smile. The actual smile.

"You're Maya, right? From bio? You sit behind me."

She nodded like her life depended on it. Which, honestly, it felt like it did.

"Cool. I was gonna ask you," he said, and Maya could hear the blood rushing in her ears, "are you going to Jordan's party on Saturday?"

She was going to say something smooth. Something chill. Something that didn't make her sound like she'd never spoken to a human being before.

"Probably," she managed, and wow, she should get a Nobel Prize for not passing out.

"Awesome," he said. "I'll see you there."

Maya grabbed her bag and basically fled the library, but like, in a cool way. Probably.

"WELL?" Lexi demanded the moment Maya walked into the cafeteria. "What's the SITREP?"

Maya sat down. She thought about her goldfish brain, her failed spy mission, the cable that ruined everything and also saved everything.

"He invited me," she said. "To the party."

Lexi's slow blink was legendary. "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GATHER INTEL, NOT BECOME THE STORY."

But she was grinning. And Maya was grinning. And maybe — just maybe — goldfish weren't known for their memory, but they were pretty good at swimming through impossible situations.