Goldfish Operations

Leo's palms were sweating—like, actually dripping—as he clutched his phone under the desk. Three rows back, Maya laughed at something Tyler said, and Leo felt that familiar twist in his chest. Not jealousy, exactly. Just... this heavy awareness that she was living in a completely different dimension than him, where people didn't overthink every single interaction until their stomach hurt.

"You good, bro?" Marcus whispered beside him, snapping Leo back to reality.

"Yeah. Just... thinking about that bio test." Lie. Total lie. Leo had been thinking about Maya all morning. About how her hair looked today, how she'd actually said "hey" to him in the hallway yesterday, how he'd spent two hours last night "spying" on her Instagram—scrolling through three years of posts like some kind of pathetic digital detective. Her story from yesterday: a photo of her goldfish, bubblegum-pink gravel in the bowl, captioned "Roger's living his best life."

Roger. The goldfish had a name.

At lunch, Leo sat with Marcus and the others, half-listening to their debate about whether Mr. Harrison gave out Fs for fun. His eyes kept drifting to Maya's table. She was sitting with Tyler's crowd now, the ones who somehow made everything look effortless. Leo felt like he was watching from behind glass, like he was the one swimming in tiny circles, blowing bubbles nobody could hear.

"You're literally staring," Marcus said, following his gaze. "Just talk to her, dude. She's not some mythical creature."

"I can't just—" Leo started, but then Maya was walking past their table, stopping.

"Hey, Leo," she said, and his brain short-circuited. "Nice hoodie."

"Thanks," he managed, his palms suddenly slick again. "I, uh, like your... posts. About Roger."

She smiled, actually smiled, not fake-polite but genuinely amused. "You follow my fish's account? That's adorable."

"The fish has an account?" Marcus asked, and Maya laughed.

"Yeah, @roger_the_goldfish_extraordinaire. He's kind of a celebrity."

Later, Leo would find himself sitting beside her on a bench outside school, talking about nothing and everything, while she showed him videos of Roger chasing peas around his bowl. And for the first time, Leo wasn't spying, wasn't watching from behind anything. He was just there, palms still a little sweaty, heart racing in the best way, finally part of the dimension where everything didn't have to be so complicated.

"So," Maya said, looking at him sideways. "You gonna follow Roger back? He's been waiting, like, forever."

Leo pulled out his phone, grinning like an idiot. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I will."