Goldfish Operations

Maya's plan was flawless, right up until the spinach incident.

"You're like, literally the worst spy ever," Chloe whispered from behind her phone in the cafeteria, not looking up. "A goldfish could do better. And goldfish have three-second memories."

Maya sank lower in her seat, wishing she could dissolve into the questionable lasagna on her tray. This was it—the lowest point of freshman year. She'd agreed to Chloe's brilliant scheme to "gather intel" on Tyler, who Maya had been low-key crushing on since orientation, because apparently that's what friends did. They staged operations. They ran recon.

"I'm not a spy," Maya muttered. "I'm just trying to exist without dying of embarrassment every five seconds."

"Did he see you staring?"

"No. Yes. Maybe. I don't know." Maya buried her face in her hands. "I was looking at his phone—just trying to see if he was playing that game everyone's obsessed with—and he caught me. And then I did that thing where I panic-smile."

Chloe finally looked up, deadpan. "The panic-smile. Classic."

"Then I tried to play it cool and ate my salad, but—"

"The spinach."

"THE SPINACH." Maya groaned. "It was literally stuck to my front tooth the ENTIRE time I was talking to him yesterday. I had a whole conversation with a giant piece of spinach just chilling there like it owned the place. He probably thinks I never brush my teeth. I'm never recovering from this. This is my villain origin story."

Chloe cracked up, then suddenly stopped. "Wait. He came over yesterday. After you left."

Maya's heart did that thing where it forgot how to rhythm. "What? Why?"

"Said he found your AirPods under the table. Asked if you were coming back."

Maya processed this. "He... noticed I left?"

"He was looking for you, Maya. With the spinach and the panic-smiling and everything." Chloe shook her head. "Some spy you turned out to be. Can't even recognize when someone's actually into you."

Maybe being a goldfish wasn't so bad. Three seconds to forget every awkward moment, three seconds to remember what actually mattered.

"So," Chloe said, already typing something on her phone. "Operation: Stop Overthinking begins now. You're gonna talk to him. Like, a normal conversation. No spying, no operations, no spinach casualties."

"You just love giving everything code names, don't you?"

"Absolutely. Now finish your lunch. We have work to do."