Goldfish Summer at the Deep End

Maya's **orange** hair-dye disaster happened the same week her crush Jake invited everyone to his **pool** party. Of course. The universe had terrible timing.

"It's not even the good orange," she groaned, staring at her bathroom mirror. "It's like... construction cone orange. Cheeto dust orange."

Her sister Priya popped her head in, phone in hand. "Jake won't care. He's been obsessed with you since you accidentally liked his Instagram from 2017."

"That was a mistake! And he's also invited half the school. Including Jessica, who has perfect beach waves and never looks like a traffic accident."

The party arrived with the kind of humidity that made everything sticky. Maya hovered at the edge of everything, clutching a red solo cup like it contained the antidote to social anxiety. Jake spotted her and waved—actually waved, across the crowded backyard—and her stomach did that embarrassing flutter thing.

"Hey!" He materialized, hair wet from **running** cannonballs earlier. "Your hair looks sick. Did you dye it?"

"Uh, yeah. It was supposed to be... reddish?" Maya felt her face heating up. "It's kind of a lot."

"No, it's fire." His smile was unfair. Really unfair. "Hey, want to see something?"

He led her around the side of his house to a small pond with a single **goldfish** swimming lazy circles.

"My mom got it for my birthday last year," Jake said. "I named him Kevin."

"Kevin the goldfish. Bold choice."

"He's got a three-second memory. Sometimes I feel like that's a superpower, you know? Just... forget everything that's awkward. Start fresh every three seconds."

Maya looked at him, really looked at him, and suddenly her orange hair didn't feel like a disaster anymore. It felt like an invitation.

"Or," she said, "you could just make new memories. Better ones."

Jake's eyes lit up. "Yeah. Starting with... want to go to the fall dance together? Like, as more than friends?"

Maya's **hair** dripped chlorine into her eyes as she grinned. "Yes. Definitely."

Kevin the goldfish swam another perfect circle, oblivious to everything, and Maya thought some superpowers were overrated anyway.