Green at the Pool Party

Maya's hair was doing that thing again—frizzing up like she'd stuck her finger in an electrical socket, even though she'd used half a bottle of anti-frizz serum. She stood at the edge of Jessica's pool, clutching her phone so hard her knuckles turned white. The whole sophomore class seemed to be there, in swimsuits that cost more than Maya's entire wardrobe.

"Hey! You made it!" Jessica called from the diving board, performing a perfect cannonball that sent water spraying everywhere. Maya's hair puffed up even more in the humidity. Great.

She spotted Tyler by the snack table, laughing with his friends. Maya's stomach did that fluttery thing it always did when he was around. She'd been crushing on him since they'd been assigned as lab partners in September. Now or never, she thought, heading toward the table where Jessica's mom had set out enough food to feed an army.

"Spinach artichoke dip?" Maya mumbled to herself, reaching for a chip. "Seriously?"

But she was hungry, and social anxiety made her eat weird things sometimes. She loaded up a chip, took a bite, and felt something green and leafy stubbornly cling to her front teeth. Of course. Of. Course.

She heard Tyler's laugh getting closer. Panicked, Maya made a split-second decision that seemed brilliant at the moment: she'd just casually dip her head in the pool to rinse her mouth. No one would notice.

But as she leaned over the edge, someone shoved past her—probably Jake being Jake—and Maya lost her balance. She didn't fall in, but her hair dipped into the chlorinated water like a tea bag.

"Whoa," Tyler said, appearing beside her. "Your hair is..."

Maya's heart nearly stopped. She couldn't open her mouth because of the spinach situation, and now she had pool-water-dipped hair. This was it. Peak awkwardness. The social equivalent of tripping in front of everyone while holding your lunch tray.

But then Tyler grinned. "Actually, it looks kind of cool. Like you went for a swim and didn't care what anyone thought."

Maya finally summoned the courage to smile through the spinach in her teeth. "Yeah," she said. "Exactly my plan."

And maybe it wasn't so bad. Maybe having frizzy hair and green teeth at a pool party was just part of being sixteen. Tyler was still talking to her, after all.