Green Between My Teeth

The padel court at the country club was basically social headquarters for summer, and Maya had spent three weeks trying to get invited. When Jake finally texted 'u wanna play later?' she nearly threw her phone across the room. Not that she knew how to play padel. Or owned a racquet. Details.

Her mom, suspiciously enthusiastic about Maya suddenly wanting to exercise, dropped her off with a speech about seizing opportunities. Maya immediately spotted the problem: everyone else had actual padel gear. She'd shown up in running shorts and her brother's oversized basketball jersey.

'Match point!' someone yelled, because apparently that was a thing people said.

Maya nodded along like she totally understood.

After two hours of swinging at air and accidentally hitting Jake in the shin with the ball ('my bad, my bad'), the group moved toward the pool. Maya froze. She hadn't brought a swimsuit. She hadn't planned on the swimming portion of the day.

'You coming?' Jake asked. 'Pool's literally the best part.'

'Uh, I ate? Like, recently?' Maya's brain was malfunctioning. 'Food. Swimming. Cramps. Science.'

Jake laughed, and Maya felt herself falling for him in that terrible way where everything becomes significant.

Later, while everyone else dried off and ordered smoothies, Maya realized why Jake's cousin Chloe had been looking at her weirdly the entire time.

'You have... literally a ton of spinach in your teeth,' Chloe whispered. 'From lunch?'

The lunch she'd eaten alone, feeling sophisticated and grown-up with her spinach salad while her mom was at work. The same lunch she'd been excitedly telling Jake about when they first walked onto the padel court.

Maya washed her mouth out in the club bathroom for five minutes straight. When she came back, Jake was sitting alone.

'Hey,' he said. 'Chloe told me about the spinach. She was being weird about it.'

Maya's face burned.

'It's fine,' Jake said, shrugging. 'I had gum in my hair for three hours at winter formal. Sophomore year. Nobody let me forget it.'

'You're just saying that.'

'I'm literally not.' He grinned. 'Besides, you're actually terrible at padel, which is way funnier than spinach teeth.'

Maya smiled back, and for the first time all day, she wasn't pretending. Some days were messy and embarrassing and sometimes you had green stuff stuck in your teeth while trying to impress people. But sometimes, despite all of that, you still got asked to come back next weekend.

'Same time next week?' Jake asked. 'I'll teach you how to actually hit the ball.'

'Maybe,' Maya said. 'But I'm not making any promises about my teeth.'