Green Between My Teeth

Maya's first day as a lifeguard at the Pine Ridge Community Pool was supposed to be her glow-up moment. Finally making money, finally looking responsible in her red one-piece, finally catching the attention of Jake Martinez, who'd graduated in June and was working as the pool's maintenance guy.

"You good on break?" Jake asked, leaning against the fence while Maya tried to inconspicuously pick spinach out of her teeth with her tongue. She'd shoved a massive spinach wrap in her face during her fifteen-minute break, because obviously her body decided digestion was more important than dignity.

"Yeah, totally," she managed, still working on that stubborn piece of green leaf lodged between her front teeth. Jake's eyes dropped to her mouth, and she wanted to dissolve into the concrete.

"You got a little..." He gestured at his own teeth, and Maya literally wanted to die.

Just then, something weird happened with the pool's filtration system. The **water** started getting cloudy, and the pump made this awful grinding noise. Jake swore and ran toward the equipment shed, and Maya, desperate to redeem herself, followed.

"The main **cable** connecting the pump to the power source is fried," Jake said, kneeling in front of a mess of wires. "I need to shut off the main breaker but I can't reach it."

Maya didn't think. She just grabbed the pool skimmer pole, extended it to its full length, and somehow managed to flip the breaker switch from across the room. The grinding stopped. When she turned around, Jake was looking at her like she'd personally invented electricity.

"That was actually kind of badass," he said.

Her shift ended two hours later. As she walked to her car, Jake caught up with her. "Hey, you want to grab food sometime? Like, not from the vending machine?"

Maya checked her reflection in her car mirror. That piece of **spinach** had been there the entire time. But Jake had noticed, and he'd still asked her out.

"Yeah," she said, finally allowing herself to smile. "I'd like that."