Green Between the Teeth

The pool party at Tyler's house was supposed to be Maya's comeback moment. After spending all spring eighth grade hiding in hoodies and avoiding eye contact, she'd spent two hours straightening her hair—naturally frizzy, finally sleek—and convincing herself she could actually pull off the bikini.

"Maya! You made it!" Tyler called, cannonballing into the deep end. Water splashed everywhere. Some guests screamed, others laughed.

She waved, clutching her phone like a lifeline. The patio was crowded with people from school, perfect and shiny in their swimsuits, doing that effortless cool thing Maya had been trying to decode since kindergarten. She grabbed a spinach wrap from the snack table because her mom said eating would calm her nerves. Stress-eating vegetables: definitely not in the plan.

"Hey Maya," said Riley, the girl who somehow made braces look intentional. "Your hair looks amazing today."

"Thanks!" Maya beamed, feeling a genuine spark of confidence. "I finally figured out—"

"Oh my god," Riley's expression shifted. Softly, she added, "You have a little... um..."

Maya froze. She'd felt something in her teeth earlier but ignored it.

"It's, like, really green," Riley whispered.

Spinach. Bright, emerald-green spinach wedged between her front teeth, visible from space. Maya's carefully constructed confidence collapsed. She'd been walking around with a vegetable billboard in her smile for who knows how long.

"I'll be right back," Maya mumbled, speed-walking toward the bathroom while mentally calculating how fast she could move to another state.

But then she heard someone giggling. Not mean-girl giggling—actual laughter.

Maya turned. A bunch of kids from her English class were sitting poolside, cracking up. "Yo, who else has spinach in their teeth?" called Jake, this guy she'd had a crush on forever. "Because I definitely do."

He smiled, flashing a huge green chunk between his teeth.

Everyone started checking their reflections in their phone cameras, dramatically picking at nonexistent food particles. Maya stood there, confused, as Jake swam over to the edge.

"Your hair really does look great though," he said. "For real."

"Thanks," Maya said, and somehow, she wasn't embarrassed anymore.

She jumped into the pool, vegetable debris and all, finally understanding that nobody was judging her half as hard as she'd been judging herself. Plus, if spinach teeth were now a trend, she'd basically started it.