Green Between the Teeth

Maya's hands shook as she stared at her iPhone screen. The notification lit up her face in the dark bathroom: pool party at Jake's house tonight. Her stomach did a literal backflip.

She'd been crushing on Jake since seventh grade homeroom, when he'd let her borrow his pencil and smiled like she wasn't invisible. Now sophomore year, he still didn't really know she existed. But tonight could change everything.

Her mom had made her eat actual spinach for dinner because apparently Maya looked pale. Her hair was in the most awkward growing-out phase—too short for a pony, too long to look intentional. The universe was definitely not on her side.

Maya applied three coats of waterproof mascara and practiced her cool face in the mirror. When she got to Jake's, the backyard was already chaos. Music thumped against the fence. People were everywhere, laughing, shoving each other into the pool, existing with such effortless confidence it made her chest hurt.

She spotted Jake immediately. He was by the deep end, wearing that gray shirt that made his shoulders look really good. Maya's heart hammered against her ribs as she made her way over.

"Hey!" someone yelled. "Truth or dare!"

Before she could react, Maya was shoved into the circle. Someone shouted: "I dare Maya to jump in with all her clothes on!"

Her face burned. Everyone was watching. Jake was watching. And then—she did it.

The water swallowed her whole. When she surfaced, sputling and dripping, everyone was laughing. But then Jake was laughing too, diving in fully clothed beside her.

"Now we both look like drowned rats," he said, grinning. Water droplets clung to his eyelashes.

Maya's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh my god. Is there... is there spinach in my teeth?"

Jake cracked up. "Yeah, a little. But honestly, it's kind of iconic."

They floated there together as the party raged on around them, and Maya thought maybe the universe wasn't against her after all. Sometimes the most embarrassing moments became the best stories. Sometimes you had to jump in fully clothed to find exactly where you belonged.