Green Between the Teeth

The **pool** party shimmered before Maya like a social minefield she'd accidentally wandered into. Seniors from Northwood High lounged on deck chairs, their skin already golden-brown from weekends she'd spent working at her mom's flower shop instead of perfecting her tan.

You're not here to swim, she reminded herself, clutching the bag of organic **spinach** dip her mother had insisted she bring. You're here to network for the robotics club fundraiser. That was the cover story, anyway. The truth? She'd been crushing on Leo since he'd helped her pick up her Arduino parts in the hallway three weeks ago, and when his cousin Jake had drunkenly invited "the STEM girl" at the basketball game, she'd blurted out yes before her brain could process what she was agreeing to.

Now she stood at the edge of everything, wearing a one-piece she'd bought freshman year for swim class, watching Leo laugh at something some girl in a bikini said. The girl had that effortless confidence Maya spent hours analyzing in bathroom mirrors, trying to decode its secret formula.

Then Leo noticed her. His face lit up, and he waved her over. "Hey! You made it."

"Yeah, um, brought this." She thrust the spinach dip toward him like a peace offering.

"No way." He laughed, and Maya noticed something caught between his front teeth—a tiny green fleck of spinach from whatever he'd eaten earlier. He was still grinning at her, completely oblivious, still somehow cute despite it, which made it worse because if she pointed it out, she'd be that girl, but if she didn't, someone else would and he'd be embarrassed and it would somehow be her fault anyway.

The social calculus made her head hurt. This was why she preferred robots. Robots didn't have unspoken rules. Robots didn't require you to solve riddles within riddles, figure out whether to speak or stay silent, calculate exactly how long to hold eye contact before it got weird. Leo was like a **sphinx** guarding the entrance to the social labyrinth she'd spent sixteen years failing to navigate, and here she was, stuck on the first threshold, paralyzed by a piece of green vegetation.

"You good?" Leo asked.

Maya made a split-second decision. "You've got—" She gestured to her own teeth.

His hand flew to his mouth. The color rose to his cheeks, but then he started laughing. "Oh my god, how long?"

"Just saw it."

"You're a lifesaver." He gestured to the pool. "Wanna cool off? The water's actually not freezing."

Maya set down the spinach dip. "Yeah. Yeah, I do."