Green Bits and Golden Eyes

Maya's first high school party was not going according to plan. Standing by the chip bowl, she caught her reflection in the sliding glass door and froze. There, wedged between her front teeth like a neon sign announcing her social death, was a piece of **spinach** from the earlier family dinner.

"Hey, you good?" The voice belonged to Jordan, the senior with hair like autumn leaves and eyes that actually seemed to see people. Maya had been low-key crushing on them since September, when Jordan had calmly dismantled a **bull** of a history teacher who'd been bullying freshman.

"Yeah, just... thinking." Maya attempted a casual smile, then remembered the spinach catastrophe and immediately clamped her mouth shut. This was fine. Everything was fine.

"You've got that sphinx vibe going on," Jordan said, grabbing a handful of pretzels. "Mysterious. Contemplating the deep questions of existence."

If only they knew. Maya was contemplating whether she could survive fleeing through the bathroom window.

The backyard was chaos. Someone had pushed the **swimming** pool lights to cyan, and bodies moved through the water like glow-in-the-dark fish. Music thumped against Maya's ribs. Her best friend Priya caught her eye from across the pool and made a dramatic eating motion, then mimed something stuck in teeth. Priya was useless. Absolutely useless.

"I love this song," Jordan said. "Want to dance?"

Maya's brain short-circuited. "I—"

"YO, SHARK ATTACK!" Someone screamed, and suddenly the party went sideways. A fox—the real kind, orange fur and bushy tail—came streaking through the backyard, possibly more confused than aggressive, sending towels and freshman scattering like bowling pins.

In the chaos, Maya made a split-second decision. She lunged for the pool.

The cold water shocked everything real. underwater, the muffled chaos of the party became something almost peaceful. She swam to the surface, sputtering, spinach-free and definitely not mysterious anymore, but somehow okay with that.

Jordan was leaning over the edge, grinning. "That fox had more game than anyone here."

Maya laughed, really laughed, treading water in her ruined party dress. "Fair."

"Post-fox trauma swim?" Jordan offered a hand.

"Something like that."

Priya was already filming. Maya's life was a mess, but somehow, watching the fox disappear into the neighbor's yard while Jordan helped her from the pool, she thought maybe high school wasn't so bad. Not really.