Green in the Teeth

The spinach incident started everything.

I was at Tyler's pool party—the social event of the summer basically—floating on an inflatable pizza slice when Jordan pointed at my mouth and started laughing. Not the friendly kind either.

"Yo, Maya, you got a little..." She gestured at her own teeth, grinning wickedly. "A LOT of something."

I ducked underwater faster than I'd ever moved in my life. When I came up, three people were looking. Including Nate. THE Nate, who I'd been lowkey crushing on since September, now attempting to look anywhere but at me while checking his phone like it held the secrets to the universe.

I swam to the edge and practically dragged myself out of the pool, my face burning hot enough to vaporize the entire backyard. My braces—the bane of my existence since seventh grade—had transformed into a spinach trap. A green, leafy monument to my social suicide.

"Let me guess," a voice said behind me. I turned to see Bull—real name Mark, but nobody called him that anymore since he'd taken on the school's actual bully in tenth grade and won. "You're about to fake sick and bounce?"

"Maybe," I muttered, grabbing a paper towel. "Unless the ground opens up first."

Bull pulled a compact mirror from his pocket—who CARRIES a mirror?—and handed it over.

"Five minutes ago, you were owning that pool," he said. "Now you're gonna let some vegetable ruin your vibe? That's weak, Maya."

I stared at him. "Since when do you give advice?"

"Since I showed up with grape juice stains on my white shirt to homecoming and still danced anyway." Bull shrugged. "Nobody remembers the stains. They remember who didn't hide."

I cleaned the spinach. Took a breath. Texted my friends: staying.

"Hey," Nate said later, after I'd spent an hour pretending to be fine. "You coming back in?"

Bull caught my eye from across the pool and gave the tiniest nod.

"Yeah," I said, grinning. "Yeah, I am."