Green Smoothie Disaster

The deck around the pool shimmered with heat waves, reflecting the mid-July sun that baked everything in sight. Maya stood at the edge, clutching her iphone like a lifeline, her thumb hovering over the Instagram story camera.

"You're actually gonna do it?" Jenna asked, wide-eyed. "That spinach smoothie looks like actual pond water."

"Health is wealth, bestie," Maya said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. The truth was, she'd been secretly stalking this influencer who swore by her pre-swim meet green smoothie routine. Olympic swimmers did it. College recruits did it. Maya, desperate to drop three seconds off her 100-free time before sectionals next month, would do literally anything.

Even drink pond water.

The pool party was supposed to be chill—just the team hanging out before the season kicked into high gear. But somehow it had turned into a demonstration of Maya's new "athlete lifestyle." Coach Martinez had been dropping hints about captains this year, and Maya needed every edge she could get.

She tilted back the mason jar. The first gulp wasn't terrible. The second was manageable. By the third, something in the spinach decided it wasn't going down without a fight.

Her phone buzzed in her hand—her mom calling, probably—and in that split second of distraction, a piece of spinach made a break for it. Maya gagged, coughed, and simultaneously watched in horror as her iphone slipped from her sweaty grip.

Time moved in slow motion as the phone did a perfect arc, splashdown right into the deep end.

"NOOOOO" she screamed, already lunging.

But Tyler, the sophomore who'd been making heart eyes at her all summer, was faster. He dove in fully clothed—white t-shirt and all—and emerged a second later, dripping wet, holding her phone aloft like Excalibur.

"Your screen is cracked," he said, grinning through wet hair plastered to his forehead. "But I think your photos are safe."

Maya stood there, spinach still caught between her teeth, her phone dripping pool water onto the concrete, and Tyler's shirt now completely see-through. Jenna was already doubled over laughing, live-streaming the whole thing.

"Well," Maya said, wiping green slime from her chin. "At least I'll have a great caption for this."

Later that night, phone drying in a bowl of rice, Maya posted the photo Jenna had taken: Tyler emerging from the pool like some kind of chlorinated superhero, holding her phone triumphantly. Caption: When your crush literally dives in to save your digital life (and dignity). Still working on that spinach situation though. #swimteamproblems #notmyphone #yesmyheart

The post got 237 likes. And somehow, the spinach smoothie became a team tradition.