Green Smoothie Summer

My first day at the Pine Creek Pool snack bar, and I was already vibrating with anxiety. The neon green uniform basically screamed "rookie." I'd spent the morning mentally preparing myself - I could totally handle slinging nachos and slushies. Then Mrs. Henderson dropped the bomb on me.

"Starting this week, we're doing healthy options," she announced, gesturing to a new cooler I'd somehow missed. "Spinach smoothies, papaya bowls, the works. Parents requested it."

Spinach? At a POOL? I'd been texting my best friend Jayden all morning about how this job needed to be chill - literally and figuratively. Now I was going to be the unchill health police while everyone else was living their best summer lives.

The real problem was Fox.

Okay, his name was actually Marcus, but everyone called him Fox because he was sneaky-good at everything - swimming, diving, basically existing. He was sixteen going on nineteen, with that effortless confidence that made my palms sweat. I'd been crushing on him since seventh-grade math when he'd let me copy his homework (once).

I was in the middle of my first spinach-papaya smoothie disaster - I'd put too much ice, and it was looking like something that had washed up on shore - when Fox appeared at the window.

"What's that green stuff?" He was dripping wet from a swim, dark hair plastered to his forehead, and my brain officially stopped working.

"Uh..." Brilliant. "Smoothie?" I said it like a question.

The line behind him started giggling. My face burned so hot I could've heated the pool.

Fox just leaned against the counter, totally unbothered. "I'll try it. Bet it's not that bad."

The whole situation felt unbearable. I wanted to dissolve into the linoleum. But I handed him the cup, trying to act like this was fine, normal, not at all the most embarrassing moment of my life.

He took a sip. The whole line went quiet.

"Actually," Fox said, grinning, "it's pretty legit." He slid money across the counter. "Good job, smoothie girl."

As he walked away, his friends started whooping and teasing him about drinking "rabbit food." But Fox just shook his head, still drinking the smoothie like it was no big thing.

Later, when the pool cleared out and Mrs. Henderson wasn't watching, I caught myself smiling while wiping down the counter. Maybe the green uniform wasn't so terrible. And maybe, just maybe, Fox wasn't completely out of my league.

That night I texted Jayden: "today was interesting"

"interesting how," she replied instantly. "did u talk to fox"

"maybe"

" DETAILS. NOW."

I set my phone down, feeling something weird and fizzy in my chest. Like the papaya-spinach situation, maybe being the new girl - the one in the ridiculous uniform serving health food to kids who wanted corn dogs - wasn't so bad after all. Sometimes the stuff you think will be awful turns out surprising you.

Plus, I'd definitely be making that smoothie again tomorrow.