Green Teeth and Game Point

The hat was everything. It covered the frizz I'd spent forty minutes trying to tame, hid the forehead pimple that had appeared overnight like an unwanted party guest, and most importantly, it was armor. When you're fifteen and the new kid, armor matters.

"You coming in or what?" Jake called from the pool, grinning like he didn't have a care in the world. Meanwhile, I was calculating how long I could avoid the water before someone noticed I hadn't moved from this lounge chair in twenty minutes.

My mom's health kick had backfered spectacularly. Three spinach smoothies a day, she'd said. It'll give you glowing skin, she'd said. Instead, it had given me teeth that looked like I'd been chewing on grass clippings. I'd been hiding my smile—and myself under this stupid hat—all week.

"Actually," someone said, "we need another player for padel."

I looked up. A girl with neon-blue toenails was gesturing toward the court. "You play?"

"No," I said automatically.

"Perfect," she said. "Neither do we. Come anyway."

Before I could overthink it, I'd left my hat on the chair. The air hit my hair—probably a mess, whatever—and for the first time all day, I wasn't hiding. My green teeth and all.

Padel was nothing like I expected. The ball bounced off walls like it had a mind of its own. We played terribly, laughing at every miss, every awkward swing, every time someone accidentally hit the ball backward. My team lost by a lot, and I didn't care.

"You're actually not terrible," Neon Toenails said afterward, handing me a water bottle. "I'm Maya, by the way."

"Sam," I said, and for the first time all week, I smiled without thinking about it.

She didn't mention the teeth. If she noticed, she didn't care.

Later, when everyone else jumped in the pool, I didn't overanalyze it. I didn't calculate angles. I just dove in, surfacing with chlorine-stinging eyes and wet hair plastered to my forehead, grinning like I belonged here.

Maybe I did.

My hat stayed on the lounge chair, next to a half-empty spinach smoothie that I was definitely not finishing tomorrow.