Green Teeth & Golden Retrievers

Kai's life was officially over. He knew this with absolute certainty, the same way he knew that periodic table poster in his bedroom was cringe, or that asking Luna to homecoming would result in immediate social suicide.

The spinach incident had started it all.

"You're eating salad? Since when?" Marcus had asked at lunch, actual confusion written across his face.

"Since my mom went full wellness influencer," Kai had muttered, trying to discreetly pick spinach from his teeth with his tongue. "Apparently, this is fuel for my track season now."

Track. The word alone made his stomach hurt. He'd only joined because Luna ran distance, and he'd figured maybe he could casually end up running beside her and strike up a conversation that didn't involve him stumbling over his own words.

Instead, he was dead last in every practice, his lungs burned like he'd swallowed fire, and he was pretty sure the coach called him "the walking injury" yesterday.

"You coming to Maya's pool party Friday?" Marcus asked, snapping him back to reality.

Kai's stomach did a full gymnastics routine. Maya's parties were legendary. Everyone who mattered would be there, including Luna. "Probably."

"Cool. Just remember, water wings are for babies, dude." Marcus smirked.

Friday arrived with the kind of humidity that made existing feel like a personal insult. Kai stood by Maya's pool for twenty minutes before working up the courage to take off his shirt. He'd been doing extra crunches all week. Not that anyone would notice.

He was midway toward the deep end when It happened.

A golden retriever—Maya's neighbor's dog, apparently—burst through the hedge like a furry, chaotic missile, spotted Kai, and decided he was The Chosen One. The dog launched itself into a full-body tackle, sending Kai tumbling backward into the pool in a spectacular splash that soaked half the party.

Kai surfaced, sputtering, to the sound of laughter.

But not mean laughter.

Luna was standing at the pool's edge, smiling, holding a plate of what looked suspiciously like spinach artichoke dip. "That was kind of legendary," she said. "I'm Luna, by the way."

He wiped water from his eyes. "Kai. And that wasn't even my worst moment this week."

"Oh yeah?" She sat down at the edge, feet in the water. "Beat this: last week, I was running intervals, tripped over my own feet, and faceplanted right in front of the varsity boys. They still call me 'Speed Bump.'"

Kai laughed, really laughed, and for the first time all week, his lungs didn't burn.

"Hey," Luna said, "wanna get some food? I'm pretty sure Maya ordered actual pizza to balance out all this health stuff."

"Absolutely," Kai said.

And somewhere in the background, the dog barked, like it knew exactly what it had done.