Green Teeth & Palm Readings

Maya stood against the wall at Tyler's party, feeling like a total zombie after three straight days of finals week. She'd been running on caffeine and anxiety, and now here she was, supposed to be having fun.

Her best friend Sarah had been weirdly distant all week, and Maya had caught her spying on her phone during lunch — like, literally watching her Instagram stories without actually responding. Passive much?

"Hey, you want some spinach dip?" Some guy she barely knew offered her a chip.

"Sure," Maya said, taking a bite. The dip was actually fire, whatever.

Twenty minutes later, she headed to the bathroom to check her reflection — and froze. Bright green spinach was wedged between her front teeth. She'd been talking to literally everyone like this. Tyler. That cute junior from her history class. Even the guy who'd given her the dip.

Maya scrubbed her teeth until her gums hurt, then rested her forehead against the cool mirror. This was it. This was her villain origin story. She'd never recover socially. She'd become a meme.

The bathroom door creaked open. A girl with wild curly hair and too much eyeliner walked in — that senior who did palm readings at parties for "tips."

"You look like you've seen a ghost," she said, washing her hands.

"Worse," Maya said. "I've been walking around with green teeth for half an hour."

The senior laughed. "Welcome to high school. Last month, I walked around with my skirt tucked into my underwear for twenty minutes. We've all been there."

She dried her hands and held out her palm. "Let me see your hand."

Maya hesitated, then held it out.

"You're going to be fine," the senior said, tracing her life line. "More than fine. You're going to stop caring so much what people think. That's your superpower waiting to happen."

Maya looked at her own palm, then at her reflection. She smoothed her hair and walked back into the party.

Sarah was by the snacks, phone in hand. She looked up and saw Maya, then actually put her phone away.

"Hey," Sarah said. "Are you okay? You looked kinda stressed earlier."

Maya thought about the spinach. About the spying. About everything.

"Yeah," she said. "Actually, I'm good."