Green Teeth & Wild Hearts

Maya's legs burned as she kept running, her cross country coach's voice echoing in her head: 'Pain is temporary, pride is forever.' Yeah, right. Pride didn't feel like her lungs were about to collapse.

She'd joined the team sophomore year mostly because her older brother was a star runner, but somewhere between the 5AM practices and the way the forest trails looked different in every season, she'd actually started to love it. The running part, anyway. Not the spinach smoothies her mom insisted were 'athlete fuel.'

'Trust me, M, you're gonna glow,' her best friend Jules had said when she first showed up to school with green teeth freshman year. Maya had learned to check a mirror afterward.

Today was different, though. Today was the day she'd finally work up the nerve to talk to Kai at the meet—

'Your teeth,' Jules had whispered earlier. 'You've got—

'Oh my GOD.' Maya had frantically wiped her mouth. 'Is it gone?'

'...You're good now.'

Now, pushing through the final mile, Maya spotted him up ahead. Kai, who ran like he was chasing something impossible to catch. Kai, who smiled at her that one time at the pasta feed and now she was entirely wrecked about it.

She rounded the bend near the old trail marker—where someone had scratched 'bear warning' into the wood as a joke years ago—and suddenly her stomach dropped. Not butterflies. Something heavier.

What if she talked to him and said something weird? What if he was only being nice because his mom made him? What if she'd still had spinach in her teeth all day and NO ONE had told her?

Her legs slowed. The panic spiral was real.

Then Kai looked back, actually looked back, and smiled.

'Hey,' he said, falling into step beside her like it was the most natural thing in the world. 'You've been crushing it this season.'

Maya's heart did something illegal. 'Thanks.' She swallowed. 'You too.'

'You running Sectionals?' he asked.

'Yeah.' She hesitated, then added, 'You?'

'If I can qualify.' He grinned. 'Maybe we can carpool.'

They finished the cooldown loop together. Maya didn't remember much of what they said afterward, just that Kai laughed at her terrible jokes and that her palms were sweating grossly.

Jules found her afterward, vibrating. 'SPILL.'

Maya thought about the way Kai had waited for her at the trail marker, how he'd asked about her weekend plans like he actually cared.

'We're carpooling to Sectionals,' she said, trying to sound casual and failing.

Jules screamed. Everyone stared.

Maya just smiled, feeling something bright and terrifying blooming in her chest. Maybe pride was forever after all.