Green Things and Wild Things

Maya pushed the spinach around her tray with plastic fork apathy. Cafeteria surveillance was a full-time job at Crestview High, and today's target was Jessica—perfect, effortless, fox-eyed Jessica who sat at the cool table laughing at something someone said.

"You gonna eat that?" Liam asked, dropping into the seat across from her. His loyalty was like a golden retriever's—unquestioning, always there, sometimes awkwardly present but mostly just solid.

"Not hungry." Maya smoothed her hair, checking her reflection in her phone screen. "Does my hair look okay?"

"It looks like hair, Maya. You good?"

"I'm fine. Just... thinkin' about Jessica's party Friday."

Liam's face did that thing where he tried not to look disappointed but failed anyway. "Oh. Right. You gonna go?"

"Maybe." She poked at a spinach leaf. "If I can figure out what to wear. What to say. How to be someone who gets invited to things like that without it feeling like a mistake."

"You're already someone," Liam said, weirdly serious for a second. "You don't gotta figure out how to be her."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one trying to reinvent yourself sophomore year."

But he was right, kinda. Not that she'd admit it.

Later, walking Mr. Henderson's dog—a neurotic pug named Captain who barked at squirrels like they owed him money—she spotted Jessica ahead on the sidewalk. Her stomach did that awful lurchy thing.

"Hey!" Jessica called. "Is that Captain? He's so cute!"

Maya froze. Then Jessica was there, scratching behind the dog's ears, making that soft noise people make at animals. And suddenly they were talking—not performative cool-kid talk, but actual conversation about dog walking and how weird it is that teachers assigned summer reading on the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL.

"You should come Friday," Jessica said. "Seriously. It's not, like, exclusive or whatever. I just invited people I thought seemed cool."

Captain yapped at a squirrel, breaking the moment.

"Yeah?" Maya felt something loosen in her chest. "I mean... cool. I'll be there."

Jessica headed off, waving over her shoulder. Maya looked down at the dog, who was now judging her with pug-level intensity.

"You knew, didn't you?" she whispered. "All that worrying over nothing."

Captain sneezed.

"Exactly." Maya started walking home, thinking maybe she'd actually eat something for dinner. Maybe even the spinach.