Greener on the Other Side

Marcus stood in front of Jordan's bathroom mirror, desperately picking at his front teeth. His breath came in short, panicked bursts. The bathroom door rattled as someone knocked—loud.

"Yo, you falling in or what?" a voice called. Someone who sounded like Tyler, the varsity linebacker who'd somehow already been accepted to three different colleges.

"One sec," Marcus croaked. His fingers shook. Stuck right between his two front teeth: a stubborn, emerald piece of **spinach** from the veggie tray his mom had insisted he bring. "It's sophisticated," she'd said. "Shows maturity." Now it was showing everything but maturity.

He'd spent three weeks working up the nerve to talk to Maya—the girl with the **orange** streaks in her dark hair, who sat behind him in AP Bio and drew intricate anatomical diagrams in the margins of her notes. Tonight she was actually here, at this party, and Marcus had spent the last hour hovering near the snacks, building zero courage.

The bathroom door burst open. Not Tyler. Maya.

She froze. Marcus froze. His hand was still halfway to his mouth, finger mid-pick.

"Oh," she said. "Sorry, I thought—"

"I have spinach," Marcus blurted. "In my teeth. Like, a concerning amount."

Maya blinked. Then she laughed—not mean, but actual laugh-til-you-can't-breathe laughter. She leaned against the doorframe, and Marcus noticed she was holding a tangled mess of **cable** wire.

"What's that?" he asked, grateful for the subject change.

"HDMI cable for Jordan's gaming setup. His dad's home theater is being basic. I've been trying to fix it for twenty minutes but the whole system's jank." She held it up. "Wanna help? You seem like you might know what you're doing."

Marcus hesitated. Then: "Actually, yeah. I built my PC last summer."

Maya's eyes lit up. "Wait, really? What specs?"

They spent the next hour behind the entertainment center, swapping PC parts stories and arguing about GPUs while the party raged around them. Marcus got spinach stuck in his teeth again from more veggie tray snacks. Maya didn't care.

When Jordan's little brother finally got Minecraft running on the big screen, the whole room erupted. Maya high-fived Marcus, her orange-streaked hair brushing his shoulder.

"Not bad, new kid," she said.

"Marcus," he said.

"Maya," she replied. "Same time next Friday? Jordan says his Wi-Fi is also trash."