Lightning in a Goldfish Bowl

I was literally gonna throw up. No cap.

Tryouts for the track team were in twelve minutes and I'd spent the entire morning overthinking everything—my outfit (why did I wear these shorts?), my hair (currently a bird's nest), and the fact that I was the new girl who nobody knew except as 'that sophomore with the weird locker.'

Running was supposed to be my thing. Back at my old school, I'd been decent. Not, like, scholarship decent, but solid middle-of-the-pack decent. Here? I felt like a goldfish in a bowl full of sharks—tiny, forgettable, and way out of my depth.

'You good?'

I jumped. A girl with the most insane fox-orange hair I'd ever seen leaned against the gym doors, scrolling through her phone. She looked like she belonged in a music video, not at some rinky-dink track meet.

'So good,' I lied. My voice cracked. Smooth.

She smirked. 'I'm Riley. You're the new girl, right? Saw you at lunch yesterday. You ate like, three tater tots in one bite. Respect.'

I felt my face catch fire. 'That's... that's me. I'm Maya.'

'Well, Maya, you're about to embarrass yourself in front of varsity.' Riley nodded toward the track where Coach Martinez was blowing her whistle like her life depended on it. 'She's scary. Like, will-destroy-your-soul scary.'

'Thanks for the pep talk.'

'Riley!' someone yelled. 'You gonna stand there looking pretty or actually run?'

Riley flipped them off without looking up from her phone. 'Both.' Then she glanced at me. 'Hey, you nervous?'

'Maybe a little.'

'Me too.' She pocketed her phone. 'Let's both embarrass ourselves together. Not gonna lie—might be funny.'

Something about the way she said it, so casual and unbothered, made my shoulders drop two inches.

When Coach Martinez called my name, my legs felt like lead. But then Riley caught my eye from the starting line and gave me this tiny nod, and suddenly I wasn't just some goldfish anymore.

I took off.

My lungs burned, my shorts were absolutely still wrong, and I had no idea if I was even going to make the team. But for three seconds around the curve, I felt like lightning—bright and fast and impossible to look away from.

Afterward, bent over and wheezing, Riley tossed me a water bottle. 'You didn't die. Points for survival.'

'I think I almost did.'

'Same.' She sat in the grass beside me. 'Hey, you doing anything later? My brother's having people over. His friends are kinda cringe, but there'll be pizza.'

I looked at this fox-haired girl who'd randomly decided to adopt me, and something in my chest loosened.

'I'm free.'

'Bet. Just don't eat more than four tater tots this time. We have a reputation to maintain.'