Lightning in the Water

Maya's palms were sweating so bad she could practically fill a swimming pool. Which was ironic, considering she was currently standing next to one.

"You coming in or what?" Tyler called from the water, his stupid perfect hair dripping. Behind him, the pool lights glowed like underwater stars, and somewhere on the patio, someone's dad was manning the grill with zero awareness that his daughter's crush had just invited his daughter's awkward best friend into the deep end.

Maya's brain scrambled for an excuse. Any excuse. She'd already claimed she couldn't swim twice this summer (lie), that she'd forgotten her swimsuit (also lie), and that she was deathly allergic to chlorine (definitely a lie). But tonight? Tonight her parents had finally upgraded their internet, which meant she'd spent the past three weeks dominating the regional leaderboards in Valorant. Her cable modem had arrived yesterday, and she'd been up until 3 AM grinding.

The problem? She'd eaten pre-tournament spinach and artichoke dip at approximately 11:47 PM. Her performance had been *chef's kiss*—she'd carried her team to victory. But somewhere in her post-game euphoria, she'd forgotten to brush her teeth.

"Maya?" Tyler swam closer to the edge. "You good?"

Her tongue darted to her teeth. Spinach. Definitely spinach.

The sky chose that exact moment to crack open. Lightning shattered the darkness, illuminating everything in a strobe-flash of terrible clarity—Tyler's concerned face, the pool's rippling surface, and, worst of all, Maya's reflection in the sliding glass door. There, caught in the electric moment, was the undeniable evidence: a tiny green wedge lodged between her front teeth.

"I—gotta go!" Maya blurted, already backing away.

"What? Maya, wait—"

But she was already racing toward the house, her sandals slapping against concrete, another flash of lightning turning her retreat into something cinematic and pathetic all at once. She could hear Tyler calling after her, could hear the party noise swelling as everyone noticed the sudden drama, could practically feel the collective secondhand embarrassment of everyone present.

She burst into the bathroom, flipped on the light, and stared at herself. Yep. There it was. The spinach wedge of doom.

A soft knock. "Maya?"

She whipped around. Tyler stood in the doorway, shirtless, dripping wet, holding her phone. "You left this."

"Thanks." She wanted to die. Actually die.

"Also," he said, "you have a little—" He gestured to his own teeth, then shrugged. "But honestly? I've been trying to talk to you all night, and you keep bailing. So."

Maya blinked. "You've been trying to—what?"

"Talk to you?" He laughed softly. "I was gonna ask if you wanted to play Valorant sometime. I saw your ranking."

The lightning flashed again, but this time Maya didn't care about the spinach. "Wait. You play?"

"Yeah. My internet's trash though. Old cable setup."

Maya's palms stopped sweating. "I can fix that."

"Yeah?" His grin was real this time. "Show me."

Outside, the storm raged. Inside, Maya finally jumped in the pool. With her phone in a plastic bag, obviously. Gamer rules.