Lightning's Witness

Maya pressed her phone against the chain-link fence, zooming in like the total creep she was. Three weeks of 'spying' on Leo's padel matches, and she still hadn't worked up the nerve to say hey.

"You're literally being a spy," Santana had said earlier. "Just slide into his DMs like a normal person."

Easier said than done when Leo moved like lightning across the court—fast, brilliant, completely in his element. Meanwhile, Maya couldn't even function without overthinking everything first.

Thunder rumbled. The sky had turned that weird greenish-gray that meant serious weather incoming. But Leo and his friends kept playing, their笑声 carrying over the fence.

"Should we tell them it's about to pour?" Santana asked, already backing toward her car.

"Give me five minutes," Maya pleaded. "I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna go talk to him."

"You've been saying that for—"

*CRACK.*

Lightning struck the court's floodlights. Everything went pitch black.

Screams. Laughter. The sheer chaos of sixteen teenagers caught in a sudden downpour.

Maya froze, then scrambled toward the court through the rain, phone clutched in her hand. "Everyone okay?"

A flashlight beam cut through the darkness. Leo's voice: "Yeah, we're—Maya?"

She froze. He knew her name?

"I live right there," she pointed unnecessarily. "I was just—I wanted to make sure you were—"

Leo sloshed through the rain, grinning. His hair was plastered to his forehead. He looked ridiculous. He looked perfect.

"You've been at those matches every Tuesday and Thursday," he said. "I was gonna come say hi, but you always looked like you were working on something important."

Maya felt her face burn. "I was... studying. The art of not being awkward at sports."

Leo laughed, and it was better than any sound she'd ever heard. "Well, you succeeded at not playing. That counts, right?"

Another flash of lightning illuminated everything—the court, the rain, Leo's extended hand.

"I'm Leo, by the way."

"Maya."

"Wanna help me find my phone in the grass, Maya? Unless you have somewhere better to be?"

"This," she said, "is exactly where I'm supposed to be."

Santana honked from her car. Maya waved her off. Some things were worth getting soaked for. Some lightning strikes, it turned out, were exactly what you'd been waiting for—all along.