Market Crash at Lunch

The cafeteria smelled like tater tots and desperation. Maya sat across from me, eyes wide, waiting for an answer. Her favorite striped beanie—stolen from some boy at camp last summer—sat on her head like a crown. I loved that **hat**, but I loved the truth more.

"So?" She tapped her phone. "You in or what?"

I looked at the **padel** tournament flyer she'd slid toward me. Her school's team needed a fourth player. Maya knew I'd played tennis since eighth grade, that my parents had money for lessons and fancy gear. But she didn't know what I'd been doing every lunch break for three months: hunched in the library bathroom, trading crypto on a burner app I'd downloaded with a fake ID.

This morning I'd gone all in on something called BEAR token because the internet said it was mooning. Now it was down 87 percent.

"I can't," I said.

"Why? You're literally better than everyone I know."

A **friend** would've just said it. But my throat closed up. Because the truth was embarrassing: I was fifteen years old and losing grocery money to pretend I understood something—anything—about how the world worked. Meanwhile, my dad talked about **bull** runs at dinner like they were weather patterns, and I nodded along like I wasn't checking my portfolio under the table.

"I just... can't."

Maya's face fell. Then she did something I didn't expect: she laughed.

"You're so dramatic. It's fine." She slid the flyer back. "My cousin said something about **bear** markets anyway. Probably for the best."

She stood up, hat slipping, and caught it before it hit the floor. The boy whose hat it was had transferred to a different district months ago. She was still wearing it.

"Maybe next time," she said, and walked toward the **bull**etin board where someone had posted tryout dates.

I watched her go. Maybe next time. Maybe next time I wouldn't have to sneak around bathroom stalls with a trading app. Maybe next time I'd just be someone who said yes to things.

I checked my phone one last time. BEAR token was up 4 percent.

I cashed out. Twelve dollars and forty cents. Then I stood up and went to find Maya before she left the cafeteria.