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Maya's older brother was a total bear about his room. Like, actually growl-if-you-touch-his-stuff bear. But that wasn't even the weird part.

The weird part was the bull.

Every night, Marcus would sneak into the living room and watch stock market tiktoks until 3 AM. He was obsessed with this dude called "BullRunner" who claimed to have inside intel. "The spy," Marcus called him reverently, like he was some kind of financial genius instead of just some guy in a basement making videos about cryptocurrency.

"You're literally letting some internet spy control your life," Maya told him one Tuesday while scrolling through her phone.

Marcus didn't even look up. "You wouldn't understand. This is the future."

The future, apparently, involved Marcus blowing his graduation money on some "guaranteed" bull market tip that turned out to be, shockingly, not guaranteed.

Meanwhile, Maya had discovered padel. Like, actually fallen in love with it. The sport was everywhere on her feed—girls her age smashing little balls around enclosed courts, looking effortless and cool. She'd been begging her parents to sign her up for months.

"It's basically tennis but shorter," she'd explain, dodging the fact that she'd never actually played tennis either. "Everyone's doing it."

The day Marcus's investment tanked—because of course it did, because BullRunner was apparently not a financial wizard but just some guy who was good at making dramatic videos—Maya found him on the couch, looking like he'd seen a ghost.

"I lost it all," he whispered. "My money. My future."

Maya sat beside him. She didn't say anything about how she'd warned him. She didn't bring up the spy who wasn't really a spy, or the bull market that wasn't actually bullish. Instead, she handed him her phone.

"I finally got signed up for padel lessons," she said. "They needed one more person for doubles. Want to come with?"

Marcus stared at her like she'd grown an extra head. Then, finally, a tiny smile.

"Fine," he said. "But I'm not wearing those cute little skirts."

Maya laughed. "Deal."

The bull was dead, long live the padel court. And maybe, just maybe, her brother wasn't such a bear after all.