Operation Country Club

The lightning flashed across the sky, turning the country club pool deck into something out of a horror movie. Not that anyone noticed. Half the sophomore class was too busy pretending to be living their best life.

"Dude, you're literally vibrating," Chloe said, flopping onto the lounge chair next to me. "Spill."

I'd been pretending to text for twenty minutes while actually spying on Tyler across the pool area. Tyler, who'd sat with me at lunch every day for three weeks. Tyler, who was now playing padel with Brianna—the junior varsity queen who'd never looked twice at me until maybe five minutes ago.

"No spillage occurring," I said, but my voice cracked. Smooth. "Just waiting for this storm to pass."

"Right. Because you're definitely not watching Tyler and Brianna flirt over racquet sports." Chloe sat up, suddenly serious. "Look, I know you're not gonna believe this, but he keeps looking over here too."

"Yeah, to check if I'm witnessing his social assassination."

"Or maybe he's wondering why his girl hasn't come over to say hi yet?" Chloe raised an eyebrow. "He invited you tonight, right? At the same party Brianna's going to be at?"

I nodded slowly. The pieces were clicking into place like I'd been reading the wrong manual the whole time.

Thunder cracked directly overhead. The lifeguards started clearing everyone out of the pool, but I didn't move. I just watched Tyler wipe out on the padel court while trying to show off for Brianna, then look immediately toward me like he was checking my reaction.

Chloe stood up and grinned. "You gonna stay here being a total spy, or are you gonna go help your boy up?"

The rain started falling. I didn't care. I stood up and walked toward the padel courts, finally understanding something I should've known all along: sometimes the person you think is watching someone else is actually watching you.