Operation Goldfish Bowl

Maya pressed her phone against her chest, heart hammering like she'd been caught cheating on a final exam. She wasn't technically doing anything wrong—unless you counted borderline-stalking her crush's Instagram stories as a federal offense.

"You good?" Kayla asked from her beanbag chair, not looking up from her phone.

"Fine," Maya lied. "Just doing some research."

"On Jordan? Again? Girl, you've been playing secret agent since September. At this point you're basically a spy who forgot their actual mission."

Maya flushed. "It's not stalking if everything's public. That's, like, Social Media Ethics 101."

Her mom's golden retriever, Barnaby, chose that moment to lumber into the room and rest his giant furry chin on Maya's knee. He let out a dramatic sigh, as if personally disappointed in her life choices.

"Even Barnaby thinks you're being extra," Kayla said.

"Barnaby thinks cheese sticks are the peak of culinary achievement," Maya shot back, scratching behind his ears. "His opinion is invalid."

The truth was, Maya did feel like she was living in a goldfish bowl—constantly watched, constantly performing, never quite brave enough to actually swim up to the surface and say something real. Jordan had posted a story forty minutes ago: a photo of the sunset captioned "thinking about changes."

What did that even MEAN?

"You know," Kayla said, finally tossing her phone onto her bed, "there's this revolutionary concept called actually talking to people. My cousin swears by it. Says it's way more effective than creeping through eight months of someone's tagged photos."

Maya groaned and dropped her head back. "I KNOW, okay? But what if I'm weird? What if I say something dumb? What if he doesn't even like me like that and I make everything awkward forever?"

"What if he's been waiting for you to say literally anything?" Kayla countered. "What if you're not the only one playing goldfish bowl?"

Barnaby let out a soft bark and nudged Maya's hand with his wet nose.

"See?" Kayla said. "Even the dog agrees."

Maya looked at Jordan's profile one more time, then pressed follow. Her hands shook as she typed: "Hey! I like your photography. That sunset pic was genuinely really good."

Two minutes later: "Thanks! I've seen you around school—you're in AP Lit with my sister, right? We should hang sometime."

Maya screamed.

"Well," Kayla said, grinning. "Glad you finally decided to stop being a spy and actually join the mission."