Operation Midnight Prowl

Barnaby—my orange tabby with zero boundaries—sat on my windowsill like a furry gargoyle, judging my outfit choice for the third time. The swimming party at Kayla's house was in two hours, and I was definitely spiraling.

"You're overthinking it again," my sister called from her room, where she was somehow already TikTok-ready. "Just go. Have fun. Don't be weird."

Easy for her to say. She wasn't the one who'd had a panic attack in the locker room last week when someone joked about how the pool water made everyone look like prunes.

I adjusted my swimsuit strap for the fiftieth time. Barnaby yawned, unimpressed.

The party was... fine. Mostly. I stuck to the shallow end, clutching my phone like a lifeline, pretending I wasn't hyper-aware of how my thighs looked in motion. That's when I noticed—Kayla's older brother wasn't with his usual crowd. He was sneaking behind the shed with...

My brain fired three signals at once: NO WAY, ACTUALLY YES WAY, and OH SNAP.

I went full spy mode. Silent swimmer mode. Gliding through the water like I was in a low-budget spy movie, except also trying not to splash and definitely trying not to look like a total creeper.

Behind the shed, Tyler (Kayla's brother) and Maya (the new girl from AP Bio) were definitely conspiring. About what, I couldn't hear, but the way they kept glancing around like they were hiding state secrets?

I needed to get closer.

Barnaby chose that moment to make his entrance. Because apparently my orange cat had decided to attend a swimming party. He padded through the open gate like he owned the place, tail up, radiating chaotic energy.

"CAT!" someone screamed. "There's a CAT in the POOL AREA!"

Complete chaos. People were splashing, scrambling, someone's phone almost took a dive. Tyler and Maya bolted from behind the shed, looking guilty AF.

Barnaby sat there, orange tail twitching, watching humans lose their minds like this was exactly according to his master plan.

Later, I found out what they were hiding: they were planning a surprise anniversary party for Kayla's parents. The thing they'd been conspiring about behind the shed?

Maya had been sneaking around because she's a party planner. Not even kidding—she runs this whole side business doing events.

"You could've just asked," I told her the next week at school. "I'm great at keeping secrets."

She laughed. "You and your cat are apparently the worst secret keepers ever."

Fair.

But sometimes the best things happen when your orange cat crashes the party, you accidentally go full spy, and you realize everyone's just pretending to have it together.