Orange Converse at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Maya stared at her orange Converse—the only bright spot in her otherwise terrified existence as a high school freshman. Everyone knew the social pyramid was real, and she'd landed somewhere near the basement, wedged between the kids who smelled like permanent marker and the ones who asked too many questions in algebra.

"Fresh meat," whispered Chelsea, resplendent in crop tops and confidence as she glided past Maya's locker. Maya clutched her orange tighter. Literally. Her mom had packed one in her lunch. Again.

"Need a ride home?" The voice belonged to Liam, whose baseball cap was permanently backward and whose name echoed through the hallways like he was already famous. He'd hit two home runs Friday's game, which apparently made him minor royalty.

Maya's brain short-circuited. "I—uh—"

"Cool." He nodded like she'd said yes. "I'm parked by the baseball field."

The water fountain chose that exact moment to explode. Not a trickle—a full-on fountain arc that sprayed Maya's orange Converse and half of Liam's letterman jacket.

For three seconds, she wanted to evaporate. Then Liam started laughing. Not mean laughing. The kind where he actually had to wipe his eyes.

"Dude," he said. "That was epic."

They spent the next twenty minutes sitting on the bleachers while she dried her shoes with napkins from her lunch. He talked about baseball like it was philosophy. She found herself explaining why orange was the most misunderstood color.

"My neighbor's dog," Liam said suddenly. "Mr. Henderson's golden retriever? He's supposed to walk her after school but he broke his leg. You want—maybe—you want to help me?"

Maya looked at her drying orange shoes. Then at him, really looking, past the backward cap and the baseball glory to the guy whose laugh sounded like something she might want to hear again.

"Sure," she said. "But I'm picking the route."

"Deal."

The social pyramid was still there. But somehow, somewhere between the water fountain disaster and a golden retriever named Buster, Maya had stopped looking at the bottom.