Orange Crush at the Padel Court

Maya dragged herself through the hallway like a literal zombie, thanks to pulling an all-nighter for Mr. Henderson's bio test. Her mom had insisted she take some megadose vitamin before school, which honestly felt like adding insult to injury at this point.

"You coming to the courts?" Jake asked, falling into step beside her. His orange hoodie was blindingly bright against the drab school walls—classic Jake, always unapologetically himself.

"Padel? Really? I'm barely functioning here."

"Exactly. You need to get destroyed by me. It's character building."

The padel courts behind the rec center were their spot—where they'd dissect crush drama, complain about teachers, and occasionally actually play. Today, a group of popular kids from the neighboring high school were already there, looking annoyingly put together.

"No way," Maya whispered. "That's Alex's crew."

"So?" Jake grabbed a racket from his bag and tossed it to her. "Show them what you've got."

The first game was a disaster. Maya missed everything, her brain still running on fumes and caffeine. But somewhere between the second and third games, something clicked. She stopped overthinking, stopped caring about who was watching. The rhythm of the ball against the glass walls became meditative, and she found herself laughing at Jake's terrible jokes between points.

By the time they finished, sweating and high-fiving, Maya felt actually alive for the first time all day. The popular kids had left ages ago.

"You know," Jake said, "you played way better when you stopped trying to impress everyone."

Maya smiled, twirling her racket. "Yeah. Maybe you're onto something."

"Also, you're definitely not a zombie anymore."

"Still taking that vitamin though."

"Fair." He checked his phone. "Wanna go again tomorrow?"

"Absolutely."

Walking home, Maya realized she hadn't thought about Alex once. And that felt like a win.