Orange Fox, Dead Awake

I've been feeling like a zombie since school started. That walking-dead state where your brain's foggy from three hours of sleep and your coffee's wearing off before first period even ends. My brother Kai calls it my zombie mode, which is hilarious considering he's the one who actually looks like death when he pulls all-nighters gaming.

But today, something snapped me out of it.

I was sitting by the window at Smoothie King, absentmindedly sipping this orange papaya concoction that tasted like sunshine and regret, when I saw her. Fox. That's what everyone calls Maya Fox — red hair that falls in these perfect waves, sharp features, eyes that notice everything. She's the kind of gorgeous that makes you forget your own name.

And there she was, spy-level ducking behind the magazine rack, watching me.

My heart did this embarrassingly loud thump thing. Maya Fox was spying on me? The same Maya Fox who sits three rows back in AP Bio and never seems to notice anyone exists?

I almost choked on my papaya seeds.

She made eye contact, then quickly looked away, grabbing a random magazine like she'd been reading it the whole time. But the cover was upside down. Rookie mistake.

I stood up, legs feeling like they'd forgotten how to human. "Hey," I managed, trying to sound casual and not like I'd been mentally drafting our wedding vows since September.

Maya's face turned this shade of orange that matched my smoothie. "I wasn't—"

"Spying on me?" I raised an eyebrow, channeling confidence I absolutely didn't feel.

She laughed, actually laughed, and suddenly she wasn't this untouchable goddess anymore. Just a girl with orange cheeks and an upside-down magazine. "Maybe I was studying your smoothie choice. Papaya? Bold move."

"It's called living on the edge, Fox."

"Touché." She sat down across from me, and for the first time in months, I didn't feel like a zombie at all. "I'm Maya, by the way. Not that you don't already know that."

"Zara," I said. "And I think I'm going to need you to teach me your spy techniques. That magazine trick needs work."

She grinned, and I knew right then that my zombie days were officially over. Papaya smoothies and suspicious foxes might just be the wake-up call I needed.