Orange Hair and Deep Ends

The pool party was already in full swing when Maya arrived, her freshly-dyed orange hair making her feel like a walking traffic cone. She'd done it on impulse—something about shedding her good-girl image before sophomore year—but now, standing at the chain-link fence in her oversized t-shirt, she seriously underestimated how much attention it would draw.

"Maya! Finally!" Chloe screamed from the diving board, doing some questionable splashing thing that definitely wasn't actual swimming. "Get your butt in here!"

Everyone stopped. Like, literally everyone. Maya felt twelve pairs of eyes lock onto her orange hair, her still-dry body, her complete lack of swimming abilities that she'd been hiding since seventh grade when she almost drowned during lessons. The social hierarchy at Jefferson High was brutal enough without adding "can't even doggy-paddle" to her list of perceived failures.

She grabbed a vitamin water from the cooler on the patio—something orange and healthy-looking that she hoped made her look chill and athletic instead of terrified. "Coming!"

But her feet weren't moving.

Then this guy Leo (who she'd been lowkey crushing on since geometry) swam over to the shallow end and leaned his arms on the concrete. His wet hair was plastered to his forehead and he looked annoyingly good. "Hey, orange hair. Nice."

She froze. Was that a good nice or a "you look like a radioactive carrot" nice?

"Thanks. It's... new."

"You swimming or just planning to chlorinate yourself from a distance?" Leo grinned, and something in his expression said he knew. He KNEW she was scared.

Maya's face burned hotter than her hair probably would under actual sun. "I was just about to—"

"The shallow end's literally three feet deep, Maya." His voice dropped, like this was just between them. "I won't let anything happen to you."

She met his eyes—really looked at them—and whatever she saw there made her pull off her t-shirt and slide into the pool in one motion before her brain could talk her out of it.

The water shocked her skin. Leo was right there, treading water nearby, keeping his distance but close enough that she felt safe. She started doing this terrible panicked doggy-paddle-slash-treading-water thing that was definitely not graceful but she was DOING it.

"See?" Leo splashed water at her. "You're literally swimming. Sort of."

Maya laughed so hard she accidentally inhaled some pool water and spent the next minute coughing while everyone stared AGAIN. But this time, when she could finally breathe, Leo was laughing too, and Chloe was whooping from the diving board, and for the first time in forever, Maya didn't feel like she was faking it.

"You good, orange?" Leo asked, still grinning.

She was. She really was.