Orange Hair and the Pool Party

Maya stood in front of the mirror, her newly dyed orange hair staring back at her like a neon sign screaming "LOOK AT ME." Three weeks of high school had been three weeks of invisible, and Maya was done being the girl who sat in the back row, the one nobody noticed.

"You look like a traffic cone," her little brother announced from the doorway.

"Perfect," Maya said, grabbing her pool party invitation. "That's the vibe."

The party was at Jake Thompson's house—Jake, who played soccer and had perfect hair and probably didn't even know Maya's name. Her hands kept finding their way to her orange locks, checking, like maybe the color had decided to behave itself in the last five minutes.

Nope. Still orange.

"Whoa," someone said when she walked in. "Maya? Is that... orange?"

"Yeah," she said, her voice smaller than she wanted. "Temporary dye. It washes out."

But heads were turning. People were actually looking AT her instead of THROUGH her. Jake Thompson waved from across the pool. That was new.

Then came the cannonball.

Water exploded everywhere, drenching Maya's carefully styled hair. She froze, waiting for the embarrassment, waiting for everyone to laugh at the orange-haired girl who looked like a wet traffic cone.

Instead, Jake swam over. "Nice hair," he said, grinning. "Looks way better now. Kinda punk."

"Punk?" Maya repeated.

"Yeah. Like you don't care what anyone thinks." He paused. "Wish I was that brave."

Brave. Her. Maya thought about all the times she'd raised her hand in class, how she'd joined the robotics club alone, how she'd worn that vintage jacket everyone made fun of. She'd always thought those things made her weird. Maybe they made her brave.

A cat appeared on the pool deck, strutting like it owned the place. Maya watched it pause, dip a paw in the water, shake it off disdainfully, and continue on its way.

"That cat has more swagger than all of us," Jake laughed.

Maya touched her wet, orange hair. "Yeah," she said. "It really does."

And for the first time all night, she smiled like she actually meant it.