Orange Lightning, Fox Wild

Maya's orange hair felt like a beacon screaming "look at me" as she hovered at the edge of Kyle's basement party. She'd dyed it yesterday, impulse decision after another fight with her mom about "not applying herself." Now, standing alone in a corner with her plastic cup of lukewarm punch, she wondered if maybe her mom had a point. About the application part, not the hair. The hair was fire.

"Nice fox, Maya."

She jumped. Jake Collins, varsity quarterback and general king of sophomore year, stood way too close. His gaze dropped to her hoodie—a thrifted gem with a fox head mid-howl that she'd embroidered with tiny lightning bolts around the collar last summer.

"Thanks," she managed, then cursed herself for sounding so breathless. Jake Collins. Talking to HER. The universe had clearly lost its mind.

"I like what you did with the lightning." He fingered the collar, and Maya's brain short-circuited. He noticed? He actually NOTICED?

"Yeah, I—" Spinach. From lunch. She could FEEL it, wedged between her front teeth like a neon sign announcing her social death.

His eyebrows knitted. "You okay?"

Maya bolted. Up the stairs, past the kitchen, into the bathroom where she stared at herself in the mirror. Green flecks. OF COURSE. She scrubbed with her fingernail, mouthwash, about four inches of toilet paper.

When she emerged, Jake was waiting against the hallway wall, scrolling his phone like he hadn't just witnessed her panic spiral.

"Better?" he asked.

Maya's face burned. "You saw that."

"The spinach escape mission?" His crooked grin was dangerous. "Hard to miss. But honestly?"

He stepped closer.

"I liked that you ran. Most people would've tried to play it cool. You owned it. That's... that's genuinely kind of badass."

Something inside her chest cracked open. Not bad crack. Lightning crack. Her fox hoodie suddenly felt like armor instead of something to hide behind.

"I'm Maya," she said, and this time she didn't sound breathless. She sounded like someone who knew exactly who she was.

"Jake." He held out his hand. "Wanna get some air? My cousin's growing something wicked in the backyard."

Maya grinned. "Lead the way, Collins."