Orange Soda Sunset

Maya's hands shook as she applied the third coat of orange lip gloss. Her first pool party. With popular kids. From the actual high school she'd be attending in September.

"You good?" her best friend Kai asked, already halfway out the door.

"Yeah. Just hyping myself up."

"Bro, you're gonna be fine. Just don't be weird."

Easy for him to say. Kai was the kind of effortlessly cool person who made friends by existing. Maya had to, like, actually try.

The party was at Jessica's house—Jessica, who sat at the top of the eighth-grade social pyramid like she'd personally constructed it. Her backyard featured an actual pool surrounded by perfect people in perfectly matching outfits.

Maya grabbed an orange soda from the cooler and stood near the cat lounging on a lounge chair like it owned the place. At least the cat didn't judge her awkward one-piece.

"Hey, nice suit," said a voice behind her. "Orange really pops on you."

Maya turned. It was Jessica. Actual Jessica, walking over like Maya was someone worth talking to.

"Thanks," Maya managed. Her face burned hotter than the July sun.

"I love your cat," she added, gesturing to the lounge chair.

"Oh, that's Fox," Jessica laughed. "He basically runs the neighborhood. Got him from the shelter last year—someone found him in a dumpster behind the old grocery store. Can you believe people?"

Jessica sat on the edge of the chair, scratching Fox's ears. The cat leaned into her touch like this was normal. Like popular girls randomly sat with new kids and talked about rescue cats.

"So," Jessica said, "you doing swim team next year? You've got a swimmer's build."

"Maybe? I mean, I like swimming. But I'm not like, competitive-level good or anything."

"Nobody starts competitive-level good, duh." She rolled her eyes, but nicely. "We're doing tryouts next week if you're interested. The team's actually chill—no toxic pyramid stuff, I promise. We literally voted to ban ranking swimmers by speed last season because it was messing with everyone's mental health."

Maya blinked. This was not the terrifying queen bee she'd built up in her head.

"I'll think about it," she said.

"Cool. You should." Jessica stood up. "Anyway, I'm gonna go rescue my cousin from that pyramid of red cups. Jordan's trying to convince everyone it's 'skillfully engineered' but it's definitely about to collapse. You coming?"

Maya looked at Fox, who was now watching her with what appeared to be genuine interest. She took a breath and followed.

"Yeah," she said. "I'm coming."

The pyramid collapsed anyway, splashing everyone. But Maya found herself laughing with actual popular kids, orange lip gloss still intact, ready for whatever high school actually had in store.