Palm Reader by the Pool

The **water** in the community pool shimmered like liquid glass, reflecting the California sunset that painted everything in hues of mango and apricot. Maya stood at the edge, clutching her solo cup like it was a lifeline, while everyone else splashed and screamed like they'd invented fun.

"You coming in or what?" Ethan called from the deep end. His hair was plastered to his forehead, droplets racing down his cheeks like he'd been crying, but he was grinning that stupid grin that made half the sophomore class swoon.

"Maybe later," Maya said, taking a tiny sip of lukewarm punch that tasted like artificial everything. She'd spent forty-five minutes picking out this swimsuit—black one-piece, modest but cute—and now she felt ridiculous standing there fully dry while everyone else looked like a mer-person convention.

That's when she noticed the **cat**.

A scrawny tabby had appeared from nowhere, weaving between pool chairs with the confidence of someone who owned the place. It paused near Maya's flip-flops, gave her an appraising look, and began aggressively licking its **paw**.

Maya crouched down, extending a hand. "Hey little guy. You hiding too?"

The cat investigated her fingers, then decided she was acceptable. It head-butted her palm with surprising force, and Maya felt something loosen in her chest. At least someone here wanted to be near her.

"That's Papaya," said a voice behind her. Maya turned to find a girl with bright blue hair and mismatched socks sitting on a lounge chair, reading a book with no cover. "She showed up last summer. Nobody knows whose cat she actually is. She just kinda adopts people."

"Papaya?"

"Because she's orange inside when she's happy," Blue Hair said, like this explained everything. "I'm Riley, by the way. I'd ask your name, but I can see you're busy having an existential crisis by the pool edge."

Maya let out a surprised laugh. "Is it that obvious?"

"Only to other people having them." Riley patted the empty space on her chair. "Want to sit? There's enough social battery conservation happening over here for both of us."

The cat—**Papaya**—jumped onto Riley's lap like she'd been invited, and something about the effortless way Riley stroked her fur made Maya's shoulders drop two inches. She sat.

"I don't know how to just... exist in groups like this," Maya admitted quietly. "Everyone else has these perfect little friend groups and inside jokes and I'm just... background character energy."

Riley looked at her, really looked at her. "You know what's funny? I was literally just thinking the same thing about you. You looked like you had it all figured out, standing there looking mysterious and aloof."

"Mysterious and aloof? I was panicking!"

"Same diff." Riley grinned. "Here's the thing about pool parties: nobody's having as much fun as they look like they are. Except maybe Papaya. She's living her best life."

The cat chose that moment to knock Riley's book off the chair and sprawl across her stomach like she owned it.

"See?" Riley said. "Priorities."

Maya looked out at the pool, where Ethan was now attempting to do a handstand in the shallow end while three girls filmed him. The sun had dipped below the horizon, and pool lights flickered on, turning the **water** into something that looked like liquid stars. It wasn't as scary as it had been five minutes ago.

"So," Riley said, "want to go get some snacks? I saw a tray of fruit earlier and I'm 90% sure there's still **papaya** left. Nobody eats it but me."

Maya stood up, brushing cat hair from her legs. "Yeah. Actually, yeah I do."

As they walked toward the snack table together, Papaya trailing behind them like a fuzzy orange shadow, Maya realized something: maybe the trick wasn't becoming a different person. Maybe the trick was finding the other background characters and realizing you were the main characters of your own story all along.

And if all else failed, at least there was papaya.