Palm Sweat and Papaya Dreams

Maya's palms were sweating so bad she could barely grip her phone. This was it—the first proper pool party of freshman year, and somehow she'd actually been invited. Jessica Barker's house. The girl who made TikToks that got like fifty thousand views.

Standing by the edge of the pool, Maya felt like everyone was looking at her. Which they probably weren't, because that was the whole point—nobody was actually watching, but her brain insisted they were. She'd spent two hours straightening her hair this morning, and now the humidity was already making it frizz up like she'd stuck her finger in an electrical socket.

"Hey, you gonna swim or what?"

It was Tyler, from her biology class. The one whose notes she'd borrowed twice and who'd drawn a little smiley face on the second page. Her stomach did this full-on gymnastics routine.

"Um, yeah, just gotta—" Maya gestured vaguely at nothing.

"Here." He held out a chunk of bright orange fruit. "My mom went through this tropical phase. It's papaya. You ever had it?"

Maya shook her head, took it. "Is it good?"

"Kind of tastes like... if cantaloupe and a really expensive candle had a baby." Tyler shrugged. "But like, in a good way."

She bit into it and tried not to make a face. It wasn't bad, exactly, just... confusing. Like how she felt about everything lately.

"You good? You seem kinda stressed." He tilted his head, and a wet lock of hair dripped water onto his shoulder.

"I'm fine," Maya lied. "Just not super great at the whole pool party thing. I feel like everyone else got the manual and I'm over here winging it."

"Oh my god, same though." Tyler laughed. "I've been to like three of these and I still don't know what I'm doing. I'm just trying to bear it until pizza gets here."

Maya snorted before she could stop herself.

"What?" He grinned. "Too real?"

"No, it's just—" She looked around at all the people who seemed so confident, so sure of themselves. "I thought it was just me."

"Nah, everyone's faking it." He cannonballed into the pool, splashing water all over her freshly straightened hair.

Maya wiped her face, took another bite of papaya, and jumped in after him.

Her hair was ruined. Her palms were still sweaty. But for the first time all day, she wasn't thinking about it.