Palm Sweat Pool Party

Maya's palms were literally sweating through her denim shorts. This was it. The first party of freshman year, and she was standing on the edge of Jake Morrison's backyard pool like a total loser while everyone else was already swimming like they'd been doing it their whole lives.

"You coming in or what?" Jake called from the water, shaking his wet hair like some adorable golden retriever. Maya's stomach did that thing where it forgot how to exist.

Her hair was straightened to perfection this morning—three hours and a flat iron that could probably fry an egg—but humidity had already turned it into something that looked like a electrocuted poodle. She'd spent forever getting ready, and now she was freezing up because the one time she'd tried swimming in public was seventh grade PE class, where she'd accidentally shown everyone her period-stained bikini bottom. She still had nightmares.

Jake's dog, a chaotic husky named Rocket, chose that moment to sprint full-speed toward the pool and launch himself into the water, creating a tsunami that splashed directly onto Maya's feet.

"Rocket, you demon!" Jake laughed, paddling over to grab the shaking dog.

Maya stood there, palms so slick she could probably hydritate a small village, watching Jake wrestle his dog in the water, both of them laughing and wet and perfect.

You know what? Whatever. If she was going to embarrass herself, she might as well commit.

Maya jumped.

The water hit her like truth—cold, shocking, real. She came up sputtering while Jake grinned at her, Rocket paddling between them like a furry referee.

"Finally!" Jake said. "I was literally about to send a search party."

Maya's hair was wrecked. Her makeup was probably gone. But for the first time in forever, her palms weren't sweating. Because they were underwater, where nobody could see them being nervous anyway.

"Took you long enough," she shot back, treading water and trying to look like someone who didn't overthink everything.

Jake's smile softened into something else. Something that made her pulse do jumping jacks. "Yeah. But you're here now."

Rocket barked, and Maya laughed—really laughed—and finally understood what everyone meant about just jumping in anyway.