Palms, Padel, and Panic

Maya's palms were sweating. Like, actually dripping onto her phone screen, making the iPhone case slippery enough to launch across the room if she sneezed. Which would be fine, really, considering she was hiding in the bathroom at the country club her parents had dragged her to for the summer.

"You coming?" Chloe's voice called through the door. "The padel clinic is starting and Trevor is literally playing shirtless."

Maya wiped her hands on her skirt and groaned. Padel. The sport everyone at her new school was obsessed with, the one her mom kept calling "tennis's cooler cousin." Maya had never held a racquet in her life, but here she was, about to make a complete fool of herself in front of the popular crowd.

She'd spent breakfast over-analyzing everything—her outfit, her hair, whether the spinach from her omelet was still lodged in her teeth. At fifteen, this was basically her full-time job: not embarrassing herself in front of people who wouldn't remember her name in three years.

The clinic was a disaster. Maya tripped over her own feet, missed every ball, and accidentally hit Trevor in the back with her racquet. His shirtless back. The collective gasp from the group felt louder than a thunderclap.

"My bad," she squeaked, face burning.

But Trevor just turned around, grinning. "Solid swing, actually. You almost took me out."

Afterward, Chloe dragged her to the smoothie bar. "Trevor was totally checking you out during stretches."

"He was not. He was checking his iPhone every two seconds."

"Because he was waiting for you to follow him on Insta, duh."

Maya looked down at her phone, her palms still slightly damp. She tapped follow before she could overthink it. Minutes later, her phone buzzed. Trevor had followed back, and sent a DM: "Same time tomorrow? No promises I won't dodge next time lol."

Outside, the palm trees swayed in the breeze, and Maya thought maybe this summer wouldn't be so terrible after all. Her phone buzzed again. Trevor: "Also, you had spinach in your teeth the whole time. Just kidding lol... unless?"

Maya's face burned. But as she typed back "hate you," she was smiling.