Papara Summer

Marcus's mom had gone full wellness influencer over the summer. The kitchen counter looked like a pharmacy aisle — bottles of vitamin D, zinc, magnesium, and some sketchy probiotics that smelled like a gym bag left in the sun. Every morning, Marcus had to choke down handful of pills while his mom filmed it for her 'Teen Wellness Journey' TikTok series.

"You'll thank me when you're my age," she'd say, adjusting her ring light.

Marcus would thank her when he could eat pizza again without a lecture about inflammation.

The worst part was the papaya. His mom had decided it was a 'superfood' and bought three crates of them from some farm stand. They sat in the kitchen like orange alien eggs, mocking him every time he opened the fridge.

"Just try it, sweetie," she pleaded, slicing into one. The smell hit him — somewhere between a dirty sock and a melon that had given up on life.

His sister Maya took one bite and immediately fake-gagged for dramatic effect. Their dad managed to escape to work early every morning, the coward.

But Buster, their golden retriever mix, was having none of it. Marcus had seen that dog eat literally everything — shoes, homework, an entire birthday cake that fell on the floor. Yet when Marcus's mom offered him a piece of papaya, Buster gave him a look that said, 'Bro, I literally can't even with your family.'

That was when Marcus knew: if the creature who'd eaten a bees' nest wouldn't touch papaya, neither should he.

His friends thought this was the funniest thing ever. Chloe started texting him 'papaya check?' as a joke whenever they hung out. Ryan called it 'the great rebellion of 2024' and made TikTok edits of Buster dramatically rejecting the fruit.

But here's the thing about being fifteen — you find your own way to rebel. Marcus started taking his vitamins in secret, spitting them out when his mom wasn't looking. He learned that the papaya smoothies were actually pretty decent if you added enough berries. And he figured out that sometimes, fighting your parents' weird phases wasn't worth the energy.

By August, his mom had moved on to kombucha brewing. The papayas rotted in the compost. Buster went back to eating everything in sight. And Marcus discovered that the vitamin gummies his mom bought actually tasted pretty good.

The real superfood turned out to be learning how to pick your battles. That, and the way Buster would rest his head on Marcus's knee whenever the wellness nonsense got too intense. Some dogs just got it.