Papaya Palm Protocol

Maya's palms were sweating. Like, actually dripping onto her favorite ripped jeans. She'd been psyching herself up to talk to Kai at the tropical-themed pool party for twenty minutes, and her internal monologue was having a meltdown.

"You've got this," she whispered to herself. "Just act normal. Chill. Vibe."

Her phone buzzed. Group chat with Renee and Sam:

Renee: queen behavior if you just slide up to him rn

Sam: literally just say hi it's not that deep 💀

Easy for them to say. Maya adjusted her crop top for the fiftieth time, checked her reflection in the sliding glass door, and started toward Kai.

Running on pure adrenaline and three cans of sparkling water, she almost made it. Until her former stepdad's parting gift to her made itself known.

The goldfish.

Not a real one—she wasn't that weird. It was this tiny orange ceramic fish pendant her mom had given her before the divorce. "Good luck," she'd said. Maya wore it for comfort, for the four-dollar cheeseburger money it was supposedly worth.

The pendant snapped off its chain somewhere between her and Kai, pinged against the concrete, and did a perfect Olympic dive into the pool.

"My goldfish!" she yelped, not thinking about how insane that sounded.

Kai looked up from his phone, confused. "...What?"

Every pair of sunglasses at the party turned toward her. Maya's face burned. She stared at the ripples in the pool where her luck—and dignity—now rested at the bottom.

"I mean—my necklace. There's a fish on it. It's ceramic. Not a real goldfish. Obviously." Why did she keep talking.

Someone snorted.

Kai stood up, took off his shirt, and dove into the pool without a word.

Maya stopped breathing. What was happening.

He surfaced after maybe thirty seconds, holding the tiny orange fish between his thumb and forefinger like it was made of actual precious metal instead of four-dollar Claire's jewelry.

"This yours?" Water dripped from his hair onto his shoulders. His eyes were actually really nice up close.

"Yeah," she squeaked. Smooth. "Thanks."

"No problem." He handed it to her, his fingers brushing hers. "Kinda dope, actually. Looks like it's survived some stuff."

Maya stared at him. Was he... was he being nice about her weird thrift store necklace?

"Want some papaya?" he asked, nodding toward the fruit platter. "My mom's obsessed with Hawaiian food. It's actually not terrible if you don't think about how it looks."

Her palm stung where she'd been gripping it so hard. She looked from the dripping goldfish in her hand to Kai's crooked smile, the party chatter fading into background noise.

"Yeah," she said, real this time. "Yeah, I'd love that."