Pool Party Apocalypse

Maya stood at the edge of the chlorine-blue water, feeling like a total **zombie**. Three hours of sleep and enough anxiety to fuel a small apocalypse would do that to a person. Her best friend Priya had dragged her to Tyler's infamous end-of-summer pool party, and now Maya was trapped between the humid August air and the terrifying prospect of social interaction.

The **pool** glittered like something from a movie where everything goes right for everyone except the protagonist. Tyler's backyard was practically a resort, complete with actual **palm** trees that someone had definitely trucked in from somewhere tropical because this was the suburbs and palm trees didn't just happen here naturally.

"You're literally vibrating," Priya said, shoving a red solo cup into Maya's hand. "Drink some punch and stop looking like you're mentally calculating your social downfall."

Maya's palms were sweating so much she could practically start her own weather system. That was the thing about anxiety – it didn't care that you were fifteen and supposed to be having the time of your life.

She spotted him across the yard. Ethan. The guy she'd been lowkey obsessed with since seventh grade, back when they were both awkward braces-wearers who sat together in math and made fun of their teacher's excessive use of the word "literally." Now he was shirtless by the pool, looking like someone who had never experienced a single moment of self-doubt in his entire life.

Maya drifted toward the backyard's edge where a small outdoor pond sat, trying to look casual and not like someone avoiding their inevitable doom. A tiny orange **goldfish** darted between water lilies, oblivious to the social catastrophe unfolding mere feet away.

"Cool fish, right?"

She jumped. Ethan was beside her, droplets of pool water tracking down his shoulders like something out of a dream she didn't remember having.

"Yeah," Maya managed, before her brain could formulate something devastatingly uncool. "He's got it easier than us."

Ethan laughed. "True. No awkward conversations, no overthinking every text message. Just swimming and eating fish food. Living the dream."

They stood there as the party swirled around them – people cannonballing, someone playing throwbacks that were just old enough to be nostalgic, Priya giving her a thumbs-up from across the yard. Maya's racing heart finally slowed to something resembling normal rhythm.

Maybe she wasn't a zombie after all. Maybe, like the goldfish, she could just float through the chaos without constantly expecting to drown.