Pool Party Panic

My palms were sweating so bad I could practically fill a water bottle. Not exactly the vibe you want when you're about to walk into Jessica Martinez's legendary end-of-summer pool party.

"You good, bro?" Marcus asked, already halfway down the driveway in his board shorts.

"Yeah, just... lemme tie my shoe."

I stalled, kneeling by the curb like my laces suddenly required surgical precision. Truth was, I was wearing my dad's old cable-knit sweater over my swim trunks because I'd somehow convinced myself it made me look "aesthetic and mysterious" instead of "terrified of showing my basically-normal body to people I see every day at school."

Marcus's chocolate lab, Buster, chose that moment to abandon all dignity go completely insane, barking at something in the Martinez's front yard and taking off at full sprint.

"BUSTER!" Marcus yelled, already running after him.

I scrambled up, sweater and dignity abandoned, chasing them both through the perfectly manicured landscaping. We burst through the gate into backyard chaos — music, floats, and about half our grade already in the pool.

Buster made a beeline for the water and cannonballed in like he'd been waiting his whole life for this moment. People screamed. Laughed. Someone's phone nearly died.

Jessica Martinez herself waded over, pushing her sunglasses up like this was the best thing that had ever happened at her party. "OMG, a dog! Who's a good boy?"

Buster swam circles around her, living his absolute best life.

"That's, uh, my friend's dog," I said, standing there in my cable-knit sweater like a total weirdo while water dripped everywhere. "Sorry, he just..."

"No, this is perfect," she said, grinning. "Way better than another round of truth or dare where everyone just picks dare anyway." She splashed water at me. "You coming in or what?"

I looked around — Marcus already doing something stupid off the diving board, people actually laughing, not at me, but with the situation. The sweater came off. I jumped in.

Later, floating in the deep end with chlorine in my eyes and the weird realization that nobody actually cared what I looked like, I caught Jessica watching me from the pool's edge. She raised her palm in a tiny wave.

I waved back. My palms weren't sweating anymore.

Turns out, the scariest part was always in my head.