Pool Party Panic

Maya stared at the **vitamin** gummy on her tongue — her mom's latest attempt to fix her "deficiencies." She swallowed it with a grimace, checking her phone for the tenth time. Liam's pool party started in twenty minutes and she was literally vibrating with anxiety.

"You got this," she whispered to her reflection, adjusting her bikini top. Except she didn't got this. Maya had barely mastered **swimming** without doing that panicked flailing thing that made everyone stare. Last summer at camp, she'd accidentally splashed the entire junior varsity swim team. They still called her "Splash Gordon" in the hallways.

The party was already in full swing when she arrived. Liam, with his perfect hair and lacrosse-player shoulders, was by the grill. Maya clutched her towel like a lifeline, scanning for her best friend Sam. Instead, she found herself cornered by Chloe, the kind of pretty that made you question your entire existence.

"Oh my god, are those **padel** courts behind your house?" Chloe asked someone, but her eyes locked on Maya. "You're Liam's math tutor, right? The one who failed that test?"

Maya's face burned. She'd aced that test. But before she could defend herself, her phone buzzed. Sam: *Where r u???*

She escaped toward the house, bumping into a cooler. Her phone slipped from her hand, sliding across the wet deck and — *splash* — directly into the deep end.

"NO!" Maya shrieked, staring at the sinking device. Her entire life was in there. Her playlists. Her embarrassing notes app poetry. Her texting history with Liam that she reread approximately one thousand times per night.

"I'll get it!" Liam shouted, already diving in.

Maya watched, torn between gratitude and wanting to evaporate. When he surfaced, dripping wet with her phone, he laughed. "Good thing I was on the swim team, yeah?"

"Yeah," she managed. "Good thing."

"Hey," he said, shaking water from his hair. "You want to hang out by the **goldfish** pond? It's quieter out there."

The goldfish pond. Where she'd definitely compare her social skills to those tiny, memoryless fish swimming in endless circles.

"Sure," Maya said, feeling something shift in her chest. Maybe today wasn't a total disaster. Maybe she could do this. Maybe.

Then she saw her little brother's stuffed **bear** sitting on a lawn chair where she'd accidentally dropped it that morning while grabbing her towel.