Pool Party Protocol

Maya felt like a social zombie, shuffling around the perimeter of Jenna's backyard pool party while everyone else seemed to actually be living. The cool kids clustered by the diving board, their laughter cutting through the humid afternoon air. Maya had been invited—barely—but that didn't mean she knew how to exist here.

"Yo, Maya! You gonna get in or what?" Tyler called out, splashing water from where he floated on an inflatable flamingo. His neon swim trunks screamed confidence.

"Uh, maybe later," Maya mumbled, even though she'd brought her swimsuit. The real problem wasn't the water. It was that she still couldn't believe she'd finally gotten invited to one of these, and now she was freezing up.

She felt like a spy operating deep behind enemy lines, observing but never participating. That's when she spotted it—a small, defeated goldfish flopping on the concrete near the pool's edge, probably somebody's carnival prize gone rogue.

Without thinking, Maya rushed over and scooped it up. The fish's desperate gills flared against her palm.

"Dude, is that Goldie?" Jenna appeared beside her, dripping wet. "My brother won him at the fair last week. He's been missing forever."

"He was flopping over here," Maya said, her heart pounding.

"You literally saved him," Jenna said, eyes wide. "That's actually so badass."

By the time Maya had transferred Goldie to a temporary bowl in the kitchen, half the party was gathered around. Someone handed her a slice of pizza. Tyler offered her the flamingo.

"You're not weird," Jenna told her while Maya finally changed into her swimsuit. "You're just observant. Like a ninja fish rescuer."

"Swimming" had always been Maya's metaphor for social interaction—sink or swim, right? But as she finally jumped into the pool, surfacing with a splash that got everyone wet, she realized something. She didn't have to be the most popular person in the water. She just had to jump in.

The goldfish was safe. She was swimming. And okay, maybe she wasn't a zombie after all.