Pool Party Recon

Maya adjusted her strapless bikini top for the third time, feeling exposed. The pool party raged around her—Jake's epic end-of-summer blowout that everyone had been hyping on Snapchat for weeks. Meanwhile, she hovered near the snack table like a total creeper, basically **spy**-ing on her own classmates from behind a bag of Doritos.

Lena and her squad flaunted their fake tans by the **pool**, laughing that practiced laugh that said everything was amazing and nothing was awkward. Maya's palms started sweating—like, actually slick. She glanced down at her open **palm**, tracing the lifeline like her Nana used to do. "Short lifeline," Nana would cluck. "That means you gotta live fast."

Yeah. Fast. Like how she'd wasted three months of freshman year crushing on Jake from algebra without ever stringing together a complete sentence around him.

"Hey."

Maya practically jumped out of her skin. Jake stood there, hair dripping wet, holding two sodas. "You been over here all night? You okay?"

"Yeah! Totally. Just... vibing." Lame. So lame.

Jake's eyes flickered with something—annoyance? amusement? Then **lightning** cracked across the sky, illuminating his worried expression. The crowd screamed and scattered toward the patio as thunder rattled the pool fence.

"Come on!" Jake grabbed her hand, pulling her toward the covered porch. They huddled under the overhang, shoulder to shoulder, watching the downpour turn the pool into churning silver.

"I was gonna ask you to dance," Jake said over the rain. "But now it's kinda... wet."

Maya's heart did that embarrassingly fluttery thing. "We could still... I mean, if you want?"

Jake grinned, and it wasn't his practiced Instagram smile. It was real. "Yeah. I want."