Poolside Espionage

Maya adjusted her oversized sunglasses, positioning herself behind the potted fern like a total creep. She was sixteen, not a certified weirdo, but here she was — performing amateur recon on Jordan's pool party like her social life depended on it.

The popular crew clustered near the deep end, Jordan's laugh cutting through the splash wars. Maya should've just gone home after her shift at Smoothie Heaven, but no. She had to linger like some desperate wannabe.

Then she saw it — an orange pool noodle, abandoned near the fence. And something else moving through the hydrangeas.

A cat. A massive, judgmental-looking tabby with one orange patch over its eye, staring at her like *you're not fooling anyone, kid.*

"What are you looking at?" Maya whispered. The cat blinked slowly, then darted toward the party like it owned the place.

Maya panicked. If that cat disrupted the party and everyone saw her lurking, she'd officially become the neighborhood Freak Who Spies on Pool Parties. She scrambled after it, tripping over her own flip-flops.

"Cat! Wait!"

The tabby beelined for the refreshment table, where it proceeded to knock over an entire bowl of oranges. The fruit rolled everywhere like chaotic orange spheres of doom. Jordan and everyone turned to stare.

And there was Maya, sweaty and breathless, standing behind the potted fern she'd been "hiding" behind for twenty minutes.

"Were you... spying on us?" Jordan asked, sounding weirdly amused.

The cat sat on the table, looking supremely pleased with itself. Maya's face burned hotter than July asphalt.

"I was just — the cat —"

Jordan laughed. "Dude, you could've just come in. We ordered extra pizza."

Maya blinked. "What?"

"We were gonna invite you, but you kept walking past like you had somewhere important to be." Jordan gestured to the spread. "Come get some food before the cat eats everything."

The orange-patched tabby was already licking cheese off a abandoned slice.

Maya stood there, water splashing in the background, realizing she'd been the main character in her own paranoia movie this whole time. The cat looked at her again: *see? told you.*

"Okay," Maya said, stepping into the light. "But only if you don't call me Pool Girl forever."

"Deal," Jordan grinned. "Hey everyone, Maya's finally here!"

Sometimes the worst case scenario is all in your head. Sometimes you just need a chaotic orange-tabby reality check to realize you were always already invited to the party.