Poolside Fox

The chlorine smell hit Maya before she even saw the pool. Behind the privacy fence, Jake's end-of-summer party raged—twenty sophomores in various states of undress, too much Axe body spray, and Drake blasting from waterproof speakers.

Maya gripped her towel tighter. She'd been crushing on Jake since chemistry last year, when he'd let her copy his homework without making her feel stupid about it. Now she was here, finally invited to the cool kids' party, and she couldn't remember how to act like a normal human being.

"Hey, you coming in?" Jake called from the pool's edge. Water droplets glistened on his chest. Maya's brain short-circuited.

"Yeah! Just... yeah."

She dropped her towel on a lounge chair and nearly face-planted trying to step out of her flip-flops. Someone giggled. Probably Harper, Jake's ex, who looked like a cat stalking prey in her designer bikini. Harper had been giving Maya side-eye since seventh grade, when Maya accidentally spilled chocolate milk on her white Uggs.

The pool water was shockingly cold. Maya waded in up to her knees while everyone else splashed around like they'd been born swimming. Jake materialized beside her, smiling that crooked smile that made her stomach do gymnastics.

"Glad you made it," he said. "Harper said you wouldn't come."

Maya's heart did something weird. "Harper talks about me?"

"All the time." Jake stepped closer. "She thinks you're smart. And honestly? She's intimidated by you."

Maya almost laughed. Harper, intimidated by her? The girl who had两千 Instagram followers and wore makeup to school during finals week?

"You're foxing me,"

Maya said, then immediately wanted to die. Who said "foxing"? She'd heard her grandpa use it once and somehow thought it made her sound clever.

Jake burst out laughing. Not mean laughing, but genuine, head-thrown-back laughter. "I am absolutely not foxing you. Whatever that means."

Something shifted between them. The awkwardness dissolved into something else—something electric and terrifying. Maya took a breath and actually looked at him, really looked at him, and realized he seemed just as nervous as she felt.

"I like your laugh," she said, because apparently her filter had completely abandoned her.

Jake's cheeks turned pink. He looked down at the water, then back up at her through wet lashes. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Cool," he said. "Cool, cool, cool."

They stood there grinning at each other like idiots while Harper watched from the other side of the pool, her expression unreadable. But for the first time, Maya didn't care what Harper thought. She was too busy feeling like maybe, just maybe, she was exactly where she was supposed to be.