Poolside Fox

The humidity was already messing with my hair before I even stepped through the gate. I'd spent forty minutes with the straightener, but the July air had other plans.

"Don't be weird," I whispered to myself. "Just be normal for once."

The Taylor backyard was already packed. Jenna waved me over from the deep end, where her golden retriever was paddling around like he owned the place. That was the thing about Jenna's family — they had a pool, they had a dog named Buster who thought he was human, and they had the kind of house where everyone ended up even when nothing was actually happening.

And then there was Leo.

He was sitting on the edge of the pool with his feet in the water, all sharp features and messy russet-colored hair. Fox. That's what Sophia called him last year after he'd aced that chem test without studying, and the name had stuck. We'd been in AP Bio together since September, but we'd never actually talked. Not really.

My stomach did that thing it always did when he was around, like I'd swallowed something live and wriggly.

I was going to turn around. I was going to walk back to my house and pretend I'd never come, because this was obviously a terrible idea and my hair was already frizzing at the temples and what was I even thinking—

And then Jenna caught my eye.

Before I could make my escape, she started cracking up so hard she nearly slipped under the water. "Oh my GOD, Maya!" she called across the pool. "Your hair!"

I clapped my hands over my head instinctively. The humidity had completely annihilated my forty minutes of effort.

Leo looked over.

"It looks good," he said.

I stood there frozen, my heart hammering so hard I could feel it in my fingertips.

And then I turned and started running.

I didn't stop until I reached the street, breathless and dizzy and vaguely aware that Buster had bounded out of the pool and was following me, leaving wet paw prints everywhere. I collapsed onto someone's front lawn while Buster licked my face and somewhere behind me, I could hear Jenna and Leo both laughing.

Maybe next time I'd actually stay.

Maybe next time I'd even say something back.