Poolside Panic Attack

The pool glittered like broken glass under the July sun, and Maya's stomach was doing backflips that had nothing to do with the three slices of pepperoni pizza she'd inhaled earlier. This was it. Chloe's legendary end-of-summer pool party. The invite list had been carefully curated like a museum exhibit, and Maya had only made it because Chloe's older brother was Maya's lab partner.

"You got this," whispered Sam, her best friend since kindergarten, adjusting their oversized sunglasses. "Just act natural."

Natural. Right. Because acting natural was so easy when your palms were sweating and you'd spent forty-five minutes deliberating between two different swimsuits that both felt somehow wrong.

Her mom had forced her to pack the eco-friendly lunchbox with a spinach salad and papaya chunks, lecturing her about "impressing people with your healthy choices." Maya had shoved the container to the bottom of her bag, behind the emergency stash of chocolate-covered pretzels. The last thing she needed was Chloe's popular crowd spotting her eating spinach while everyone else munched on chips.

"Maya! You made it!" Chloe materialized by the pool edge, her blonde hair perfect even after swimming. "Everyone's doing the cannonball contest. You're judging."

The papaya chunks were already forgotten. Maya found herself perched on a patio chair, watching bodies launch into the water like human torpedoes. This was what normal teenagers did. They didn't worry about their mothers packing weird fruit or whether their swimming skills were adequate for public display.

Then she saw him. Tyler. The guy she'd been crushing on since seventh grade, when he'd defended her from a bully in the cafeteria. He was laughing at something someone said, his wet hair plastered to his forehead. And then—

A papaya chunk. STUCK. BETWEEN. HIS. TWO. FRONT. TEETH.

The entire pool area went silent. Someone giggled. Tyler's face turned the color of a ripe tomato.

Maya's brain short-circuited. This was it. The moment. Do something, anything, don't just sit there frozen like an idiot while her crush was being humiliated.

"Hey Tyler!" she called out, her voice cracking. "Want some spinach?" She whipped out her lunch container. "My mom packed this weird healthy stuff, and honestly, nobody should have to suffer alone."

Tyler stared. Then he laughed. Not the nervous laugh of someone being mocked, but genuine laughter. "Dude, yes. Please tell me there's more papaya in there."

"All the papaya you could ever want," Maya said, suddenly grinning.

By the end of the party, half the popular crowd was trying papaya for the first time, making exaggerated gagging faces that had everyone doubled over laughing. Tyler had spinach in his teeth too, and neither of them cared.

Later, as Maya collected her things, Tyler caught her arm. "Thanks earlier. You saved my life."

"Anytime," she said, casual as she could manage. "Next time, I'll bring chocolate."

"Next time?" His grin made her stomach do those backflips again, but different this time.

"Yeah. My place. Friday. Mom's making her famous spinach smoothies." She winked. "Don't worry. I'll bring backup."