Poolside Passwords

Maya's heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird. The pool party glittered before her—blue water, golden sunset, what looked like literally half the sophomore class floating on inflatables shaped like unicorns and pizza slices. Her rescue husky, Luna, sensed Maya's panic and pressed her warm side against Maya's leg.

"You got this," she whispered, mostly to herself. Mostly failing.

Her iphone buzzed in her pocket—not that she'd checked it in twenty minutes. The group chat was probably blowing up with @everyone announcements about how Emma's pool parties were literally iconic and how if you didn't come, you basically didn't exist.

Social suicide in 280 characters or less.

Across the pool, the varsity squad was playing padel on the makeshift court. Their laughter carried over the water, easy and bright. They all moved like they shared some secret instruction manual for being cool that Maya had somehow missed receiving. One of them—Jake, maybe?—caught her staring. He waved.

Maya's stomach flipped. She turned toward Luna instead.

"Good girl," she murmured, burying her fingers in the thick fur around Luna's neck. "You'd never make me play padel in front of everyone, would you?"

Luna's answer was to sneeze directly onto Maya's favorite vintage tee.

Perfect.

"Maya!" Emma's voice cut through the chatter. "You coming in or what?"

The whole pool went quiet for like, three seconds. Everyone turned. Maya's face burned. She'd barely survived middle school with her dignity intact—was this really how high school would start too?

Luna chose that exact moment to spot a tennis ball near the padel court. She lunged, dragging Maya forward, directly into the shallow end.

Cold water swallowed Maya's scream.

She surfaced sputtering while laughter erupted around her. But it wasn't mean laughter—she realized that quickly. Emma was howling, yes, but she was also extending a hand. Jake from the padel court was grinning like he'd never seen anything better.

"Your dog," Emma gasped, "is literally the MVP."

Maya wiped water from her eyes. Her iphone in her pocket was probably wrecked, but somehow that didn't matter. She'd just done the most uncool thing possible at her first high school party, and nobody seemed to care.

"She really is," Maya said, letting Emma pull her up. "Want to meet her?"