Poolside Physics

My palms were sweating. Like, actually sweating, which was gross and ironic considering I was standing next to a pool.

"You good, Maya?" Jordan asked, grinning that grin that made my stomach do unnecessary gymnastics.

"Totally good," I lied. "Just appreciating the water. Very... wet."

I was a zombie. Four hours of sleep because TikTok happened, and now my brain was running on caffeine and regret. The sun beat down on the Griffith backyard, where half the junior class was currently pretending to have perfect lives.

Jordan's charging cable draped over a lawn chair, frayed at the end like it'd survived a war. We'd been lab partners since September, and I'd spent seven months pretending I didn't notice how his eyes crinkled when he laughed or how he actually listened when I talked about space.

"Maya, truth or dare?" Sierra called from the pool edge. She was already in the water, perfect and effortless in a way that made me want to dissolve into the patio concrete.

"Truth," I said, because I valued survival.

"Who're you spying on with those periodic table glances?"

Everyone laughed. I felt my face achieve temperatures previously unknown to science.

Then Jordan splashed Sierra. "She's not spying on anyone. She's thinking about chemistry."

"Chemistry," someone muttered. "Sure."

Jordan looked at me, and for one terrifying second, I thought he might say something. Instead he said, "Race you to the other side," and jumped in.

I stood there, palms still sweating, heart hammering a rhythm that definitely wasn't periodic.

Then I jumped in too.

The water was cold and shocking and perfect, and somewhere between the splashing and the chaos and Jordan surfacing three feet away, grinning like he'd just discovered a new element, I realized something:

Maybe I didn't have to be smooth. Maybe I could just be Maya, the sleep-deprived, overthinking, palm-sweating girl who somehow found herself exactly where she wanted to be.

"You're losing," Jordan said.

"I'm lapping you," I shot back, kicking water at his face.

He laughed. I let myself believe he meant it.

The zombie tiredness didn't matter. The cable could charge my phone later. Right now, I was just floating, learning that sometimes the scariest moments are the ones that wake you up.