Poolside Prophecies

The water shimmered like liquid diamonds in Sarah's backyard, and Maya's hair frizzed in the humidity like she'd stuck her finger in an electrical socket. Again. She smoothed it down for the thousandth time, acutely aware that half the sophomore class was currently floating in the pool looking perfect and effortless.

"You coming in or what?" Cameron's voice carried across the deck. He was treading water near the deep end, his dark hair slicked back, looking annoyingly gorgeous.

Maya's stomach did that flippy thing it always did when he talked to her. "Maybe later," she called back, aiming for casual and landing somewhere around 'awkward turtle.' She adjusted her towel on the lounge chair, feeling like the world's most conspicuous wallflower.

Her phone buzzed. Riddle notification from Sphinx, that new app everyone was obsessed with where you'd get anonymous questions. Maya had been bear-ing the notifications all week, nervous to check them. But with Cameron literally five feet away, something gave her a sudden burst of courage.

She opened it. Three messages waited:

'Why don't you ever talk to anyone at parties?'

'Do you think Cameron notices you exist?'

'Your hair looked better at homecoming.'

Maya's face burned. Her fingers hovered over the screen, ready to delete the app forever, when a fourth message popped up:

'Your answers to his questions yesterday were actually really smart. He kept looking at you during chem.'

The questions. Yesterday in chem lab. Cameron had asked her like five things about the lab procedure, and she'd answered without looking up because she'd been too nervous to make eye contact. But he'd kept looking?

Cameron splashed water toward her, grinning. "Chemistry final's gonna wreck me. You think you could help me study sometime?"

Maya's brain short-circuited. "Yeah. I mean—yeah, totally."

"Awesome." He swam to the ladder. "I'll text you."

As he pulled himself out of the water, Maya noticed him glancing back at her. Really looking. Her frizzy hair and anxious spiraling and all.

Maybe this summer wouldn't be so terrible after all.