Poolside Prophecy

The water shimmered like liquid anxiety under the July sun. Freshman year, first real party, and me, Maya, standing at the edge of the pool like I'd forgotten how to swim. Somewhere in the backyard, Jordan—that senior everyone treated like a walking sphinx, all riddles and impossible to read—was laughing at something. Probably not me. Definitely not me. No way they even noticed the girl in the oversized t-shirt who'd been hovering near the snack table for twenty minutes.

"You gonna jump or what?" Quinn appeared beside me, holding a plate with what looked like papaya. At a pool party. Who brings papaya?

"I'm... assessing the situation," I said, which was code for I'm freaking out.

"The situation is a pyramid of solo cups and poor life choices." Quinn grinned. "Also, Jordan's looking over here."

My heart did that annoying fluttery thing. The Sphinx. The Enigma. The senior who'd smiled at me in the hallway yesterday and now I was convinced I was in love, even though I didn't know their favorite color or if they liked papaya or literally anything.

"They're not."

"They are. Want me to eat this weird fruit courageously?"

"Please don't."

But then Jordan was walking over, and suddenly I was forgetting how to stand, how to breathe, how to be a person with functioning limbs. The pool water lapped against the concrete like it was laughing at me.

"Hey." Jordan's voice was all low and warm and unfair. "You're Maya, right?"

I nodded. I was Maya. I was definitely Maya.

"Cool shirt," they said. "You getting in?"

"I was..." I swallowed. "Thinking about it."

"Perfect." Jordan's eyes crinkled. "The water's actually not that deep once you jump."

I looked at the pool, at Quinn who was dramatically eating papaya like it was their job, at Jordan who was waiting for me to decide who I was going to be—the girl on the edge or the one who jumped.

So I jumped.

The water swallowed me whole, and for a second I was weightless, suspended, and then I broke the surface, gasping and alive, and Jordan was smiling down at me like maybe they'd been waiting for this too.

"See?" they said. "Not so scary."

And maybe high school wasn't either. Not really.