Poolside Protocol

Maya smoothed her hair down for the third time, checking her reflection in the darkened phone screen. The pool party was in full swing, bodies splashing and laughing, and she was currently hiding behind the lounge chair.

"You coming in?" Jake asked, dripping wet. His dark hair was plastered to his forehead, and Maya felt her stomach do that annoying flutter thing.

"Yeah, just... gonna check something first," she mumbled, gesturing vaguely toward her phone.

The truth was, the WiFi was dead. She'd spent the last twenty minutes pretending to respond to texts while actually watching the spinning cable modem reset screen. Typical Maya behavior—avoiding actual human interaction to fix technology that didn't even matter.

A flash of movement caught her eye. A calico cat crouched beneath the deck chair, tail twitching.

"You hiding too?" she whispered.

The cat meowed like it understood perfectly.

"Maya!" called Sarah from the pool. "Jake's doing cannonballs! You're missing it!"

She looked at the cat. The cat looked at her. Something about its judgmental stare made her realize: she was literally being out-socialized by a feline.

"Fine," she muttered, kicking off her flip-flops.

The pool water hit her like liquid courage. Jake spun around, grinning. "Finally!"

Sarah paddled over. "Where have you been? We're doing teams for chicken fights."

Maya's chest tightened. This was it—the moment she usually excused herself to "check something" or claimed her mom needed her. But the cat was watching from the deck, almost daring her to stay awkward.

"I'm in," she said, voice steadier than she felt. "Jake, you're my partner."

His eyebrows shot up. "Bet."

As he boosted her onto his shoulders, Maya caught her reflection in the pool house window—hair wild, laughing, actually existing in 3D space instead of躲在 behind a screen. The cable modem could wait.

The cat, apparently satisfied, stretched and walked away.