Poolside Protocol

Maya felt like a zombie as she stood at the edge of the Patterson's backyard pool, clutching her phone like a lifeline. The sophomore class end-of-year party raged around her—kids she'd known forever, but in this moment, everyone might as well have been speaking another language. Her cat, Oliver, would've judged her so hard for this level of awkwardness.

"Hey! You coming in or what?" someone yelled. Maya flinched, then remembered she was supposed to be acting normal. Cool. Chill. Totally not having an internal meltdown.

She'd spent the entire week spying on Jordan's Instagram stories, trying to decode whether they'd actually be at this party. Now Jordan was right there, dripping pool water and looking like they'd walked straight out of a movie. Maya's stomach did that embarrassing flippy thing it always did when she was nervous.

Her mom had pressed some vitamin C supplements into her hand before she left, saying, "For your immune system, sweetie!" but Maya knew the truth—it was for her anxiety. She'd taken three already. Not that it was helping.

"Maya!" Jordan waved from the pool. "You gonna stand there all day being mysterious, or are you gonna splash me?"

Everyone was looking. This was it. The moment. Maya could either be that weird girl who stood by the snack table all night, or she could be someone else—someone brave. Someone who took risks.

She kicked off her flip-flops.

"Try not to drown when I wreck you, Jordan," she called back, and dove in.

The shock of cold water was everything. Under the surface, the world went muffled and peaceful for one perfect second. Then she surfaced, sputtering and laughing, and Jordan was there grinning like they'd been waiting for this exact moment.

"Took you long enough," Jordan said, and Maya realized she'd never felt more alive.