Poolside Pyramid

Maya's stomach did backflips as she stood at the edge of the pool, clutching her **iphone** like a lifeline. The screen displayed eight likes on her post from twenty minutes ago—practically tragic by Taylor's standards.

"Maya! Get in here!" Taylor waved from the center of the pool, where she'd somehow already established herself at the pinnacle of a three-person human **pyramid**. Because of course Taylor would be on top. The social hierarchy at Lincoln High had somehow replicated itself in chlorinated form.

The late afternoon sun hit the **water**, turning the surface into something glittering and impenetrable. Maya had been **swimming** since she was six, but suddenly the deep end felt like unknown territory. Not because of depth, but because of the people.

She slipped into the pool, the cool shock helping her think. Last year, she would've been right there building the pyramid with Taylor and the popular crew. But ever since she'd quit the swim team to focus on art, everything felt different. Her old friends' inside jokes now landed like hollow echoes. Their constant documenting—every moment staged for the algorithm—exhausted her.

Maya drifted toward the shallow end, where a girl named Chen sat alone on the steps, sketching in a waterproof notebook.

"Is that... " Maya started.

"Yeah." Chen held up a drawing of Taylor's pyramid, but with Taylor as a literal pharaoh and everyone else as stone figures. It was mean. It was also kind of brilliant.

"I like it," Maya said, surprising herself.

"Thanks." Chen's **orange** swimsuit practically glowed against the blue water. "I'm Chen, by the way. You're Maya, right? The one who painted that mural by the gym?"

Maya felt something unfamiliar and warm bloom in her chest. Recognition for something she'd actually done, not for how she looked in a bikini or who she knew.

"Yeah. That's me."

"It's sick," Chen said. "I was gonna ask if you wanted to collab on something for the art show next month?"

Taylor's voice cut through the moment. "Maya! Stop lurking and come build!"

Maya looked at Chen, then at the pyramid, then at her phone still clutched in her hand. She made a choice.

"Actually," Maya called back, setting her **iphone** on the pool deck. "I'm good here."

The water rippled around them, and for the first time in months, Maya didn't feel like she was sinking at all.