Poolside Pyramid Scheme

Maya tugged her bucket hat lower, cursing herself for accepting Sierra's party invite. The most popular girl in sophomore year had somehow noticed her existence, and now Maya was standing at the edge of the pool while everyone else acted like they'd been best friends since kindergarten.

"You coming in or what?" Jake called from the water, dripping wet and impossibly annoying. Maya had been crushing on him since orientation, but his "bro" energy was testing her patience.

"Working up to it," Maya lied. She wasn't hydrophobic or anything. She was just hyper-aware that she was the only one wearing a one-piece while everyone else—including Sierra—was somehow confident enough to rock bikinis like it was NBD.

"We're doing a pyramid!" Sierra announced from the pool, flipping her perfect hair. "Jake, you're base. Chase, get on his shoulders. Maya—"

Maya's stomach did a full gymnastics routine. "Nope. Hard pass."

"Come on, don't be such a buzzkill," someone said.

Before Maya could craft a dignified excuse, her phone slipped from her hand and straight into the pool.

"NO!" she screamed, watching her lifeline sink like a dramatic movie moment.

Jake dove in after it, surfacing seconds later with her dripping phone. "Got it. You good?"

"You didn't..." Maya practically ripped the phone from his hand. The charging cable had stayed connected to the Bluetooth speaker on the patio. The phone was fine, but her dignity? Not so much.

Sierra appeared with a plate of fruit. "You good? You look like you're gonna pass out."

"I'm fine," Maya said, her voice cracking. So much for playing it cool.

"Here." Sierra handed her a slice of papaya. "My mom's obsessed with exotic fruit. It's actually mid, but eat something before you actually die."

Maya took it, not because she wanted papaya (which she'd never tried), but because Sierra was being... nice?

"So," Sierra said, floating onto her back. "You're in Mr. Harrison's English class, right? That dude assigns way too much reading."

"The worst," Maya said, and then they were talking about books and somehow laughing, and Jake was making fun of her hat situation, and nobody seemed to care that she was the new girl who didn't know the unspoken pool party protocol.

Maybe high school wouldn't be so bad after all. Or maybe she'd just eaten papaya wrong and was hallucinating. Either way, she'd take it.