Poolside Zombie

Maya stood by the edge of the pool, clutching her solo cup like it was a lifeline. Which, technically, it was—her social survival depended on looking like she belonged here, at Chloe Anderson's legendary end-of-summer blowout.

"You look like you're gonna hurl," said her best friend Kai, materializing beside her with zero warning.

"Rude. I'm vibing. Can't you tell?" Maya gestured vaguely at herself. "This is my chill face. My internal monologue is just... loud."

Kai snorted, flopping onto one of the lounge chairs under the massive palm tree that dominated Chloe's backyard. "Bro, you've been staring at the same spot for ten minutes. That's not vibing. That's dissociating. There's a difference."

She wasn't wrong. Between the ear-splitting trap music and everyone somehow knowing exactly how to exist in this setting without looking like they needed an instruction manual, Maya felt like she was glitching. Like a zombie going through the motions of being a functional teenager while her brain was 404 Erroring somewhere else.

Worse? Jordan was here.

Jordan, who'd sat behind her in English last year and actually laughed when Maya made that deadpan comment about the book's villain having main character energy. Jordan, who'd somehow become friends with Chloe's crowd and now looked annoyingly good in swim trunks, dripping wet and laughing at something someone said near the deep end.

"Earth to Mayz," Kai waved a hand in her face. "I asked if you wanted to check out the goldfish pond thing. Chloe's mom went extra or whatever."

"Goldfish? Really?" Maya raised an eyebrow.

"What? They're soothing. Like, emotional support fish."

They wandered over to the decorative pond tucked between the palm tree and the house. A dozen orange goldfish darted through the water, completely unbothered by the chaos of teenagers being terrible at social interaction. Maya wished she had that kind of confidence—just swimming around, minding her business, not overthinking every micro-movement.

"I feel like a zombie at a wellness retreat," she admitted quietly, watching the fish. "Like, I'm technically present but my soul is hovering somewhere above the treeline."

Kai nodded like this was profound wisdom instead of just weird commentary. "Relatable. Have you tried talking to Jordan?"

Maya practically choked on her own spit. "Excuse me? No? Absolutely not? That's terrible advice and you should feel bad giving it."

"Hey, you said the zombie stuff—not me. But seriously, what's the worst that happens? They think you're awkward? Newsflash, you ARE awkward. It's part of your charm."

Maya's response was cut short by said person actually approaching them.

Jordan. Looking unfairly good and damp and smiling like they didn't just interrupt Maya having an internal crisis.

"Hey, you checking out the fish too?"

She'd thought about this conversation approximately 47 times in the last week, mostly at 2am when her brain refused to shut down. But having the script in her head and actually being able to form words were apparently very different skill trees.

"Yeah," she managed, proud of herself for not immediately saying something weird. "They're... doing fish stuff. Very committed to the bit."

Jordan laughed, and wow, that was significantly better in person than her memory could've captured. "I'm Jordan, by the way. I don't think we've actually talked since that time you roasted our English book."

"Maya."

"Cool. You want to check out the pool? Everyone's doing chicken fights and it's kind of a disaster, in a fun way."

She looked at Kai, who was already making exaggerated shooing motions and whispering "GO" with zero subtlety.

"Sure," Maya said, and when Jordan extended a hand like it was the most natural thing in the world, she took it.

Walking away from the safety of the goldfish pond, she still felt like a zombie sometimes—awkward in her own skin, overthinking everything. But maybe that was okay. Maybe everyone felt that way, just swimming around and trying to look like they knew what they were doing.