Poolside Zombies

The sun beat down on the country club pool like it had something personal against me. I floated in the shallow end, wishing I could dissolve into the chlorinated water and escape this whole spectacle. Around me, the popular kids—Maya's crowd—lounged on expensive loungers like they were posing for a magazine that didn't exist. I felt like a zombie, going through the motions of summer fun while my brain was completely fried from social anxiety.

"Hey! You coming to play padel?" Tyler yelled from the court. He was the kind of gorgeous that made your stomach do nervous flips, even though you knew he was way out of your league. The padel court was where all the cool kids gathered, hitting that tennis-squash hybrid thing like their lives depended on it. I'd been avoiding it all summer because every time I picked up a racquet, I managed to look completely uncoordinated.

"Maybe later!" I called back, knowing later would never come.

My phone buzzed. Mom: *Try the papaya, honey! It's exotic!* Because that's what teenagers wanted to hear at a pool party—advice about tropical fruit from their parents who were weirdly obsessed with expanding their culinary horizons.

I dragged myself out of the water, dripping and self-conscious, and headed to the fruit table. There it was—a bowl of papaya chunks looking suspiciously like something from an alien planet. I speared one with a fork and hesitated.

"First time?" This girl Riley appeared beside me. She was in my grade but we'd never really spoken. "It's actually pretty good once you get past the... texture."

I took a bite. Sweet, musky, completely unlike anything I'd had before.

"Not bad," I admitted.

"The whole padel thing is overrated anyway," Riley said, lowering her voice. "I'd rather be a pool zombie than fake enthusiasm for sports I don't care about."

We spent the rest of the afternoon talking about everything and nothing while watching Tyler miss serves from the distance. For the first time all summer, I didn't feel like an undead extra in someone else's movie. I was just a person, eating papaya by the pool, actually living.