Profile Picture Perfect

Maya's inner monologue was scrolling at 1.5x speed. **You literally cannot wear that,** her brain announced, helpfully projecting an image of her crush Jason's face if she walked into Taylor's party wearing The Hat. The beanie with the unfortunate cat ears that seemed hilarious at 2 AM on TikTok but now felt like a cry for help.

"Honey, eat your **spinach**," her mom called from the kitchen. "It'll make your skin glow!"

"Mom, stop trying to manifest my glow-up through leafy greens," Maya yelled back, though she secretly took a bite just in case.

Her **iPhone** buzzed. Group chat blowing up. *Everyone* was going to be at Taylor's. Everyone including Jason, whose Instagram story she'd been refreshing like a maniac. His latest post: him at football practice, looking unfairly good even sweaty.

Suddenly, something moved in the backyard. A **fox**—actually, a real one—staring at her with judgment in its amber eyes. Then it bolted with something in its mouth.

"NO WAY." Maya scrambled outside, following the fox trail to the neighbor's yard where Mrs. Chen's fat orange **cat** sat on a fence, watching chaos unfold like the drama queen it was.

The fox had dropped something shiny. Maya's missing AirPod. The one she'd cried about for three days.

"You little criminal," she whispered, grinning as she retrieved it.

Her phone lit up again. Jason: *hey, hope u can make it tonight*

Maya looked at The Hat, at her spinach-stained teeth in the reflection, at the fox disappearing into the woods. Life was messy and weird and sometimes animals stole your stuff and sometimes boys you liked actually texted first.

She grabbed a different hat. Texted back. *wouldn't miss it*.

Some nights, you just had to trust the fox.