Ripple Effect

The **pool** surface glittered like crushed diamonds under the July sun, but Maya was too busy hyperventilating to appreciate it.

"You're actually going to talk to him?" Chloe stage-whispered, fanning herself with a laminated membership card.

"I'm just asking for my **padel** racket back," Maya lied. Her stomach did that embarrassing flip-flop thing that always happened when he was within a fifty-foot radius. "He borrowed it yesterday after our match. That's it."

Chloe raised one perfectly sculpted eyebrow. "Mhmm. Just the racket. Nothing about his arms when he serves?"

Maya's face heated. That was different. Everyone noticed Lucas's arms. They were like, objectively noticeable.

Lucas sat at the edge of the shallow end, legs in the **water**, laughing at something his friend said. His wet hair plastered against his forehead in a way that should've looked dumb but somehow didn't. Maya's chest squeezed.

She'd spent fourteen months perfecting the art of being invisible around him. Background noise. A bronze medal in padelet the club circuit, sure, but basically a ghost socially. That was the system. The system worked.

Until she'd loaned him her spare racket.

"Do it," Chloe pushed.

Maya stood on legs that felt like overcooked noodles. Each step toward Lucas echoed in her ears. At the pool's edge, she nearly turned back three times.

Then Lucas looked up. His eyes found hers, and suddenly she was eight feet away and completely out of air.

"Hey!" He grinned, splashing **water** as he turned. "I was looking for you."

"You—you were?"

"Yeah, I wanted to ask—" He stopped, his friends suddenly finding the diving board fascinating. "Your backhand form is insane. Would you, uh, want to practice together sometime? I could use the help before regionals."

Maya's brain short-circuited.

"Regionals?" she squeaked.

"I signed up when I saw your name on the roster." His ears reddened. "Figured if I'm going down, might as well go down trying to keep up with you."

The world tilted sideways. Lucas Chen had noticed her. Not because she was invisible. Because she was good.

"I'm free Tuesday," she heard herself say.

"It's a date." Then he froze. "I mean, it's practice. Not—a date. Unless—"

Maya laughed, and this time it was real.

"Tuesday, Lucas."

Walking back to Chloe, Maya's legs didn't feel like noodles anymore. She didn't know what would happen Tuesday, but for the first time, she didn't want to be invisible.

Sometimes the smallest ripples start the biggest waves.