Running from the Fox

Maya pressed restart on the video game for the third time, her character—a tired **zombie** hunter—stumbling through pixelated ruins. She hadn't slept since Wednesday. Junior year was eating her alive.

"You look like straight-up death," said Jacy, dropping onto the couch beside her and offering a smoothie. "It's got **spinach**, don't worry."

Maya took it. Jacy was her oldest friend, the one person who knew about her midnight panic attacks, the constant pressure to be perfect, to get into that pre-med program her parents wanted. Sometimes Maya felt like she was **running** on a treadmill set to max speed—moving furiously but getting nowhere.

"Riley's party tonight," Jacy said casually. "You going?"

Riley. The **fox**. Riley with the perfect everything, who'd somehow convinced the whole school that being basic was actually cool. Maya had been crushing forever, even though Riley treated everyone like they were NPCs in her personal movie.

"I can't. I have to—"

"**Bear** with me," Jacy interrupted. "What if you didn't have to? What if you went and had actual fun for once?"

Maya hesitated. The old her would've made an excuse. The perfect-grades, perfect-daughter her. But something cracked inside her chest.

"Fine," she said, surprising herself. "But if anyone asks about my chem test, I'm literally **zombie** walking out."

At the party, Maya spotted Riley across the room, radiant and overwhelming. But instead of spiraling into her usual overthinking, she grabbed a soda and found herself laughing at something Jacy said. For the first time in months, she wasn't performing. She was just existing.

Later, watching fireflies from the porch, Riley sat beside her.

"You know," Riley said, "I always thought you were too cool for parties."

"I'm not cool," Maya said. "I'm just tired."

"Me too," Riley laughed. "We're all just **running** until we can't anymore."

Maybe that was the point. Maybe nobody had it figured out. **Spinach** smoothies and imperfect grades and messy feelings—that was real life. And for once, Maya was okay with that.