Running the Table

Mateo had been running from the invite for three days straight.

"Bro, you coming to Jake's pool party?" Leo had asked, already knowing the answer. "Everyone's gonna be there."

"Maybe," Mateo had lied, doing that thing where he wouldn't make eye contact.

The truth was, pool parties were his personal hell. Between the whole shirtless situation and the fact that Jake's crowd were basically the padel elite—like, they played tournaments and had matching jerseys—Mateo felt about as welcome as a bull in a china shop. Which his mom actually said once, but she was Mexican so she said it in Spanish and it sounded more poetic.

Jake's house was that kind of rich where the pool had a waterfall and the "pool house" was bigger than Mateo's actual apartment.

"You're overthinking it," his little sister Sofia said, watching him stare at his phone like it might explode. "Just go. Eat free food. Swim. Don't be weird."

"You're eleven. What do you know about social dynamics?"

"I know that if you keep running from this, next year it'll be weird that you've never hung out with them." She went back to her iPad. "Also, Jake's cousin Maya is gonna be there."

Mateo paused. "Since when do you know Jake's cousin?"

"Instagram. She's into padel too. You guys can bond over being mid at sports."

"I'm actually not mid—"

"Mateo. I've seen you play. You hit the ball into the fence three times last PE period."

So that's how he found himself at Jake's, standing by the pool in a t-shirt he refused to remove, clutching a plastic cup of fruit punch like it was a lifeline, while Jake and his friends played padel on the court that Jake apparently had in his backyard because of course he did.

"Yo Mateo!" Jake waved his racquet. "Wanna sub in?"

The bull in the china shop feeling returned, full force.

"I'm good," Mateo started, but then Maya was there—Jake's cousin, who Sofia had Instagram-stalked, who was actually smiling at him, and who said, "I'll play if he plays. I'm terrible, you'll fit right in."

Something shifted. Maybe it was the way she said "you'll fit right in" like she actually meant it, or maybe he was just tired of running.

"Alright," Mateo said, and peeled off his t-shirt. "But nobody's recording when I miss."

"Deal." Maya grinned. "Let's be mid together."

They lost spectacularly, badly, with Mateo hitting two balls into the actual pool, and at some point he forgot to be self-conscious because Maya kept making jokes about how they were definitely going pro, and when Jake's dad ordered pizza for everyone, Mateo sat by the pool with Maya and Leo and Sofia showed up with her friends and suddenly he wasn't the new kid anymore.

He was just Mateo, who was mid at padel but pretty decent at being exactly where he needed to be.