Running Through the Lightning

Maya's legs burned as she rounded the track, her breath hitching in that familiar rhythm. Running was the only time her brain shut up—no AP Chem anxiety, no friendship drama, no obsessively checking if Tyler had viewed her story. Just her sneakers hitting the rubber, over and over, like a reset button she actually needed.

"Yo, Maya, wait up!"

She slowed to a jog, chest heaving. It was Chloe, her lab partner and possibly the only person who didn't make her feel like she was performing in a play everyone else had the script for. "Did you see Mr. Henderson's face when Jordan's phone went off during the test? Straight up devastated energy."

Maya laughed, wiping sweat from her forehead. "Legacy behavior."

"Speaking of..." Chloe lowered her voice. "Tyler asked about you today. In Spanish. Like, multiple questions."

Maya's stomach did that stupid flippy thing it always did when Tyler's name came up. For months, she'd been lowkey spying on his socials—okay, maybe more than lowkey—watching from the sidelines while he dated Ashley the Perfect, then rebounded with half the sophomore class. She knew his Spotify wrapped, his dog's birthday, that he hated cilantro. It was embarrassing, really. The kind of cringe tween behavior she swore she'd outgrown.

"What did he say?" Maya tried to sound casual, like she hadn't mentally screenshot every conversation they'd ever had.

"Chloe smirked. "That you're 'actually chill' and he likes your vintage aesthetic. Also that he might come to the track meet Friday."

Friday. The meet she'd been stress-dreaming about all week.

That afternoon, as Maya stretched at her starting block, the sky turned that weird greenish color that meant trouble. Coach blew the whistle—race was still on, because apparently teenage cross-country wasn't canceled for a little weather. The gun went off, and Maya launched herself forward, her body taking over while her brain rebooted.

Then it happened—a crack of lightning so close the hair on her arms stood up. Rain started falling, hard and cold, and suddenly everyone was screaming, scattering toward the bleachers. Everyone except Tyler, who was standing at the fence, grinning like an idiot, completely soaked.

"RUN!" he shouted, laughing. "IT'S JUST WATER!"

And Maya didn't think. She just ran toward him, toward the lightning, toward whatever embarrassing thing might happen next, because sometimes you have to stop spying on your own life and actually live it.