Running With Foxes

Maya's life was officially a mess. First period PE, and Coach Martinez had already designated her as the new "freshman sacrifice" for the cross country team. "You've got potential, kid," he'd said, while she literally gasped for air after that disastrous two-mile run. Running. Who even liked running? Certainly not Maya, who was currently contemplating all her life choices that led to this moment—mostly the choice to sign up for PE instead of Art, because her mom insisted she "needed more physical activity in her life." Her life was a theme park of bad decisions. By lunch, Maya had graduated from physical humiliation to social humiliation. She worked at her parents' health cafe, "Green Scene," where her daily existence involved serving teenagers she went to school with. Today, Emma Collins, queen of the sophomore class, walked in with her squad. "Can I get a smoothie?" Emma asked, checking her perfectly straightened hair in the reflection of the pastry case. "What kind?" Maya asked, already knowing where this was going. "Do you have any without... you know..." Emma waved her hand vaguely at the menu, indicating anything green. Maya sighed internally. "We have strawberry-banana." "Perfect. And can you make sure there's absolutely no spinach in it? I heard someone found a spinach leaf in their drink last week and—" Emma stopped mid-sentence, staring at Maya's apron, which had a tiny cartoon cow on it. "Actually," Maya said, her voice tight, "the strawberry smoothies don't have spinach. Only the green ones do. You know, the ones that say 'Spinach' right there in the name." The cafe went silent. Emma's friends exchanged looks. Maya's dad, behind the counter, gave her a thumbs-up from the register. Smooth. Really smooth. Later that night, Maya's friend Lena dragged her to the football game. "You have to come," Lena insisted. "It's the rivalry game. Northwood High. You know what that means." Maya did know. It meant their school, Oak Creek, would be playing against their mortal enemies, whose mascot was a fox. Meanwhile, Oak Creek's mascot was a bulldog. The mascot war was legendary. Last year, someone from Northwood had kidnapped their bulldog costume and replaced it with a cat costume. As they sat in the bleachers, surrounded by students wearing face paint and screaming at the top of their lungs, Maya spotted him—Caleb, the guy she'd been crushing on since September. He was dressed in the bulldog mascot costume, looking absolutely ridiculous. "Your crush is currently dressed as a bulldog," Lena shouted over the crowd noise. "If that's not love, I don't know what is." Maya laughed. "He's not my crush. I just... appreciate his dedication to school spirit." Right then, the Northwood fox mascot sprinted onto the field during a timeout, and the entire student section went wild. Someone was running onto the field! "Wait, is that—" "It's Jason Miller!" someone screamed. The fox mascot was being chased by security guards, but not before he'd managed to spin around and moon the crowd in his fox costume. The student section lost it. Absolute chaos. Maya was laughing so hard she could barely breathe. Then something weirder happened. The bulldog mascot—Caleb—started running after the fox, but instead of tackling him, he just sort of... herded him toward the edge of the field like a sheep dog. "What is happening?" Maya asked through tears of laughter. After the game, Maya and Lena found Caleb behind the bleachers, still wearing the bulldog head. He was talking to the fox mascot—Jason Miller. "Dude, that was legendary," Caleb was saying. "My cousin goes to Northwood, and he said the entire school is talking about you mooning everyone." They both looked up and saw Maya and Lena standing there. Maya's stomach did that flippy thing it always did when Caleb was around. "Hey," Caleb said, like this was a completely normal situation. "You're Maya, right? From Green Scene?" Maya nodded. "Yeah. And you're the bulldog." "The bulldog," Caleb agreed, "who also happens to work at the pet store next door. My shift is right after your family's cafe closes." The realization hit Maya. She'd been getting coffee next to him for months without realizing it. "Cool," she said, trying to sound casual and failing. "I'll come by sometime. Maybe when you're not dressed as a dog." Walking home that night, Maya thought about how absolutely bizarre her day had been. She'd survived cross country tryouts, served spinach smoothies to her high school's queen bee, and somehow ended up talking to her crush while he was dressed as a bulldog. Life was weird. But maybe weird wasn't so bad. Her phone buzzed. A text from an unknown number: Hey, this is Caleb. The bulldog. Wanted to make sure you survived the game. Maya grinned and typed back: Legend status indeed. Later, as she fell asleep, Maya decided that running might actually be okay. Spinach smoothies were still gross, but she'd survive. And foxes and dogs might just be the beginning of something interesting.