Spinach in My Teeth at the Lightning Round

The fluorescent gym lights buzzed like an angry hornet's nest. Battle of the Classes trivia night. I stood behind the podium, my palms sweating through my jeans. Emma was three rows back, and she was actually looking at me. Not past me, not through me. AT me.

"Next question!" Mr. Henderson announced. "For five hundred bonus points: which vegetable was originally promoted with a cartoon sailor man to combat a specific vitamin deficiency during the Great Depression?"

"Spinach!" I blurted, probably too loud. The word flew out of my mouth before I could second-guess myself.

"Correct!" Henderson confirmed. The sophomore section erupted. I caught Emma's eye and she smiled. A genuine smile. My heart did this little lightning-strike thing, fast and electric.

"That's such bull," Jordan whispered next to me. "You totally got lucky."

"Whatever, man. It's called knowing stuff."

"Bro, you have green stuff in your teeth," he said. "Like, a LOT."

My face burned hotter than a chemistry lab Bunsen burner. Spinach. From lunch. I'd been walking around with spinach in my teeth for THREE HOURS and Emma had seen EVERYTHING.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" I hissed.

"I thought it was a choice," Jordan shrugged. "Like, a statement."

I bolted to the bathroom, scrubbing my teeth until my gums were raw. When I came back, Emma was gone. Later, she found me by the punch bowl.

"Hey," she said. "You were, like, really good up there."

"I had spinach in my teeth," I said, because apparently humiliation was my brand now.

"Yeah, I know," she laughed. "It was kind of adorable."

She pulled a vitamin gummy from her pocket. "Want one? I literally eat these when I'm nervous. They don't help, but at least it's something to do."

I took it. Cherry flavor. We stood there while the trivia questions blurred into background noise. Outside, actual lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating everything in sudden, stark brightness.

"So," Emma said. "You doing this again next year?"

"Only if Jordan promises to tell me about stuff in my teeth."

"Deal," she said. And I felt that electric feeling again, except this time it didn't come from anywhere except right there, standing next to a girl with a pocketful of vitamin gummies and a laugh that sounded like the best thing I'd ever heard.