Spinach Teeth & First Period Blues

I spent twenty minutes in the bathroom this morning trying to dislodge a piece of **spinach** from my braces with my tongue, which is exactly how my first day of sophomore year started. My mom packed a "healthy" salad in my lunch, and I didn't have the heart to tell her that sitting alone with spinach in your teeth while the popular kids made fun of your outfit was basically social suicide.

Then came fifth period lunch. I spotted Marcus—my **friend** since kindergarten, or at least the guy I'd been sitting with every day because neither of us had anyone else—waving frantically from our usual corner table. But as I headed over, Jordan and the varsity crew called my name.

"Hey, Felix!" Jordan grinned. "We need a fourth for Smash Bros after school. You in?"

My stomach did this weird flip thing that had nothing to do with the spinach still probably stuck in my teeth. Jordan was the kind of guy who could pull off a **fox** emoji in his Instagram bio without being ironic, and now he was inviting ME to hang out? But I saw Marcus's face from across the cafeteria, saw him deflate like a balloon when he realized I wasn't coming to our table. I'd been his **dog**—loyal, always there—through the entire lonely middle school era.

The **bear** of a decision weighed on my chest. Do I take my shot at climbing the social ladder, or do I stick with the friend who'd never made me feel like you needed to be someone else to be worth hanging out with?

"Actually," I found myself saying, "can Marcus come too?"

Jordan looked confused for a second, then shrugged. "Yeah, sure. Whatever."

Marcus's expression when I told him later was like someone had handed him a winning lottery ticket. We walked to Jordan's house together, and I realized halfway there that the spinach had finally dislodged from my teeth, but more importantly, I hadn't sold out the only person who'd ever consistently had my back. Sometimes growing up meant realizing that climbing ladders wasn't worth it if you had to leave people behind on the ground.