Spinach Teeth & Social Pyramids

Maya's week had been a complete dumpster fire until lunch period on Friday. She'd spent four days navigating the shifting social pyramid of freshman year—still recovering from that time she'd waved back at someone who wasn't waving at her—while secretly nursing a crush on Alexis that made her brain feel like static.

Now she sat across from Jordan, her oldest friend who'd suddenly gotten hot over the summer and was now ''lowkey flirting'' with half the soccer team. Jordan was currently wearing a fuzzy bucket hat that Maya honestly wanted to burn.

''So,'' Jordan said, pushing food around their tray. ''My mom's making me do this whole detox thing. She got me these vitamin gummies that taste like literal death.''

Maya nodded sympathetically while covertly checking her teeth in her phone reflection. She'd made the fatal error of ordering the spinach wrap, which she knew was basically a green teeth trap. Why did she always make life harder for herself?

''Anyway,'' Jordan continued, ''Tyler told me that Tyler said that you called his Fitbit obsession cringe.''

Maya's stomach dropped. She HAD said that, but only to Sophia during third period. The betrayal. The absolute audacity.

''That's such bull,'' Maya said, maybe too loudly. Someone at the next table glanced over. She lowered her voice. ''I never said that. Who's spreading that?''

Just then, Alexis walked past their table, and Maya's brain short-circuited. She smiled too big.

Jordan's eyes went wide. ''Um, Maya? You have—you've got—''

Spinach. Of course.

She'd gone through full puberty awkwardness, survived friendship drama, and accidentally started a rumor war, only to be taken down by a spinach wrap in front of her crush.

But as she rushed to the bathroom mirror, phone buzzing with Jordan's text—''Alexis was literally staring at you the whole time btw''—Maya realized something. This was just freshman year. It was supposed to be messy. And tomorrow, she'd skip the spinach.