Spinach Teeth & Summer Storms

Leo's palms were sweating before he even stepped through the gate. The pool party at Jake's house was supposed to be the social event of the summer, and he'd spent forty minutes fixing his hair in the bathroom mirror.

He spotted her immediately — Maya, leaning against the patio doors like some ancient Egyptian sphinx, mysterious and untouchable. She'd transferred to their school three weeks ago and already had half the sophomore class down bad. Leo had been working up the courage to DM her for days, but his rizz was apparently non-existent.

"Hey, Leo!" Jake called from the pool. "Get in here, the water's perfect!"

Leo grabbed a spinach wrap from the snack table — his mom's healthy phase was officially ruining his life — and headed toward the pool deck. That's when he noticed it: Jake's cat, a fluffy orange judge of all things awkward, perched on the lounge chair like it owned the place. The cat hissed at him. Great. Even the family pets knew he didn't belong here.

He was mid-conversation with Maya, finally making her laugh at his terrible joke about cafeteria pizza, when her expression shifted. She wasn't laughing anymore. She was staring at his teeth.

"You have..." She made a vague gesture toward her own smile.

Leo bolted to the bathroom mirror. SPINACH. A massive, fluorescent green chunk wedged between his front teeth. He'd been talking to Maya for ten minutes with spinach in his teeth like a total loser. He wanted to dissolve into the floor tiles.

When he finally emerged, defeated and ready to bail, the sky had turned that ominous purple-gray. Thunder rumbled in the distance. A crack of lightning split the sky, illuminating everything in stark white for one frozen moment.

And there was Maya, standing under the patio overhang, laughing at something on her phone. Leo hesitated, then walked over.

"Nice save," she said, without looking up. "The spinach thing happens to everyone."

"You saw?"

"Everyone saw, Leo. But the lightning was..." She looked up, eyes bright. "Kind of perfect timing, though. Made it cinematic."

And somehow, they ended up talking for an hour while the storm raged, about everything and nothing, while the orange cat watched them both from the window, apparently judging their entire existence.