Static

Maya stared at the mirror, her hair doing that thing where it stood straight up like she'd stuck a fork in an electrical outlet. The humidity was already messing with her curls, and in two hours, she'd be seeing Lucas—the guy who'd sat behind her in Bio since September and somehow never noticed she existed.

"This is fine," she lied to her reflection, shoving another vitamin gummy into her mouth. Her mom had bought the giant bottle from Costco, swearing they'd make her skin glow. Instead, they just made her burp strawberry.

Her phone buzzed. Charlie: u coming to jakes party or nah?

Maya typed: yeah after lucas

Charlie: LUUCAS?? finally. u gonna say hi or just stare at his hair like usual

Maya groaned and tossed her phone onto her bed. Her hair had taken three hours of diffusing and products that cost way too much of her babysitting money. Now it was frizzing at the edges, mocking her.

Outside, thunder rumbled. Great. A storm. Because what this night needed was more atmospheric pressure working against her.

She reached for her dad's old beanie, then stopped. No. She was done hiding.

The first crack of lightning hit just as she stepped outside, illuminating the whole street in that split-second camera-flash way that made everything look like a movie scene. Maya walked to the park where Lucas said he'd be, rain starting to spit, her hair getting wilder with every step.

He was there. Under the shelter. Wearing that gray hoodie she'd noticed him wearing exactly forty-two times this school year.

"Hey," Maya said, and her voice didn't even shake. Much.

Lucas looked up, then smiled—actually smiled, not just polite-smiled. "Your hair's—" He paused. "It's really cool. Like you got struck by lightning or something."

Maya laughed, and something in her chest unclenched. "Yeah, basically."

"No, seriously." He stepped closer. "It's got this whole electric thing going on."

Another flash of lightning. The rain came down harder.

"Want to walk to Jake's?" Lucas asked. "Unless you want to stay here and wait out the storm."

Maya touched a curl that had gone completely rogue, then grinned. "Nah. Let's do this."

She stepped into the rain, hair everywhere, heart doing something that felt a lot like what the sky kept doing—flash after flash, bright and impossible to ignore.