Static in the Palm of Her Hand

The spring fling was supposed to be magical, but so far it was just Mrs. Chen's gym class with streamers. Maya pressed her sweating palm against her dress, feeling like everyone could hear her heart doing cartwheels.

"Psst, Maya." Trey appeared beside her, sliding his phone across the table. "Lila's doing palm readings in the corner. Twenty minutes and she's already, like, accidentally predicted three breakups."

Maya's stomach did that thing where it forgot how to stomach. "She's not actually—"

"She's got, like, crystal vibes or something." He cracked that grin that made her forget basic sentence structure. "Your turn."

Before she could protest, Maya was being pulled toward the back corner, where Lila sat cross-legged behind a folding table, crystals scattered everywhere like she'd robbed a science museum.

"Your palm, please." Lila's voice dropped three octaves. Suddenly she was Professor Trelawney's cooler sister.

Maya extended her hand. Lila traced her life line, squinting like she was reading tiny print from three feet away.

"Interesting." Lila looked up dramatically. "You're going to kiss someone tonight."

The lightning outside flashed through the windows, perfectly timed with Maya's entire face catching fire.

"That's not in my hand!" she protested.

"It's in your aura, babe. Also, you should probably know—"

CRASH. The entire gym went dark. Someone's phone flashlight cut through the darkness like a lightsaber, illuminating twenty-something teenagers simultaneously pulling out their devices.

"I can't believe this," Maya groaned, covering her face with both hands. "I'm going to die of embarrassment before I even get my first—"

"Kiss?" Trey's voice came from somewhere in the darkness. "Because I was kind of hoping to help with that."

The flashlight beam found them both. Maya's palm was still pressed against her burning cheek. Trey was rubbing his neck like maybe this was the scariest thing he'd ever done, including last year's haunted warehouse incident that he still wouldn't talk about.

"You're bearing your soul in a power outage," Maya whispered, stunned. "That's, like, frighteningly smooth."

"I'm working on it." His grin was back, even more devastating in the flickering light. "Also, your palm reading was wrong. You don't need to guess your future. You're already kind of writing it."

The lights flickered back on. Mrs. Chen announced they'd all need to wait for the storm to pass. But Maya stood there, palm tingling, wondering if maybe lightning really did strike twice.