Storm-Chasing at Miller's Pool

My stupid dog chose TODAY of all days to play escape artist. One minute I'm at Miller's annual summer pool party, trying to work up the nerve to finally talk to Gia — you know, THE Gia who's been in my fifth-period English since September and whose laugh literally sounds like summer rain — and the next minute, Buster's barking his head off from outside the fence.

I'm wearing my lucky backwards hat (don't judge, it's my whole personality) and trying to play it cool when I hear him. OF COURSE my chaotic golden retriever would pick this moment to ruin everything.

"Is that... your dog?" Gia asks, all wide-eyed and perfect in the pool, water slicking her dark hair back like she's in a music video or something.

"Yeah, sorry, I gotta —" I start, already halfway across the deck, heart hammering worse than when I bombed that Spanish oral last month. Outside, Buster's managed to corner the neighbor's actual BEAR of a dog behind the shed. The thing's massive and I'm pretty sure it's part wolf or something equally terrifying.

But then the sky decides to make everything way more dramatic — lightning cracks straight through the clouds like white fire, illuminating the whole backyard in this crazy strobe-light effect. Someone screams from inside the pool area.

"STORM'S COMING! EVERYONE INSIDE NOW!" Miller's dad yells.

And just like that, everyone's scrambling. I grab Buster (who is completely unbothered, tail wagging like he didn't almost start a dogfight), and we're all shoved into the pool house, thirty soaking-wet teenagers squished together on lawn furniture and concrete floors, listening to the thunder shake the walls.

Gia ends up next to me on a bench, knees pressed against mine, and I'm pretty sure my heart's louder than the storm outside.

"So," she says, wringing out her hair, water dripping onto my lucky hat like we're in some movie or whatever. "Your dog has terrible timing."

I laugh. Actually laugh. "Story of my life."

She grins, and somehow, between the lightning flashes and the smell of chlorine and my wet dog pressed against my leg, everything that felt impossible an hour ago suddenly doesn't. Sometimes the universe wrecks your plans just to give you better ones.