Storm Crush at Miller's Pool

The pool deck at Tyler's house was basically a social minefield, and Maya was standing right in the middle of it in her brand-new orange bikini that she'd spent thirty whole minutes psyching herself up to wear.

"Yo, Maya! You gonna get in or just stand there looking like a traffic cone?" Jordan called from the deep end, splashing water everywhere like the total chaos demon he was.

Maya rolled her eyes but grinned. "First of all, rude. Second, I'm strategically assessing the pH balance of this situation before committing."

"Whatever, nerd. Just get in here!"

She took a deep breath and jumped – and okay, maybe she did a tiny awkward mid-air adjustment because she still hadn't mastered the whole graceful entrance thing, but nobody noticed because suddenly Riley was swimming over to her, and Riley was maybe the cutest human being Maya had ever seen in her entire sixteen years of existence.

"Hey," Riley said, pushing wet hair back from their face. "Nice entry. Very... intentional energy."

"That's one way to put it," Maya said, trying to play it cool while her heart did literally twenty cartwheels. "I call it performance art swimming."

Riley laughed, and it was this genuine sound that Maya felt in her chest like actual physical warmth. Then the sky opened up and it started pouring rain – like, instantly drenching everyone, droplets hammering the pool surface until it looked like the water was dancing with itself.

"THUNDERSTORM PARTY!" someone screamed, and suddenly everyone was losing their minds in the best way possible, and then –

A massive bolt of lightning crackled across the sky, purple-white and way too close, illuminating everything in this wild flash that made Riley's face look suddenly intense and Maya's orange bathing suit glow like she'd swallowed the sun itself.

"EVERYONE OUT!" Tyler's mom yelled from the back door.

They all scrambled up the pool ladder, laughing and shivering, and Maya found herself pressed shoulder-to-shoulder with Riley under the tiny overhang of the garage door.

"That was insane," Riley said, looking at her with this expression Maya couldn't quite read but desperately wanted to understand.

"Yeah," Maya managed. "Pretty epic storm."

"I wasn't talking about the storm," Riley said softly, and then they just stood there in the rain while Maya's whole brain short-circuited like that lightning bolt had zapped her directly.

So maybe the orange bikini had been worth the anxiety spiral. Maybe social minefields could turn into something else entirely. Maybe, just maybe, she'd actually figure out how to be a person someday.