Storm Season Secrets

I became a professional spy without even trying. Okay, maybe 'professional' is a stretch, but when you spend every Friday night parked behind the snack bar at the community pool, watching Jess and the popular crew laugh at inside jokes you'll never understand, you pick up some skills. I knew Jess's laugh crinkled her nose. I knew she wore the same lucky necklace to every swim meet. I knew she'd never notice me.

The storm hit halfway through their party — lightning forking across the sky like cracked glass, turning the pool water into something electric and alive. Everyone scattered. Everyone except me, frozen in my spot behind the concession stand, and her.

Jess jumped at a thunder crack, dropped her phone, and cursed. 'You okay?' I called before I could talk myself out of it.

She spun around, spotted me, and something shifted. 'Yeah. Just trapped the door's jammed.'

'I can help.' I stepped into the rain.

'Wait!' She ducked back inside and emerged with something. 'Want to try this? My mom's obsessed with exotic fruit now.'

It was papaya. We sat on the pavement in a downpour, eating this weird orange fruit while lightning turned the world purple. She made fun of how it tasted like 'feet and sunshine.' I told her about my spy career behind the snack bar. She admitted she'd noticed me watching.

'I thought you were creepy,' she said, grinning. 'But then I realized you were just... there. Every week. I wondered what you were thinking.'

'Mostly that I'm invisible.'

'You're not.' She bumped my shoulder with hers. 'You're just quiet.'

When the rain slowed, we were both soaked and full of papaya and something else — this unexpected, electric thing between us. 'Running back to my house,' she said, standing up. 'Coming? My mom has more weird fruit.'

I followed her through puddles, not watching from the sidelines anymore. Some spy mission.