strike

Maya felt like a literal **zombie** as she dragged herself through the doors of Northwood High—third consecutive night of finishing her history project till 2 AM will do that to you. Her phone buzzed with texts from the group chat blowing up about Jordan's party tonight, and honestly? FOMO was hitting different.

"You coming tonight?" Jordan asked at lunch, sliding into the seat beside her. "Don't be that person who bails last minute."

"I'm literally **running** on caffeine and anxiety right now," Maya groaned, resting her head on her cafeteria tray. "But... yeah, I'll be there."

She spotted Marcus across the lunchroom—the new guy who'd transferred from Oak Creek last month. He'd joined the track team and was already the fastest sprinter in the district. Their eyes met for approximately three seconds before Maya quickly looked away, her face doing that weird hot thing it did whenever he was within a fifty-foot radius.

Then she heard it: some juniors at the next table whispering about her. Something about her supposedly talking trash about the track captain's girlfriend.

"That's such **bull**," she muttered, poking at her food. She'd literally never said anything negative about anyone—all she did was study, run track, and exist awkwardly in social situations.

Maya spent the rest of the day overthinking everything. Did people actually believe those rumors? Was that why Marcus had looked away?

By the time she got to Jordan's house that night, her social battery was at approximately negative five percent. The music was loud, people were everywhere, and she immediately spotted Marcus in the corner looking just as uncomfortable as she felt. She started to make her way over there—

And then the sky outside lit up. A massive **lightning** bolt struck somewhere close, and the entire house went dark.

Everyone screamed. Someone laughed. In the confusion, Maya felt a hand grab hers in the darkness.

"Hey," Marcus's voice said quietly. "Want to bail? This party's kinda... a lot."

Maya stood there for a second, her heart doing that weird fluttery thing again. Then she squeezed his hand back.

"Yeah," she said. "Let's bounce."

They ended up at the 24-hour diner down the street, sharing fries and talking about everything—track, how much high school sucked sometimes, their mutual love for horror movies. Maya didn't feel like a zombie anymore. The rumors didn't seem so important. And maybe, just maybe, she'd found something real.

"Next meet," Marcus said, "I'm totally beating your time."

Maya laughed. "In your dreams, new boy."