Strikeout at the Blender

Maya's mom was forcing her to eat the spinach smoothie. Like, actually forcing her. It was green and chunky and looked like something that had died in a swamp.

"It's good for you!" her mom chirped, already walking away to answer a work call on her cable-knit sweater. Maya's mom was always multitasking, always twelve things at once. Maya was the opposite: she could barely focus on one.

Tomorrow was the first day of sophomore year, and Maya had decided she was going to be different. Confident. Someone who didn't hide in the back of the classroom wearing hoodies two sizes too big. Someone who would actually talk to Lucas Chen, who'd been in her homeroom since seventh grade and whose smile still made her stomach do that weird flippy thing.

She took a tiny sip of the smoothie. Actually, not terrible. Kind of earthy. She could be the kind of person who drank green smoothies now. The kind of person who had her life together.

Her phone buzzed. Group chat: Homeroom Squad.

Elena: Pool party at Jordan's Saturday. You coming?

Jordan's parties were legendary. The cool kids went. Maya had never been invited. She typed: Maybe!

Then deleted it.

Typed: I'll check my schedule!

Deleted that too.

Finally just sent: Maybe :)

Her little brother Leo burst into the kitchen, wearing his baseball uniform backwards and backwards, pants over his jersey like he was some kind of fashion-forward chaos demon. He was nine and had zero shame.

"Maya! Maya! Watch!" He grabbed a papaya from the counter—no clue where it had even come from—and threw it like a baseball. It smashed against the backsplash, exploding everywhere. Seeds and orange pulp dripped down the cabinets.

"LIGHTNING BOLT!" Leo screamed. "Did you see my lightning?"

Maya just stared at him. And then she started laughing. Really laughing. Not her usual quiet snicker, but full-body, bent-over, can't-breathe laughing. Leo joined in, dancing around the kitchen in his backwards uniform, shouting about fruit and thunder.

Her mom walked back in, phone still at her ear. She surveyed the mess, Maya laughing so hard tears streamed down her face, Leo's weird interpretive dance.

"What did I miss?"

"Nothing," Maya said, still grinning. "Just... Leo's lightning."

Her mom raised an eyebrow. "You're cleaning that up, by the way."

"I know."

Maya took another sip of her spinach smoothie. It was still chunky and weird and kind of gross. But she drank it anyway. She would clean up the papaya explosion. She would figure out what to wear to Jordan's party. She would talk to Lucas Chen, maybe.

Or maybe she wouldn't. But at least she wouldn't be hiding in the back of the classroom in her oversized hoodie.

Probably still the hoodie, though. Some things didn't need to change all at once.