Summer Hierarchy

Marcus stood at the edge of the community pool, chlorine stinging his nose, watching the social pyramid float before him in the water. At the top: Jessica and her squad, forming a literal human pyramid while everyone else watched like they were witnessing the burning of Rome. At the bottom: Marcus, clutching his towel like a security blanket.

His dog, Barnaby—a scruffy terrier mix with more personality than Marcus's entire friend group—had already abandoned him for a group of girls cooing over how precious he was. Traitor.

"Yo Marcus!" Tyler yelled from the deep end. "Baseball starts at three, you coming or what?"

Baseball. The sport Marcus sucked at but played anyway because sometimes being terrible at something was better than sitting alone thinking about how terrible you were at everything else. Plus, Tyler had been his friend since third grade, back when social hierarchies were determined by who could spit watermelon seeds the farthest instead of who had the most followers.

"Yeah," Marcus called back, but his feet stayed glued to the concrete. Jessica had just splashed into the pool, cascading down from her pyramid throne like some chlorine-soaked Aphrodite, and suddenly Marcus felt like maybe swimming wasn't his biggest problem.

The real problem was that he was fifteen and still trying to figure out where he fit in a world that seemed designed for people who weren't him.

Barnaby chose that moment to shake himself vigorously near Jessica's towel, spraying dog water everywhere. Her squad shrieked. Marcus's stomach dropped.

But then Jessica laughed. Actually laughed. "Your dog has more game than you," she called to Marcus, and somehow—impossibly—she was swimming toward him. "I'm Jessica, by the way. Unless you already know that because you've been staring at us for twenty minutes."

Heat crawled up Marcus's neck. "I was—"

"Kidding. You coming to baseball? I'm pitcher today."

Marcus blinked. The social pyramid had just collapsed,重建 itself in real time. "You play baseball?"

"Play?" Jessica grinned. "I dominate. Ask Tyler."

Barnaby trotted over and nosed Marcus's hand, and for the first time all summer, Marcus thought the pyramid might actually have room for him at the top.