Summer of Strange Geometry

The **pool** at the Reynolds' country club was basically a social battlefield, and I was currently losing. Badly.

I sat on the edge with my legs in the water, nursing a warm **orange** soda that had lost its fizz an hour ago, while the popular group splashed around in the deep end. Maya was there, of course, looking effortless in a turquoise swimsuit that made my heart do weird little flips.

"Yo, Marcus!" Jason called, tossing me a **padel** racquet. "We need a fourth for mixed doubles. You in?"

The entire popular group went silent. Maya turned to look at me. This was it—my chance to finally talk to her after three years of being basically invisible. I'd been crushing on her since seventh grade when she'd defended me against Tyler's mean jokes about my glasses.

"Sure," I said, trying to sound casual instead of like I was internally screaming.

But then my stomach gave this embarrassingly loud growl, and I remembered I'd barely eaten all day. The fruit station was nearby, and I grabbed some **papaya** slices, trying to play it cool. Only papaya has this weird musky smell that definitely does not say "cool and confident." It says "awkward teenage boy eating strange fruit alone."

"Whatever," I muttered, grabbing my towel to leave.

"Wait!" Maya ran over, actually stepping away from her friends. "My dad's been making me do **pyramid** schemes for his MLM all summer, and I'm dying for an escape. You wanna just... walk around the perimeter instead?"

I stared at her. Maya. The Maya. Wanted to walk around the pool with me instead of playing padel with Jason.

"Yeah," I managed, my brain short-circuiting. "That sounds... better."

We walked in comfortable silence for a minute before she sighed. "You know what sucks? Nobody actually knows the real me. They just see the popular girl whose dad sells those pyramid scheme protein shakes."

"I know," I said before thinking. "I mean, I remember when you got that sci-fi book from the library last year. The really thick one everyone made fun of?"

She stopped walking and really looked at me. "You noticed that?"

"I notice a lot of stuff," I admitted, feeling my face get hot. "I just... never thought you'd care what I noticed."

Maya smiled, and it was this completely different smile from her usual one. Real. "Well, I do. So, Marcus... what else have you noticed?"