Summer of Switching Sides

The concrete burned my bare feet as I stood at the edge of the pool, watching Maya and Ethan from behind my sunglasses. They were deep in conversation about baseball camp—again. Everything was baseball camp this, travel team that. I used to be part of that conversation. Now I was just the ghost of who I used to be, floating at the margins of my own friend group.

My golden retriever, Buster, nudged my hand with his wet nose, sensing my mood. He'd been my constant companion all summer, the only one who didn't make me feel weird about quitting the team.

"Earth to Jordan!" Maya waved her hand in my face. "You coming to Ethan's game Friday?"

"Can't," I said, way too quickly. "I have... stuff."

"Stuff?" Ethan raised an eyebrow. "What stuff?"

I could feel it coming—the moment I'd been avoiding all July. "I've been taking padel lessons at the rec center."

The silence stretched. Padel—the tennis-squash hybrid nobody at our school played. Of course. Of course that's what I'd chosen.

"Padel?" Ethan's voice did that thing where it was half question, half mockery. "Isn't that for, like, retirees?"

Before I could defend my life choices, something rustled in the bushes beyond the pool fence. A fox—actual, real-life fox—poked its rust-colored head out, watching us with electric-bright eyes. It looked wild and unbothered, completely at home in its weirdness.

"Whoa," Maya breathed out.

The fox's gaze locked with mine for one long heartbeat, then it vanished back into the brush, gone as quick as it appeared.

"You guys!" Jessie's voice cut through the moment. She and Carlos were already in the pool, splashing each other. "Swimming time! NOW! Jordan, you coming?"

I looked at Ethan and Maya, then at the pool where everyone was actually having fun instead of standing around analyzing my life choices. Something clicked—maybe it was the fox, maybe it was just finally being tired of waiting.

"Yeah," I said, kicking off my flip-flops. "Yeah, I'm coming."

Buster barked as I cannonballed into the deep end, surfacing to Carlos splashing water directly in my face. Whatever. Let them think padel was weird. At least I was playing.