Summer of the Pyramid Scheme

Maya's summer job at The Vitamin Shack was supposed to be easy money. Instead, she stood in the back room, staring at her boss Gary's latest genius idea: a pyramid of vitamin D3 cans stacked dangerously high, like some unstable monument to his delusions of grandeur.

"You gotta have the bear energy, Maya!" Gary shouted, adjusting his fedora with unnecessary dramatic flair. "The bear hibernates, then comes out SWINGING. That's us this quarter!"

She nodded, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. At 16, she'd already mastered the art of professional smile-suppression. Her phone buzzed in her pocket — Marcus from AP Bio was texting her again. The guy who'd sat behind her all year, randomly deciding today was the day to finally speak.

Her palms were literally sweating. Why was her body betraying her like this?

"Hey, you got that hat customer out front," Gary said, already distracted by something shiny. "The weird one."

The bell chimed. A girl walked in wearing a cowboy hat, chains on her jeans, looking like she'd personally invented being unbothered. Maya recognized her immediately — Skylar, the junior everyone whispered about because she'd supposedly fought a security guard at last year's homecoming.

Skylar sauntered to the counter. "Hey. You got anything for..." She leaned in, voice dropping. "existential dread about college applications?"

Maya froze. Then laughed. Actually laughed. "Bro, same. We got this vitamin B complex that's supposed to help with stress. Gary claims it changed his life, but Gary also thinks protein powder is a personality type."

Skylar's eyes lit up. "No way. You're actually funny." She fished a Sharpie from her pocket. "We should hang. You seem like you don't buy into this..." She gestured at the pyramid looming ominously nearby. "...whatever this capitalist fever dream is."

As Skylar wrote her number on Maya's hand, Maya's phone buzzed again. Marcus. Somehow, in this fluorescent-lit purgatory of supplements and questionable business practices, she'd just made her first real friend.

Gary walked in, hat tilted sideways, completely unaware his employee was living the exact opposite of every lonely teen story he'd probably projected onto her.

"Bear energy, Gary," Maya whispered. "Bear energy."