Summer of the Social Pyramid

The papaya sat on the paper plate like an alien artifact. I'd never actually seen one in person, let alone been expected to eat it at Tyler Morrison's pool party.

"Dude, just try it," Tyler said, already shirtless and clearly owning his spot at the top of the summer social pyramid. "It's basically nature's candy."

I took a bite. It tasted like melon's weird cousin who studied abroad and came back pretentious.

"It's... interesting," I lied, because that's what you do when you're a freshman and somehow invited to a junior's party.

His golden retriever, Buster, chose that moment to shake pool water all over my new vans. Typical. The dog was living his best life while I was over here calculating every social move like my life depended on it.

"YOUSTILLGOTTADOIT, BRO!" someone yelled from the pool.

The jump. The reason I'd spent forty-five minutes psyching myself up in the bathroom mirror. The three-meter rock formation Tyler's dad had built into the pool area—a legit miniature waterfall that everyone had been jumping off all afternoon. Everyone except me.

I climbed up, legs shaking like I'd had three espressos. From up here, the pool looked tiny. The **swimming** kids below looked like ants. My heart hammered against my ribs like it was trying to break out.

"JUMPJUMPJUMP!" the chanted crowd below.

Then I saw Tyler's older brother Marcus emerge from the house. The bear. Literally six-foot-four of varsity lacrosse player who once made a sophomore cry by looking at him. Marcus scanned the pool area, eyes landing on me frozen at the top of the waterfall.

For a second, I thought he'd yell at me to get down. Instead, he cupped his hands around his mouth and bellowed, "SEND IT, LITTLE MAN!"

Something in my brain unlocked. I didn't think. I didn't calculate the social cost of belly-flopping. I just jumped.

The air rushed past my ears. For three seconds, I was weightless, terrified, and absolutely alive. Then I hit the water, plunging deep, the world going muffled and blue. When I broke the surface, everyone was cheering. Even Tyler.

"Alright, alright!" Marcus yelled from above, actually smiling. "Kid's got sauce."

I pulled myself out of the pool, heart still racing, but different now. Not fear-exactly. More like I'd just passed some invisible test. Tyler tossed me a towel.

"Not bad, freshman," he said, nodding respect I hadn't earned until this moment. "Wanna play beer pong?"

"Yeah," I said, shaking water out of my hair like Buster had earlier. "Yeah, I do."

The papaya could wait. I had bigger fish to fry.