Summer's Last Cannonball

The water in Maya's backyard **pool** shimmered like liquid glass, but my stomach was doing backflips. End-of-summer party. Classic social minefield. I adjusted my swim trunks for the fiftieth time, already missing the safety of my bedroom.

"Yo, Tyler! You gonna stand there all day or actually get in?" Liam called, doing a perfect cannonball that sent water spraying everywhere. Liam, who'd somehow morphed from acne-ridden seventh grader to total chad over summer break. The transformation was suspicious, honestly.

I forced a laugh. "Just warming up, bro."

Warming up for what, exactly? For Maya—the girl I'd been lowkey crushing on since sixth grade—to finally notice me? For my friends to stop roasting me about being the only one who hadn't made out with anyone yet? The pressure was real.

Her tabby **cat**, Mochi, darted between my legs, nearly sending me face-first into the concrete. Of course. Because the universe wasn't done.

"Careful!" Maya appeared beside me, all chlorine-smelling hair and freckled shoulders. "Mochi's practically an escape artist. Yesterday we found her three blocks down at the **padel** courts."

"No way," I said, like this was fascinating instead of just—a cat being a cat.

"Yeah, Coach Martinez was feeding her treats. She's basically the team mascot now." She grinned, and my brain short-circuited. "So, you coming in? The water's perfect."

This was it. The moment. My hands actually shook.

Then Jenson—human equivalent of a **bull** in a china shop—shoved past me, splashing Maya completely. "Party's in the POOL, Tyler! Quit being a simp and get in here!" Everyone laughed. The kind of laugh that echoes in your head for days.

Maya wiped water from her eyes, looking annoyed. But then she looked at me, really looked at me, and something shifted. "You know what? Don't listen to him. Take your time."

And suddenly I was tired of taking my time. Tired of waiting for the perfect moment, tired of being the person who watched from the edge. I took a breath and—

**bear**-crawled right to the edge and did the most ungraceful cannonball in history. Water up my nose, trunks around my knees, zero dignity left. But as I surfaced, sputtering and laughing, Maya was laughing too. Not at me—with me. And for the first time all summer, I didn't feel like I was missing out.

Sometimes the scariest leaps are the ones that finally feel like landing.