Summer's Last Pitch

The **pool** water glittered like crushed diamonds under the August sun, but Maya's stomach was doing backflips that had nothing to do with the humidity. Today was the day—finally—the day she'd tell Jordan how she felt.

Her best friend Chloe lay on a lounge chair, scrolling through her phone with practiced boredom. "You're sweating through your bikini top, Maya. Chill."

Maya wiped her sweaty **palm** against her towel. "I can't chill. This is it. After summer, we're all going to different colleges. It's now or never."

Across the yard, Jordan and his friends were messing around with a **baseball** and glove, laughing like they had forever. Like the last three years hadn't been Maya simultaneously wanting to be near him and terrified of actually talking to him.

"He's been looking at you all summer," Chloe said, finally glancing up. "You're not crazy."

But then her phone buzzed. "Ugh. My **cable** company is charging me again for some movie package I never ordered. Hold up." Chloe marched off, leaving Maya alone with her racing thoughts.

A red **fox** had been appearing in Maya's dreams all week. Her grandmother had told her foxes meant cleverness, adaptability—she could handle this. She was adaptable.

"Hey Maya!" Jordan called, walking over with that effortless grin. "Want to play?" He tossed her the baseball.

She caught it, her heart hammering. "I'm terrible at sports. You know this."

"That's not the point." He stood closer now. Close enough that she could smell his sunscreen. "We're all terrible at everything this summer. That's kind of the beauty of it."

"What do you mean?"

Jordan looked away, suddenly awkward. "I mean, next year, everything's going to matter. Grades, majors, the future. But right now? We can just be terrible at baseball and it's fine." He paused. "I wanted to spend the summer with you. All summer with you. But I didn't know how to say it without being weird."

Maya's breath caught. The fox in her dreams hadn't been about adaptability at all. It had been about timing.

"You're not being weird," she said softly. "You're being perfect."

Jordan's smile widened, and for the first time all summer, Maya's racing thoughts finally quieted. The pool water kept glittering, but somehow, the sun felt warmer.

"Hey," Chloe yelled from across the yard, still on the phone with customer service. "Maya! My mom says if I complain one more time, she's cancelling our Netflix!" They both laughed, and Jordan took Maya's hand—the one with the sweaty palm—and squeezed it.

Some things could wait. This couldn't.