Summer Scheme

Maya's nose almost touched the weird spotty orange fruit her cousin thrust at her. "Dude, it's papaya. Super exotic, super healthy. People are obsessed with this stuff."

"It looks like it's about to hatch something," Maya said, but took a bite anyway. Because that's what she did lately — whatever her cousin Skylar wanted.

Skylar had changed over the summer. New wardrobe, new confidence, new whole vibe. She'd joined this "wellness entrepreneur group" and kept talking about building their financial pyramid, starting at the bottom and working their way up together. Maya had nodded along, half-listening, mostly just glad her cousin was talking to her again after the incident with Maya's childhood bear, Mr. Cuddles, at Skylar's birthday party last year. The less said about that, the better.

"So," Skylar said, lowering her voice, "I need you to come with me to this pool party tomorrow. My upline's cousin's friend is hosting, and there's gonna be tons of people from school. I need my team there."

Maya's stomach did that thing it always did before social events — the thing that felt like swallowing a cup of sand. But she nodded anyway. "Sure."

The party was everything Maya hated: too loud, too many people, too much water everywhere. Skylar abandoned her immediately to work the room, talking about "opportunity" and "residual income" to anyone who'd listen. Maya found herself floating in the pool alone, watching her cousin from a distance, wondering when they'd stopped being just kids who played video games and started being people who needed teams and uplines.

A guy jumped in beside her, splashing water everywhere. "Hey," he said. "You Skylar's cousin?"

"Unfortunately," she said, and he laughed.

"I'm Marcus. She tried to sell me papaya supplements five minutes ago."

"That's her whole thing now."

"She's not wrong about the pyramid scheme part, though," Marcus said. "She's literally at the bottom of it."

Maya snorted, then immediately covered her mouth. But Marcus was grinning.

"What?" she said.

"Nothing, you're just... you're actually chill. Unlike everyone else here trying to be someone they're not."

They floated there for a long time, talking about nothing important while Skylar moved from group to group, building her pyramid one person at a time. For the first time all summer, Maya felt like she could breathe.

Later, when Skylar found her and demanded to know why she hadn't been networking, Maya surprised herself by saying, "I was busy."

Skylar's face fell, just for a second. But then she straightened her shoulders. "Fine. But you're missing out on the opportunity."

"Yeah," Maya said, thinking about Marcus asking if she wanted to hang out again, away from the schemes and the performances. "I think I'll take my chances."

That night, she texted Marcus while eating the rest of the papaya. It wasn't terrible. Maybe some things just took time to get used to.