Summer Storm at the Courts

The hat was everything. A beat-up Dodgers cap I'd stolen from my brother's closet, pulled low enough to hide the fact that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

"You're gripping the racket like it's a vitamin supplement, Maya," Coach Torres yelled, and I felt my face burn. "Relax!"

Easy for him to say. He wasn't the new girl at summer padel camp, surrounded by teenagers who'd been playing since they could walk. My partner, Jenna—the impossibly gorgeous girl with the perfect smile and the matching turquoise outfit—kept giving me these encouraging nods that somehow made everything worse.

My mom had signed me up. "It'll be good for you," she'd said, pressing a handful of supplements into my palm. "You need vitamin D. You need sun. You need friends."

So here I was, pretending to be athletic, pretending I wasn't counting down the seconds until I could retreat to the bunk and read.

Then came the lightning.

One minute, we were drilling backhands. The next, the sky turned an ominous purple and the first crack split the air like the world was breaking apart. Coach blew his whistle—everyone inside, NOW.

The downpour caught us halfway to the covered area. Jenna grabbed my hand and we ran, laughing despite ourselves, dodging the drops. We made it just as the sky opened up completely, and then we were standing there, soaked, breathless, watching the storm together.

"Your hat," she said, pointing. I'd lost it somewhere in the dash.

"Oh no," I said, then realized I didn't actually care. My hair was plastered to my face. I probably looked ridiculous.

"You know what?" Jenna said, grinning. "You're way cooler without it."

Lightning flashed again, illuminating her smile, and something in my chest shifted. Not a crush—well, maybe a little one—but something bigger. The realization that I didn't have to perform. That I could just be the girl who ran through storms and didn't know how to hit a proper backhand and that was okay.

"Yeah," I said, and for the first time all summer, I meant it. "Yeah, I think I am."