Sunburnt and Seen

The country club parking lot was basically a luxury car showroom when Maya's mom dropped her off that Tuesday. Maya tugged at the brim of her oversized bucket hat, pulling it down like a security blanket. Her curls were frizzing in the humidity, and she'd spent forty-five minutes that morning trying to tame them into something approachable.

"You'll be fine, honey," her mom had said, but what did she know? Maya was the new girl, starting summer camp three weeks late, when everyone already had their friend groups locked down like nuclear codes.

She spotted them immediately by the pool—the popular crew, laid out like magazine covers. Bella was laughing at something Tyler said, flipping her perfect blonde hair like she was in a hair commercial. They were all impossibly confident, impossibly tanned, impossibly everything Maya wasn't.

"Hey! New girl!" It was Tyler, waving her over to the padel court. "We need a fourth for doubles. You play?"

Maya's stomach did that thing where it simultaneously dropped and rose. "Uh, kinda?"

"Good enough. Bella's partner bailed, and she's allergic to losing."

Bella rolled her eyes but smiled. "I'm letting you win, Tyler. Don't get it twisted." She looked at Maya. "You any good?"

"I—" Maya started, but then she caught her reflection in the pool house window. The hat. The hair. The everything. Something in her just... snapped. "Actually? I'm pretty decent."

The first game was a disaster. Maya missed every ball, her movements stiff and self-conscious. But then she peeled off her hat, shaking out her curls, and something shifted. She stopped thinking about how she looked and started playing.

"Whoa," Tyler said after Maya's third straight winner. "Where'd that come from?"

"Texas," Maya said, grinning. "We take our racquet sports seriously down there."

By game three, she and Bella were destroying the boys. Bella was actually high-fiving her. They were both sweating, hair everywhere, not caring.

"Okay, you're officially my favorite person," Bella said as they collapsed on the pool edge afterward, feet dangling in the water. "Where have you been all summer?"

"Hiding under a hat, apparently," Maya said, and Bella snorted.

"Same, girl. Same."

Later, when Maya's mom picked her up, she found Maya's hat in the backseat, abandoned.

"How was it?" her mom asked.

Maya looked at her phone. New message from Bella: same time tomorrow? don't even think about bringing the hat

"Good," Maya said, already planning her outfit. "Actually, it was kinda awesome."