Sweaty Palms and Secrets

Maya's palms were sweating again. She wiped them on her jeans, leaving dark damp spots that definitely weren't helping her already-frayed nerves.

"You ready for this?" Chloe asked, popping a neon orange vitamin C gummy into her mouth like it was candy. Which, technically, it was.

"No," Maya whispered. "He's literally going to know I've been totally creeping on his Instagram since September."

Since when did sitting three rows behind someone in AP Bio become suspicious behavior? Since Maya had spent the entire semester practically learning to be a spy, memorizing Jordan's schedule (posters near the baseball field on Tuesdays), his coffee order (oat milk latte, extra shot), and the way his hair curled slightly at the back when he hadn't gotten a haircut in too long.

The library door chimed. Jordan walked in wearing his baseball jersey from practice, cleats clicking on the linoleum. Maya's heart did something embarrassing and acrobatic.

"He's coming over," Chloe hissed. "Act natural."

"What does that even MEAN?" Maya's voice squeaked.

Jordan stopped at their table. "Hey, you're Maya, right? From bio?"

Her palms were suddenly so sweaty she was surprised she wasn't literally slipping out of her chair. "Yeah. Hi. Hello. I mean—hey."

Smooth.

"Cool." He shifted his weight. "So, I noticed you always sit by the window in the library. There's, like, this fox that hangs out in the courtyard sometimes? I thought maybe you'd seen it."

Maya blinked. "What?"

"The fox. My friends think I'm making it up, but I swear there's like, this whole fox situation happening behind the school." He rubbed the back of his neck, looking suddenly vulnerable. "Anyway, I just—I wanted to know if someone else had seen it too. So I didn't think I was going crazy."

The silence stretched between them, charged and electric.

"I've seen it," Maya said softly. "It was last week, behind the baseball field. It had this patch of white fur on its chest, like a heart shape."

Jordan's face broke into the most genuine smile she'd ever seen. "YES. Oh my god, thank you. I'm not hallucinating it."

"You're definitely not."

"Cool." He grinned again. "Well, I'll see you around. Maybe we can, like, fox-watch sometime? If that's not weird?"

"Not weird," Chloe mouthed, giving her a thumbs-up from behind her book.

"That sounds... actually not weird at all," Maya said.

As Jordan walked away, Maya looked at her hands. Her palms were still sweaty, her heart was still racing, and she was definitely going to need to take about fifty of Chloe's anxiety vitamins before tomorrow.

But for the first time all year, she didn't want to be invisible.

And she really, really hoped that fox showed up again soon.