Sweaty Palms and Side Hustles

The **palm** trees swayed in the Coachella Valley heat as Maya clutched her **iPhone** like a lifeline. Sixteen and already exhausted from maintaining three different Instagram personas. Her cousin's graduation party in Palm Springs was supposed to be chill, but somehow Brianna had cornered her by the pool with that look.

"You're literally sitting on a gold mine, Maya," Brianna said, eyes gleaming. "This skincare line is the future. My mentor made six figures last month alone. It's not a **pyramid** scheme, it's about empowerment circles."

Maya's phone buzzed. Jake from AP Bio had finally responded to her story. Her hand shook so hard she nearly dropped it in the margarita pool. Thank god she'd spent forty-five minutes perfecting her **hair** this morning, even though the desert humidity was already conspiring against her beach waves.

"That sounds... interesting," Maya said, trying to inch away.

"Interesting? It's literally financial freedom," Brianna pressed. "Do you want to be broke forever? Because that's where you're headed with your little artist dreams."

Across the pool, Jake was laughing with someone else. Maya's stomach twisted. She'd been agonizing over their text conversations for weeks, overanalyzing every emoji and response time.

"You're full of **bull**," someone said behind them.

Maya turned to see her aunt Carmen, sharp in a linen blazer despite the ninety-degree heat. "Brianna, leave the girl alone. Maya's going to art school, and she's going to be amazing at it. Not everyone needs to sell overpriced face cream to their high school friends."

Brianna's face fell. Carmen winked at Maya.

"Your cousin tried to recruit me last year," Carmen whispered. "I told her I'd rather light my money on fire. At least that would be faster."

Maya's phone lit up again. Jake: "pool party tmrw? u should come ;)")

Her palms were definitely sweaty now, but for the first time all day, she didn't care about her hair or her posts or Brianna's pyramid scheme. Sometimes being sixteen meant navigating through endless nonsense to find the moments that actually mattered.

"Yeah," Maya typed back. "I'll be there."