Taking the Bull by the Horns

Maya's swim cap smelled like chlorine and bad decisions. She was three seconds off her qualifying time, and Coach Rodriguez kept saying she needed to push harder, like that was somehow the missing ingredient in her life.

"You're not eating right," her mom had announced that morning, slamming a bottle of neon-orange vitamin D supplements on the kitchen counter. "Swimmers need fuel. You're too skinny."

Maya grabbed the bottle. "I'm literally about to go eat papaya with Chloe. Can you chill?"

Her mom sighed the sigh of defeat. "Fine. But take the vitamins."

Now, walking to Chloe's house, Maya spotted him: the bull. Not a metaphorical bull, like the ones in rodeos or the ones people talked about when they meant "confronting fears." An actual bull, standing in Mr. Henderson's pasture, staring at her with eyes that said, "I could absolutely ruin your day."

Chloe caught up, chewing gum. "That's Ferdinand. He's actually super chill. Last week, I fed him grass through the fence."

"You fed a bull grass through the fence?"

"He's a vegetarian, Maya. Calm down."

They ended up behind Chloe's garage, sharing a papaya they'd "borrowed" from her neighbor's tree. It tasted like summer and rebellion. Chloe was talking about Tyler, who'd finally noticed Maya at swim practice, and Maya was pretending like she didn't care, which was the most teenage thing she'd ever done.

"He asked if you're going to regionals," Chloe said.

"I'm not going to regionals. I'm three seconds off, Chloe. THREE. That's basically a different sport."

Chloe spit a papaya seed onto the grass. "So what? You've got two weeks. That's fourteen days. That's..." She did the mental math. "That's enough time to get three seconds faster."

"You're literally the world's worst at math."

"I'm the world's best at believing in you though." Chloe nudged her. "Running isn't gonna help. You need to actually, like, try."

Maya looked at her friend, then back at the bull in the distance. Ferdinand had wandered closer to the fence, snorting at something in the grass.

"You know what?" Maya stood up, brushing papaya juice from her shorts. "You're right."

"About what?"

"About everything. The vitamins, the swimming, Tyler, the bull—"

"Tyler's not a bull, Maya."

"Metaphorically. He's scary and I've been avoiding him and maybe I should just..." She took a breath. "Take the bull by the horns."

Chloe groaned. "That was so bad. I'm ending our friendship."

But Maya was already dialing Tyler's number, heart racing like she'd just finished her best race ever.