That Time I Almost Drowned (Socially)

My hair was supposed to be platinum blonde this summer, the kind of beach waves that make people think you just spent a month in California. Instead, it turned out a patchy orange disaster that my little brother said made me look like a radioactive Cheeto.

I was hiding in my room, about to cancel on Jordan's pool party, when my mom yelled that I had to take our Golden Retriever, Buster, for a walk. Fine. Whatever. I'd just grab a hoodie and avoid everyone.

But Buster had other plans. The smell-of-freedom loving idiot spotted a squirrel and bolted, dragging me across two lawns and straight into Jordan's backyard. Where everyone was. Including Jayla, who I'd been lowkey crushing on since seventh grade.

My hoodie caught on the fence, snagging and exposing my Cheeto hair. Jayla looked up from her phone and smirked. "Nice hair, Miles. Very... bold."

"It's called fashion, Jayla. You wouldn't understand."

"Pretty sure nobody would understand that," she shot back, but she was smiling. And I noticed her hair was pink now, a soft pastel that made her brown eyes pop even more than usual.

Then Buster shook himself wet—wait, when had he gone swimming?—spraying dog water all over everyone. Jordan's little brother Devon started crying because his phone got drenched, and suddenly I was the guy who brought the chaos dog to the party.

But then Jayla started laughing. Not mean laughing, but real laughing, head back, full joy. And somehow, we ended up sitting on the pool edge, feet in the water, while she told me how she'd dyed her hair pink because her parents said she couldn't.

"They're gonna lose it when they see it," she said, grinning. "Worth it, though."

"Yeah," I said, feeling weirdly seen. "Mine too. They said no bleach, but here we are."

Later, we were in Jordan's basement watching Netflix when the cable went out. Jordan's older brother, Tyler, came down looking like he'd seen a ghost.

"Yo, did you guys hear that weird growling outside?"

We all froze. Devon started whispering about bears.

"Bears don't live in suburbia, genius," Jordan said, but he looked nervous too.

But then Buster started barking like crazy, and we all crept upstairs to look out the window. And there, rooting through someone's trash, was the biggest animal I'd ever seen outside a zoo. A bear. An actual freaking bear, just casually going through recycling bins like it was looking for coupons.

We called animal control, but honestly? Nobody went back to watching TV. We all sat on Jordan's back porch, watching this bear just... exist in our neighborhood, like it was the most normal thing in the world.

Jayla sat next to me, our shoulders touching. "Your hair's growing on me, Cheeto."

"Thanks. Yours is okay too, Pink Lady."

"Wanna go swimming? Bear-proof swimming?"

"In your dreams, maybe." She laughed but didn't move away. "Hey, Miles?"

"Yeah?"

"Glad your dog dragged you here today."

"Yeah," I said, watching the bear amble away down the street. "Me too."