The Bad Hair Day That Changed Everything

Maya's hair was supposed to be caramel highlights. Instead, she left the salon looking like a burnt orange highlighter had exploded on her head.

"It'll grow out," her best friend Chloe said, though her iPhone camera was already documenting the tragedy for TikTok. "At least your profile pic will finally get views."

Maya glared at her phone screen, where her new profile photo was already accumulating sympathetic reactions. "Great. Now I'm the cautionary tale about DIY dye jobs gone wrong."

But the hair disaster wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was that tomorrow was the Spring Fling, and Maya had finally worked up the courage to ask Jay to play padel with her afterward. Jay, who definitely did not need to see her looking like a traffic cone.

"Just bear it," Chloe said, using their code for powering through embarrassing situations. "Jay's not gonna care about your hair. He barely notices when I change my entire aesthetic."

That was true. Jay was obliviously focused on two things: padel and maintaining his starter pack aesthetic. But still.

"What if he thinks I'm trying too hard?" Maya worried. "Like, oh look at me, I changed my whole look to match the season."

"Girl," Chloe said, "you ARE trying too hard. That's the point. Everyone's trying too hard. That's literally what being sixteen is about."

The next day, Maya showed up to the courts wearing her favorite oversized sweatshirt and praying her hair wouldn't attract more attention than necessary. Jay was already there, practicing his serve against the backboard.

"Hey!" He waved, genuinely excited to see her. "Ready to get destroyed?"

And then it happened—Jay's phone slipped from his pocket, face-planted onto the court, and in his attempt to save it, he tripped backward directly into the chain-link fence. His hair got impossibly tangled in the links. He was stuck.

Maya's first instinct was to grab her own iPhone and capture the moment. Then she thought better of it.

"Hold on," she said instead, stepping forward to help untangle him. "This is gonna take a minute."

They spent twenty minutes freeing him from the fence, both of them laughing so hard they could barely breathe. When he was finally loose, his hair was sticking up in ten different directions.

"So," he said, rubbing his head. "About that padel game..."

"Yeah, maybe we just skip to the food part?" Maya suggested.

"Deal."

As they walked away from the courts, Jay bumped her shoulder. "You know, your hair looks kinda cool. Different."

Maya smiled. Maybe the burnt orange wasn't so bad after all.

"Thanks," she said. "Yours too."