The Bear Hat Incident

Maya stood in the corner of Jake's basement, clutching her iPhone like a lifeline. The red solo cup in her other hand felt stupidly conspicuous, like she was holding a neon sign that said I DON'T BELONG HERE.

Her phone screen illuminated her dad's oversized baseball cap, pulled low over her curls because seventh period gym class had turned her bangs into a frizzy disaster she couldn't fix. Three friends texted simultaneously: *r u having fun????* *send pics!!!* *is it lame??*

Before she could craft a sufficiently casual response, a sophomore crashed into the bear costume standing by the stereo system. The massive brown teddy bear—some creepy decoration Jake's mom never threw away—toppled sideways, spilling its contents everywhere. Condoms. Snacks. A disturbing number of glow sticks.

"BEAR DOWN!" someone shouted, and suddenly the room descended into chaos.

Maya's iPhone was already recording, her thumb hovering over the button she'd been too nervous to press all night. The bear costume—worn by a shirtless guy whose name she didn't know—started rave-dancing with the fallen teddy bear. Someone threw her dad's hat into the mix. It landed perfectly on the teddy bear's fuzzy head.

The room erupted. Maya laughed so hard she spilled her drink. She didn't care. She was livestreaming this to her friends, caption flashing LIVE: *BEAR HAT PARTY CHAOS*.

The guy in the bear costume moonwalked over, still clutching the teddy bear with her hat on its head. "Nice stream," he said, reading her phone screen. "You're funny when you're not trying to be invisible."

Maya's face burned. Not from embarrassment, but something else. Something lighter.

"I wasn't—"

"You were," he grinned. "Now you're not."

Her friends' reactions flooded her screen: *OMG*, *I'M DYING*, *YOU'RE LEGENDARY*. For the first time all night, Maya didn't need a filter or a caption. She swapped the baseball cap for the teddy bear's hat—fuzzy, ridiculous, perfect.

The iPhone kept recording. But Maya stopped watching the screen. She was too busy dancing with a bear.