The Bear in the Cabin

Maya's phone died at 8:47 PM on the worst night of her life.

The freshman retreat. Three days in the woods with people she'd spent three months avoiding. Her iPhone, her shield against awkward conversations, had plummeted from 4% to dead because someone—she wasn't naming names, but it was definitely Sophie—had borrowed her charging cable and never returned it.

"You'll survive," Chloe said from the bunk below. "It's, like, two days."

"That's literally forever," Maya muttered.

"Whatever. More importantly," Chloe lowered her voice, "did you see Tyler at dinner?"

Tyler. The entire reason Maya had spent forty minutes straightening her hair. Tyler, who she'd sat two seats away from during the pasta bar.

"He sat near me," Maya said, trying to sound casual. "We talked about... stuff."

"Stuff? That's it?"

"Okay, we talked about how the spinach in the pasta was, like, definitely frozen. It was a conversation."

"Wow. Groundbreaking."

Suddenly, Chloe's eyes went huge. She pointed to the window.

"Maya. Bear."

Maya spun around. Outside, beneath the moon, something massive moved. A shadow the size of a compact car, lumbering past their cabin. A bear. An actual freaking bear.

Chloe grabbed Maya's arm. "What do we do?"

"I don't know!" Maya whisper-screamed. "You're the outdoor one!"

"I'm a suburban indoor child!"

The bear stopped. It turned toward their window.

Maya's brain went completely offline. No phone. No escape. Just this:

"TYLER!" she shrieked. "THERE'S A BEAR!"

Every light in every cabin flicked on. Doors flew open. Tyler burst into theirs first, breathless, followed by three counselors and half the freshman class.

"Where?" someone demanded.

Maya pointed. "RIGHT THERE—"

The shadow moved again.

"That's..." Tyler squinted. "That's Mrs. Henderson's golden retriever."

The "bear" sat down and wagged its tail.

Silence. Then:

"That was a dog?" Chloe asked.

"A really big dog," Tyler said, grinning. "Nice work, though. Pretty brave, screaming for help."

Maya wanted to die. She wanted to dissolve into atoms. But Tyler was still smiling at her, and everyone was laughing, and somehow, this was the most she'd spoken to anyone all year.

"I thought it was a bear," she said, and Tyler laughed—not mean, but genuine.

"Yeah," he said. "That was actually pretty awesome."

Later, as everyone filtered back to their cabins, Sophie tapped Maya's shoulder.

"Hey. I found your cable. Sorry I forgot to give it back."

Maya took it. She could charge her phone now. She could scroll through social media, avoid people, disappear back into her screen.

She plugged it in. Then she unplugged it.

"Keep it," she told Sophie. "I won't need it."

Somewhere outside, a very large dog barked. Maya smiled.