The Bear Signal

Maya's thumb hovered over the send button, heart doing gymnastics. She'd been basically low-key spying on Jordan's Instagram story for twenty minutes—okay, maybe thirty—watching him post random fire-emoji pics from what looked like the woods behind the old cable tower.

"You're doing it again," said Lena, flopping onto Maya's bed and snatching the iPhone. "Just text him already. It's not that deep."

"It IS that deep," Maya groaned, grabbing her phone back. "What if he thinks I'm being weird? What if he's literally ghosting me?"

"Or," Lena raised an eyebrow, "what if he's waiting for you to slide into his DMs like a normal person?"

Maya bit her lip. Jordan had posted something new—a grainy photo of a massive paw print in the mud, captioned: *bro there is literally a bear out here*.

Before Maya could overthink it, Lena typed something and hit send. *Hey, that looks crazy. Be safe lol.*

"LENA!" Maya launched herself at her best friend, but her phone buzzed almost immediately.

Jordan: *haha yeah i'm kinda freaking out. my cable guy dad said they've been seeing bears near the tower all week*

Maya's stomach did flip-flops. He was responding. Actually talking to her.

*You need backup?* she typed, fingers trembling. *I can bring snacks or something*

*actually yes please. i'm hiding in the truck and i forgot to bring food*

Maya's brain short-circuited. This was happening.

"Get dressed," Lena commanded, suddenly in full mission mode. "We're going on a bear adventure. This is your moment. Do NOT flop."

Twenty minutes later, Maya was running through the woods behind Lena, hair a mess, clutching a bag of Doritos and her phone like her life depended on it. The old cable tower loomed ahead, Jordan's truck parked beside it like a metal lifeline.

And there it was. An actual bear. Massive. Fuzzy. Standing on its hind legs and looking mildly confused about the cable equipment.

Maya froze. This was not in her day plan.

The bear's head whipped toward them. It made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a grunt, then casually amble-crawled away into the trees like it had somewhere better to be.

Jordan's truck door flew open. "DUDE. Did you see that?!" He was laughing, eyes bright with adrenaline. "That was insane."

Maya's heart was still hammering, but not from the bear anymore. "Yeah," she managed, breathless. "Insane."

He grinned at her, and she knew Lena was going to demand EVERY detail later.

"Thanks for the backup," Jordan said, gesturing at the Doritos. "You literally saved me."

"Anytime," Maya said, and this time she didn't overthink it.

The bear was gone, her phone had one new notification, and Maya realized some signals were worth running toward.