The Cafeteria Recon Mission

Maya pretended to be deeply fascinated by her phone, but really she was running Operation Papaya — a full-on recon mission to find out whether Jake from AP Bio actually liked her back. She'd become an accidental spy during third period when she'd overheard him telling Marcus he thought someone in their friend group was "actually kinda cool." That could mean anyone. It could mean Jessica with her perfect highlights. It could mean Tyler who made varsity as a sophomore. Or it could mean Maya, who once ate an entire papaya in the cafeteria on a dare because she'd never tried one before and everyone watched like she was defusing a bomb.

Now she sat two tables away, supposedly studying for the history test but absolutely not studying, watching Jake pick at his lunch. He was eating something green. Spinach? Who packed spinach for school lunch?

"You're being weird again," whispered Chloe, sliding onto the bench beside her. "Also, Jake's looking over here."

Maya's heart did that thing where it forgot how to rhythm. "He's looking?"

"Yeah, with that look."

"What look? The 'I think you're a freak' look? Because that would be fair after the papaya incident."

"No, the 'I want to come over there but I'm nervous' look. Also, he's been eating spinach salad for twenty minutes. Nobody eats that slowly unless they're stalling." Chloe raised an eyebrow. "Maybe he's running his own operation."

Jake stood up. Maya forgot how to breathe. He walked toward their table, and her brain started playing every embarrassing moment from middle school like a greatest hits album.

"Hey," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "I, um, heard you like that weird fruit? Papaya?"

"It's not weird, it's underrated," she said, then immediately wanted to die.

"Right, yeah, underrated." He smiled lopsidedly. "Anyway, my mom's making me try all these healthy foods, and there's this thing at home nobody wants to eat. I thought maybe you'd want to try it? With me? After school?"

"Is it spinach?" Chloe blurted.

Jake laughed. "No. But I'll bring some of that too, since you're so interested in my lunch."

Maya nodded, probably too enthusiastically. "Yes. I mean, sure. Sounds... cool."

"Cool," he said, walking backward a few steps like he couldn't quite stop looking at her.

"Operation Papaya," Chloe whispered. "Mission accomplished."