The Cannonball Truth

Maya's ponytail was already fraying at the edges, humidity turning her carefully straightened hair into something resembling a frizz monster. She should've known better than to attempt sleek hair at Jessica's annual pool party — literally the most documented event of eighth grade.

Around her, people posed like Instagram models, the air thick with sunscreen and the soft *click-click* of iphone cameras capturing everything. Maya clutched her phone against her chest, her timeline already filling with photos she wasn't in. Again.

"Hey!"

It was Leo, the quiet kid from her history class, standing poolside with his glasses fogged up. "You gonna stand there all day or actually get wet?"

"I'm good," Maya lied, though her sundress was already clinging uncomfortably to her legs. The truth was, she was terrified. No makeup, hair already reverting to its natural chaos, and this was her first pool party since — well, since everything changed last summer.

Leo shrugged. "Your loss." Then he did the most un-Instagrammable thing imaginable: a cannonball so massive it created a tsunami that splashed half the party.

Everyone groaned. Several people's iphones were now definitely compromised.

Maya's phone slipped from her grip and landed with a devastating splash directly into the deep end.

"No, no, NO!" Her voice cracked as she scrambled toward the pool edge. Three years of photos, texts, her entire documented life —

Leo surfaced, grinning, water dripping everywhere. Then he saw her face. "You okay?"

"My phone — it's —"

"I'll get it." He dove under.

Maya waited, heart pounding. When Leo broke the surface again, her phone was in his hand. "Think it might be a goner, but hey." He shook water from his curls. "Maybe that's not the worst thing?"

The crowd had moved on, already capturing new moments. Maya looked at her dripping phone, then at Leo, who was currently failing spectacularly to look cool while wet and messy-haired. Something in her chest loosened.

"You know what?" Maya stepped to the pool's edge. She pulled out her hair tie and let her hair go full frizz-monster. Then she jumped.

The water was cool, perfect, real.

When she surfaced, Leo was grinning. "Finally."

"Yeah," Maya said, not caring who was watching or whether her hair looked good or whether this moment would ever be documented. "Finally."

Later, she'd discover her phone still worked. But for the first time all summer, she didn't care about the screen. She was too busy living outside of it.