The Cat at Kara's Pool Party

I wasn't supposed to be at Kara's pool party. Everyone knew that. But here I was, standing by the snack table like a lost goldfish in an ocean of cool kids, clutching my phone like it was a life raft.

"Yo, Maya! You gonna swim or what?" Tyler called out, doing that thing where he flicked his wet hair back like he was in a shampoo commercial. Tyler, who'd accidentally liked my Instagram post from three years ago last week. Tyler, who I'd been crushing on since seventh grade.

"Maybe later," I said, voice cracking. Smooth.

I reached for a slice of fruit to look busy. Papaya. Seriously? Who served papaya at a pool party? I took a bite anyway because anything was better than standing there awkwardly.

That's when I saw it. A cat. An actual orange tabby cat sitting on the patio fence, watching everything like it was grading our social performance.

"That's Walter," said this girl Quinn, who I didn't really know but who always sat in the back of English drawing anime characters. "He belongs to Kara's neighbor. He crashes every party like he owns the place."

The cat jumped down and walked straight toward me, tail up like a tiny orange flag. My heart did this embarrassing little flutter. Not because of the cat (okay, partly because of the cat), but because Quinn was talking to me and she wasn't being weird about it.

"You can pet him," Quinn said. "He's literally the chillest cat ever."

I knelt down and Walter head-butted my hand like we'd been friends for years. My stupid straw hat fell off in the process and landed face-down in the grass.

"Nice hat," Tyler said, passing by. He didn't even stop. Just nice hat, like that was supposed to mean something.

"It's fine," Quinn said, grabbing my hat and shaking off the grass. "Your hat's fine. Tyler's just being Tyler. He literally doesn't know what he's talking about half the time."

I looked at her. Really looked at her. Her hair was this messy purple bun situation. Her swimsuit had dinosaurs on it. She wasn't trying to be cool. She just... was.

"You want to go swimming?" Quinn asked. "Walter looks like he wants to watch humans panic in deep water."

I laughed. Actually laughed. "Yeah. Okay. Let's go swimming."

As I walked toward the pool, Walter the cat following like a tiny orange bodyguard, I realized something: I'd been so worried about fitting into Kara's world that I hadn't noticed Quinn's world was way more fun anyway. And that papaya? Actually pretty good.

"Race you to the deep end!" Quinn yelled.

"You're on!" I yelled back, and for the first time all summer, I didn't care who was watching.