The Confidence Vitamin

Maya's cat, Bubbles, watched with judgment from the windowsill as Maya triple-checked her reflection. The beige bucket hat covered two-thirds of her face—a strategic choice for someone whose entire personality was 'lowkey don't look at me.'

"You got this," Bubbles seemed to say, in the way cats do before they knock something off a table.

Today was padel tryouts. Because apparently, when your best friend Chloe decides she's going to be the next padel prodigy, you're morally obligated to join her. Chloe, who had rizz for days and could wear a potato sack and make it TikTok viral. Maya, who'd had exactly two conversations with boys all semester, both of which involved her accidentally insulting their shoes.

"Did you take your vitamin?" Chloe called from downstairs. The vitamin. Maya's little secret. Every morning before school, she'd been taking what she called her 'confidence supplement'—literally just a regular multivitamin, but placebo effect was real, okay? It was the only thing getting her through freshman year without melting into her locker.

"Yeah, on it!" Maya grabbed the bottle, downed one like it was magic. Today, she needed extra strength.

The padel courts smelled like rubber and quiet desperation. Maya's hat slid down over her eyes as she stepped onto the blue court. Suddenly everyone was looking at her. Or at least it felt that way.

"Maya! You're up!" Chloe waved from across the net, already vibing with some juniors like she'd known them since preschool.

A ball came toward her. Maya's brain went full static. Her arm moved on autopilot—*thwack.* The ball hit the glass wall at a perfect angle, bounced back, and dropped exactly where the opponent couldn't reach it.

"YOOO!" someone yelled. "That was clean!"

Maya froze. Her hat nearly fell off. Someone thought she was clean at something?

"Again!" Chloe shouted, grinning like a proud mom.

Five minutes later, Maya was serving aces like she'd been training her whole life. Her hat was pushed back. Her shoulders weren't touching her ears. The vitamin, she realized, wasn't the supplement. It was this. The court. The game. The way her body knew what her brain didn't—how to take up space without apologizing.

Bubbles would be proud. Maybe tomorrow she'd even try the vitamin without the hat.

Baby steps.