The Food Chain

Maya stared at the social pyramid taped inside her locker – the literal flowchart her friend Priya had drawn during third period, ranking everyone from "Royal Court" at the top to "mere mortals" at the bottom.

"I'm never gonna make it past 'background character,'" Maya sighed, scrolling through her iPhone. Instagram was a battlefield of perfectly curated lives, and Maya's feed was about as exciting as plain toast.

"Come over," Priya texted. "My mom's doing another health experiment."

Maya groaned. Last time, Priya's mom had made them drink kale smoothies that tasted like lawn clippings. But Priya's house was the only place where Maya didn't feel like she was constantly auditioning for a role in her own life.

When she walked in, the kitchen smelled tropical – and wrong.

"Papaya smoothies!" Priya's mom beamed, setting down glasses of suspiciously orange liquid.

"It's supposed to be amazing for your skin," Priya whispered, looking like she'd rather drink bleach.

Maya took a sip and tried not to gag. "It's... interesting?"

"Now for the main course!" Mrs. Sharma announced like she was presenting a game show prize.

Spinach. So much spinach. Piled on plates like a green mountain, but with actual garlic and actual salt and actual everything that made it not taste like sadness.

"My food pyramid is definitely upside down," Maya laughed, realizing for the first time that she was actually hungry.

"You know what's crazy?" Priya said, stabbing at her spinach. "My mom tries so hard to make us healthy, but meanwhile I'm sitting here stress-eating over whether Tyler noticed my story."

Maya looked at her phone, dark on the table. The pyramid in her locker, the papaya disaster, the spinach situation – it was all part of the same ridiculous performance.

"Tyler didn't even see your story," Maya said suddenly. "He's probably too busy worrying about his own pyramid."

Priya paused. "You think everyone's doing this? Like, constantly obsessing over where they fit?"

"I think the pyramid's only real because we believe in it," Maya said, taking another bite of spinach. "Also, this is actually fire."

They ended up eating everything. The papaya smoothies went down the drain when nobody was looking. Maya walked home feeling lighter, like maybe she didn't need to climb anything to be worth something.

Her iPhone buzzed – Priya had posted a picture of their spinach disaster, captioned "health goals #nailed." It had three likes, but Maya's comment was first: "we are absolute disasters and I love it."

That night, Maya took down the pyramid from her locker. Some things look better from the outside anyway.