The Fox In The Cafeteria

Maya's life was basically a compilation of embarrassing moments waiting to happen. Today's episode: the spinach incident.

She'd been crushing on Liam—which the entire sophomore class had dubbed "Fox" because of his sly grin and ridiculously perfect hair—since September. He sat two tables away at lunch, usually surrounded by the kind of popular kids who made being cool look effortless.

Today, Maya had decided to finally make her move. She'd spent twenty minutes that morning picking out her orange hoodie—the one her mom said made her look "vibrant"—because she'd heard Fox mention once that he liked people who wore bright colors. Destino, right?

Wrong.

The cafeteria was serving its usual mystery meat, but the side salad looked borderline edible. Maya, trying to be healthy and impressive, loaded up on spinach. Big mistake. Massive.

She was working up the courage to walk over to Fox's table when her best friend Jasmin grabbed her arm. "Maya, your teeth!" she hissed.

Maya froze. "What?"

"You've got—I can't even—spinach. Everywhere."

Maya's face burned hotter than a thousand suns. She sprinted to the bathroom, her orange hoodie suddenly feeling like a neon sign announcing her existence to the entire world.

But here's the thing about rock bottom: you can only go up from there.

She was in the bathroom furiously brushing her teeth when Fox walked in. Well, not into the girls' bathroom—she wasn't that unlucky. He was at the sink outside when she emerged, mouth minty fresh but dignity shattered.

"Hey," he said. "Nice hoodie."

Maya's brain short-circuited. "Thanks. I, uh—"

"I've been meaning to ask," Fox continued, running a hand through that perfect hair, "are you going to the fall dance?"

Maya stared. This wasn't real life. "Maybe?"

"Cool." His grin turned even more fox-like. "I'll see you there."

He walked away, leaving Maya standing there in her orange hoodie, spinach-free and completely confused.

"Did that just happen?" Jasmin asked, appearing behind her.

Maya touched her cheek, still warm from earlier. "I think I just got asked to a dance by Fox... while wearing a spinach-stained hoodie."

"It's clean now," Jasmin pointed out.

"Yeah, but the memory remains."

"Still." Jasmin grinned. "That's character development, bestie."

Maya smiled. Maybe embarrassing moments were just the universe's way of making you more interesting. Or maybe she'd just gotten lucky. Either way, she had a date to the dance, and honestly? That was a win.