The Goldfish in the Orange Bowl

Maya stood at the edge of the Chandler's pool, clutching her solo cup of orange soda like it was a lifeline. This was it — the party of the century, and she was seriously considering faking a stomach flu just to escape.

"Hey, you coming in?" Jake, the junior varsity baseball star, flashed that grin that made half the school swoon. Maya's stomach did that nervous flutter thing it always did around cute boys. Especially cute boys who looked like they belonged in a teen drama instead of suburban Ohio.

"Yeah, just..." She started toward the water, then froze. Her reflection in the glass door showed it clearly: a massive, embarrassing piece of spinach wedged between her front teeth. From lunch. FOUR HOURS AGO.

How had nobody told her? She'd literally talked to seven people since then.

Maya spun around, doing the casual walk toward the snack table like her dignity wasn't currently hanging by a thread. She spotted her best friend Chen by the massive goldfish bowl on the counter.

"Dude, you have spinach in your teeth," Chen whispered, barely looking up from his phone. "Also, that goldfish has been staring at me for twenty minutes and I'm convinced it's judging my life choices."

"You couldn't have told me earlier?!" Maya hissed, frantically trying to dislodge the green evidence with her tongue.

"I literally just noticed." Chen shrugged. "Besides, Jake's been asking about you all week. Whatever you've got going on, it's working."

Maya finally got the spinach out and took a deep breath. Okay. Disaster averted. Mostly. She turned back to the pool where Jake was now swimming laps, cutting through the water like he was training for the Olympics or something.

"So," Chen nudged her. "You gonna get in there or what?"

The goldfish in the orange bowl seemed to wink at her. Maya laughed suddenly, the tension in her chest loosening. So she'd had spinach in her teeth for four hours. So what? Jake was still watching her with that half-smile that made her knees weak.

She kicked off her flip-flops. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

The water was perfect. Jake's grin widened as she swam over. Sometimes the most embarrassing moments became the best stories. And this one? This one was definitely going in the group chat tonight.