The Goldfish Incident

Maya felt like a **zombie** as she dragged herself through the front door of Jake's house party. Three hours of sleep, two exams, and approximately zero social battery would do that to a person. She'd promised her best friend she'd come, but honestly? She'd rather be home watching her **goldfish**, Bubbles, do absolutely nothing in his bowl.

"You made it!" Chloe squeaked, grabbing Maya's arm. "Okay, don't panic, but Jake's in the kitchen and I heard he likes girls who eat healthy."

Maya stared at the spinach artichoke dip on the counter. "You want me to eat **spinach**? At a party? While trying to talk to my crush? That's literally a disaster waiting to happen."

"It's sophisticated!" Chloe insisted. "Just be cool."

Cool. Right. Maya could do cool. She approached the dip like it was an IED device, carefully scooping a tiny amount onto a cracker. Jake was right there, leaning against the refrigerator, being unfairly attractive.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," Maya replied. Then the **lightning** flashed outside, followed instantly by thunder so loud it shook the house. The power died. Pitch darkness.

And that's when it happened.

In that moment of chaos, Maya either tripped or was pushed by someone running past. She lurched forward, spinach dip first, directly into Jake's chest. The cracker shattered. The dip smeared. In the darkness, she heard a collective gasp.

"Oh my god," she whispered. "I just spinach-dipped the hottest guy in school. I can never show my face again. I have to move. Maybe to Canada. Do they have schools in Canada?"

A flashlight clicked on from someone's phone. Jake stood there, green spinach paste spread across his gray hoodie like some abstract art piece. He looked down at himself, then up at Maya.

"Well," he said, and then he started laughing. Not mean laughing. Real, genuine, snort-laughing. "That was legendary."

Maya's face burned. "I'm so—"

"Don't apologize," Jake said, wiping some dip off with a napkin. "That was literally the most interesting thing that's happened at any of my parties ever. 10 out of 10, no notes." He smiled at her, really smiled. "You're Maya, right? From English?"

The emergency generator hummed to life, lights flickering back on. Someone shouted from the backyard: "HEY, THERE'S A **BEAR** IN THE TRASH!"

"WHAT?" screamed the entire party.

Maya and Jake looked at each other in the flickering light, spinach disaster and all.

"Okay," Jake said. "New plan: we go assess the bear situation together."

Maya smiled despite herself. Maybe moving to Canada could wait.