The Goldfish Principle

Maya's phone buzzed with the third text from Chloe in ten minutes: 'U coming?? Padel sesh w/ the populars 🎾'

Maya stared at her reflection, then at the glass bowl on her dresser. Inside, Barnaby the goldfish swam in endless circles, his tiny mouth opening and closing like he had something profound to say.

'At least you don't have to pretend to be someone you're not,' she told him.

Barnaby blew a bubble.

Maya grabbed her racquet anyway. She'd been pretending for weeks now—pretending to care about padel, pretending to laugh at jokes that weren't funny, pretending that being friends with Chloe and her squad was everything she'd ever wanted. The truth? She sucked at padel. The only thing she was actually good at was running, specifically away from anything that required her to be real with people.

The courts were packed. Someone's older brother had a fake ID, there were spiked energy drinks, and everyone was acting like this was what teenager paradise looked like.

'Maya! Finally!' Chloe grabbed her arm. 'We need you for mixed doubles. You're up with Jason.'

Jason. The guy Maya had been fake-flirting with for three weeks because Chloe said it would 'secure their spot' in the group. Jason who didn't know she preferred documentaries over TikTok, that she volunteered at the animal shelter, that she'd never even heard of padel before this month.

'Hey,' Jason said, not looking up from his phone. 'Try not to mess up my serve, yeah?'

Something in Maya snapped.

She thought about Barnaby, swimming his same circles day after day, and realized she was doing the exact same thing.

'Actually,' Maya said, her voice steadier than she felt, 'I have to go.'

'What?' Chloe's face twisted. 'You're kidding, right.'

'My friend needs me,' Maya lied. Then realized it wasn't a lie. 'The real kind.'

She walked away. Then ran. Actually ran—like properly ran, lungs burning, legs pumping, away from the courts and the fake laughter and the version of herself she'd been trying so hard to sell.

Ten minutes later, she was at the animal shelter, where her actual friend Leo worked on Saturdays.

'You look like you just ran a marathon,' Leo said, looking up from feeding the turtles.

'Way better.' Maya sat on the floor and let a kitten climb onto her lap. 'I just figured something out.'

'What's that?'

'Goldfish have it figured out. They just swim. They don't pretend to be tropical fish or sharks or whatever.' Maya scratched the kitten's chin. 'They're just goldfish. And that's enough.'

Leo grinned. 'You want to help me clean the turtle tank? Then maybe we can grab actual food, not whatever aesthetic stuff you've been eating with those people.'

'Yes,' Maya said. 'A thousand times yes.'