The Goldfish That Ruined Everything

Jordan's heart was pounding, **running** at full velocity toward his house. He had exactly seven minutes to change, grab the snack, and get to Maya's pool party before it was deemed socially unacceptable to arrive late. Not that Maya would care—she was too chill for that—but her friends were another story. The ones who somehow made everything feel like a test Jordan was failing.

He burst through the front door, grabbed the container of **spinach** artichoke dip his mom had made (because showing up empty-handed was apparently a cardinal sin), and checked his reflection in the hallway mirror. Nice outfit, hair decent, but then he saw it—a tiny piece of **spinach** wedged between his front teeth. Because apparently the universe had decided today was the day for maximum awkwardness.

Jordan's golden retriever, Buster, chose that exact moment to bound around the corner, tail wagging with destructive enthusiasm. The **dog** knocked into Jordan's legs, and somehow—physics was not on Jordan's side today—the spinach dip went flying. It landed upside down on the carpet. Buster immediately began investigating it with great interest.

"No! Bad dog! That's not for you!" Jordan frantically shooed Buster away, scooped up what dip remained, and decided this would have to be good enough. At this point, showing up with half a container was better than showing up empty-handed, right?

He grabbed the small bowl containing his sister's carnival-prize **goldfish**—the one she'd entrusted to his care because she was at sleepaway camp and their parents were useless. "Please don't die," he whispered to the fish, whose name was Glitter. "You're the only thing I haven't messed up yet."

By the time Jordan arrived at Maya's, the party was in full swing. People were splashing in the **water**, music blasting, someone was doing an impressive job of pretending not to notice that everyone was watching them. And then Maya emerged from the house, laughing about something someone had said, and Jordan felt his stomach do that thing it always did around her lately. The thing he'd been trying to ignore for months.

He set the goldfish bowl on a table near the snacks, watching Glitter swim in lazy circles. This was fine. He was fine. Everything was—

"Jordan! You made it!" Maya appeared beside him, dripping wet and smiling. "What's with the fish?"

"My sister made me bring it. Long story." He gestured vaguely. "And I brought dip, but my dog may have—"

Maya's friend Chloe appeared, glancing at the spinach container. "Is that artichoke dip? I love that stuff!" Before Jordan could warn her, she'd dipped a chip in and taken a bite. "Not bad. A little... dog hair? But otherwise good."

Jordan wanted to disappear. Under the **water**, specifically. Deep underwater where no one could see him turning approximately the same shade as his sister's goldfish.

Maya was laughing, though—not mean laughing, but actual laughing. "You're the only person I know who'd show up with a carnival fish and half-ruined dip and still somehow make it charming." She splashed him with **water** from the pool, and as Jordan stood there, dripping and humiliated and weirdly happy, he realized something.

Maybe the goal wasn't to survive the party without embarrassing himself. Maybe the goal was finding people who'd laugh with you instead of at you. And as Glitter the goldfish swam obliviously in her bowl, surviving her own chaos, Jordan figured maybe they'd both be okay.