The Goldfish Witness

Maya's room was her sanctuary, mostly because her pet goldfish, Bubbles, was the only one who didn't expect her to be popular. But tonight, everything had to be perfect. Jordan was coming over to study, and somehow that had evolved into him bringing his friends and possibly—possibly!—other girls from the varsity squad.

"You're being such a bull about this," her best friend Kae had texted earlier. "It's just homework."

Right. Just homework. That's why Maya was currently panicking over her cable management situation. The tangled mess behind her TV looked like something from a horror movie, and if Jordan's friends saw it, she'd literally die. She spent twenty minutes wresting them into something resembling order, her face burning the whole time.

When they arrived, Jordan's friends were exactly the type of guys who wore their basketball jerseys everywhere. They immediately took over her gaming setup, their energy filling the small room until it felt suffocating. Maya perched on her bed, hyper-aware that she'd chosen her orange hoodie specifically because Jordan had once said he liked how it made her eyes pop.

But then someone knocked over Bubbles' bowl while reaching for a controller.

The goldfish flopped on the carpet, and Maya's brain short-circuited. Was this it? The moment that would define her entire high school existence? The girl whose fish died during a study session?

"Whoa, sorry," Jordan said, and his voice was actually gentle. He scooped up Bubbles with quick hands, plopping him back in the bowl. The fish darted around, obviously shook but somehow still alive.

"Dude," one of his friends muttered. "You almost ended her goldfish."

Jordan flushed red, which was weirdly endearing. "My bad. Seriously."

Later, after everyone else left and it was just the two of them pretending to study, Jordan kept glancing at Bubbles like the fish was some kind of oracle.

"Your goldfish is a G," he said finally, and Maya laughed so hard she nearly fell off her bed.

"A G? Seriously?"

"He survived that. He's built different."

Maybe, Maya thought, watching the tiny fish swim laps in his restored kingdom, they all were. Surviving this ridiculous thing called high school, one near-death experience at a time.