The Great Vitamin Water Heist

Maya's palms were sweating. Again. She wiped them on her apron for the third time, probably leaving gross streaks, but whatever. It was her first day at the Beach Shack and she'd already managed to knock over a display of organic juice bottles. Her supervisor Jake had given her this look—part pity, part annoyance—and assigned her to the back corner where she couldn't break anything else important.

"You good, new girl?" Nicole appeared beside her, leaning against the counter with the casual confidence of someone who'd been working here for approximately forever. She was everything Maya wasn't: comfortable in her skin, effortlessly cool, with hair that actually did what she wanted it to do.

"Totally good," Maya lied. "Just... thinking deeply about Vitamin C supplements."

Nicole snorted. "Yeah, same. I spend ALL my time pondering the nutritional benefits of various supplements." She gestured to Maya's station. "You're working the vitamin water station, by the way. It's literally the easiest job here. Add powder, add water, stir. Even Dylan can do it, and Dylan once put salt in someone's smoothie instead of sugar."

Dylan, who was currently dancing behind the smoothie counter with zero shame, caught Maya's eye and gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up. Maya felt herself smile despite everything.

But then HER walked in. The girl from Maya's English class who sat in the back row and never spoke to anyone. With a group of friends, all of them radiating that specific energy that made Maya's stomach do anxious little flip-flops. They were heading straight for her station.

"Can we get four orange vitamin waters?" the girl asked. She made direct eye contact. "Please."

Maya's brain short-circuited. "Orange. Yeah. I can orange. I mean, I can DO orange. The vitamin water. Orange flavor. Obviously."

Nicole coughed, maybe covering a laugh, maybe not.

"Cool," said the girl, whose name was definitely Sarah or possibly Samara—Maya had never been brave enough to check her social media. "We'll wait."

Maya's hands shook as she measured powder into four cups. Orange. She could do this. Simple mechanical task. No room for failure. Except suddenly she wasn't thinking about vitamin water or orange powder or anything except how this girl from English class was standing TWO FEET away from her, watching her work, and Maya was wearing the dorkiest apron known to humanity and probably had orange powder on her nose.

"So," the girl said. "You're in Ms. Chen's class, right? Third period?"

Maya almost dropped the scoop. "Yeah! I mean, yes. Third period. That's me. The person who is in that class. During third period."

Kill me now, she thought. Kill me immediately.

"Your poem was really good," the girl said. "The one about the ocean. I, like, actually loved it."

Maya froze. "Wait, seriously?"

"Yeah. I wrote about my cat. It was basically garbage." She smiled, and it was this genuine, crinkly-eyed thing that made Maya's chest feel weird and light. "I'm Charlie, by the way."

"Maya."

"Nice to meet you, Maya." Charlie gestured to the cups. "How are those orange vitamin waters coming along? No pressure, but we're literally dying of thirst."

"Right! Yes. Coming right up." Maya stirred with newfound purpose, managed to splash only minimal powder on herself, and slid four cups across the counter.

"You're a lifesaver," Charlie said, handing over a crumpled ten-dollar bill. "Keep the change."

Before Maya could process—TIP? CHANGE? HERO?—Charlie and her friends were gone, vitamin waters in hand, leaving Maya standing there with orange-stained fingers and a heart doing something suspiciously like victory laps.

Nicole appeared beside her again. "Okay, that was actually kind of smooth."

"I almost said 'I can orange,'" Maya admitted.

"We're not gonna talk about that part." Nicole checked her phone. "But Charlie thinks you're good at poems? That's huge. She's, like, smart. And cool. She started that environmental club last year."

Maya looked at her palms—still a little orange, still a little sweaty, but somehow okay. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. Also?" Nicole gestured to the empty station. "You didn't spill anything. Dylan's proud."

Across the shack, Dylan gave another thumbs-up. Maya laughed, and for the first time all day, her shoulders actually relaxed. Maybe tomorrow she'd even learn Charlie's last name. Maybe she'd join the environmental club. Maybe she'd get through a whole shift without awkwardly announcing her ability to 'orange.'

Baby steps.