The Green Truth Mission

The cool kids called it 'captain' when someone ratted you out. Maya'd been paranoid about being the designated spy all week, ever since Jason's pool party invite slid into her DMs with that weird winking emoji. Now she stood at the edge of his backyard, the afternoon sun blazing off the **water** like someone dumped a truckload of glitter on it.

The problem wasn't the party itself—well, actually, it kind of was. The problem was the green smoothie. Maya's mom had gone full wellness influencer, which meant their fridge looked like a forest exploded. No more soda, no more junk. Just **spinach** and kale and stuff that made you feel healthy just looking at it, which was exactly the opposite of what you wanted to feel at a party.

She'd poured the smoothie into an empty Gatorade bottle, because nothing screams 'I'm normal' quite like hiding your vegetables behind an electrolyte marketing campaign. But now, standing here in her actual swimsuit while actual popular people cannonballed into the **pool**, the bottle felt suspicious in her tote bag. Like she was smuggling contraband. Which technically, she sort of was.

"Hey Maya!" Jason called, dripping wet and impossibly chill. "You coming in or what?"

This was it. The moment. She could fake it, pretend she'd brought something else, something normal. Or she could own the spinach situation and risk becoming the weird green smoothie girl forever.

"Yeah," Maya said, pulling out the bottle. "Just hydrating first."

The pool went quiet. She watched Jason's face, waiting for it. But then, totally unexpectedly, his eyebrows went up.

"Is that... actually kind of based? My trainer's been trying to get me on that stuff."

Maya blinked. The social tension she'd built up in her head for three days straight? Just evaporated. Like that.

"It's actually pretty fire," she found herself saying. "Want some?"

By sunset, half the pool party was huddled around her tote bag, passing around the spinach smoothie like it was the most normal thing in the world. Maya caught Jason's eye across the deck. He nodded.

She wasn't a spy anymore. She was just a girl with a really big tote bag and unexpectedly decent taste in smoothies. And honestly? That was way better.