The Hair Catastrophe of '24

Maya stared into her bathroom mirror, vit**amin** D supplements scattered across the counter like confetti from a party she hadn't been invited to. She'd been taking them for three weeks because some TikTok influencer swore they'd fix everything: her skin, her energy, her entire sophomore year existence.

Tonight was the Winter Formal, and nothing was fixed.

Her mom's old straightener—a relic from 2008—had just died with a concerning pop sound. Now her normally curly hair was doing something she could only describe as "rebellious physics experiment." Half straight, half exploding in different directions. She looked like she'd stuck a fork in an electrical outlet. Again.

"MAYA!" Her brother hollered from downstairs. "The HDMI **cable** isn't working! I need to finish my ranked match before your little friends get here!"

"IT'S NOT MY FRIENDS, IT'S TYLER," she yelled back, grabbing the tangled mess of extension cords from her room. Why did boys always call pre-formal pickups "your little friends" like she was seven?

Tyler was coming in twenty minutes. Tyler, who'd sat behind her in bio since September. Tyler, who'd finally noticed her existence two weeks ago when she accidentally knocked over their shared lab station. Tyler, who was now waiting outside while she looked like a human electrical hazard.

The doorbell rang.

Maya's heart did something genuinely concerning. She sprinted downstairs, hair somehow worse than before, and yanked open the door.

Tyler stood there in a slightly wrinkled dress shirt, holding a corsage with both hands like it might detonate. His eyes went wide, then he smiled—actually smiled, not the polite one he gave teachers.

"Your hair," he said, and Maya prepared herself for the inevitable polite lie or awkward observation.

"It's fighting a war against gravity," she said. "I'm losing."

"No, it's—it's cool." He stepped closer. "Like, actually cool. My sister spends two hours making hers look messy on purpose. Yours just... does it."

Maya blinked. "You're not just saying that because you're afraid I'll cry?"

"I mean," Tyler shrugged, "I'm absolutely terrified you'll cry, but also—I kind of love it. It's very you."

The vitamin D supplements were still on her bathroom counter. Her brother was probably still fighting with the cable. But Tyler was here, awkward and genuine and apparently into whatever disaster was happening on top of her head.

Maybe some things didn't need fixing.

"Ready?" she asked, grabbing her jacket.

"Yeah," he said. "But seriously, your hair is awesome."

Maya closed the door behind her, smiling so hard her face hurt. TikTok was wrong about a lot of things, but at least she hadn't taken the advice about the collagen supplements. Those were definitely a scam.