The Lake House Incident

Maya's summer took a turn when her parents dragged her to the lake house for the weekend. She'd planned to spend it curled up with her phone, but the Wi-Fi was dead — something wrong with the coaxial cable running into the house. Her brother Leo had tried to fix it, but he'd made it worse.

"Just talk to people," her mom said, pushing her toward the group of teens gathering by the dock. "It'll be fun."

Fun. Right. Maya's social anxiety was already screaming. She adjusted her oversized cable-knit sweater — a thrift store find that made her feel safe, like she could disappear inside it — and headed toward the water.

"Hey, you coming in?" called Jake, the cute guy from her English class. He was already waist-deep in the lake, grinning like he didn't have a care in the world.

"Maybe later," Maya said, though she couldn't actually swim. Not really. She could doggy-paddle, barely.

Then someone screamed. A bear cub splashed into the water at the far end of the dock, followed by its massive mother. Everyone scrambled toward the shore, laughing and adrenaline-pumping, all except Maya, who froze. Her legs wouldn't move.

Jake appeared beside her, grabbing her arm. "Come on, move!"

The bear huffed, shaking water from its fur, then turned away. Crisis averted. But Maya was still trembling, and not just from the bear encounter.

"You okay?" Jake asked, close enough that she could see the gold flecks in his eyes.

"I can't swim," she blurted out. "Like, actually can't swim."

Jake blinked. "Seriously?"

She nodded, feeling pathetic. Sixteen years old and afraid of deep water.

"I'll teach you," he said. "Right now. No bears, just us."

So there she was, learning to swim in a lake where bears hung out, with Jake holding her waist as she panicked about putting her face in the water. But somewhere between the awkward flailing and his laugh when she accidentally splashed him, she realized she was having fun. Actual fun.

That night, back at the house, her dad announced the cable was fixed. But Maya left her phone in her room and sat on the porch with Jake, watching the moonlight ripple across the water.

"Tomorrow," he said, "you're going off the high dive."

"In your dreams."

"Dream big, Maya."

She smiled. Maybe summer wouldn't be so bad after all.