The Last Mascot Run

Marcus's beat-up Nike hat sat backwards on his head, his personal force field against the world. Junior year at Creekwood High was supposed to be his glow-up era, but instead he was just trying not to disappear completely.

Then he got assigned as backup mascot — basically the worst job ever, but it looked good on college apps. The problem? Creekwood's mascot was The Bull, and Marcus had somehow agreed to fill in for Homecoming while Jordan was out with mono.

"Dude, you're gonna eat it so hard," his best friend Priya said, filming him in the foam suit that smelled like ten years of teenage sweat. "This is gold content."

"Shut up," Marcus mumbled through the mesh mouth opening. "It's just running around with a flag. How hard can it be?"

Famous last words.

The halftime show started fine. He did his little jig. The crowd went mildly wild. But then some freshman thought it'd be hilarious to try to tackle the mascot. Marcus booked it, sprinting toward the exit with some varsity linebacker dude-bros in hot pursuit, phones out, recording everything.

He crashed through the gym doors, his bull head slipping sideways, and found himself face-to-face with HER — Chloe, the girl he'd been low-key crushing on since September, leaning against her locker scrolling TikTok.

She looked up. Pause.

Marcus's bull head was completely crooked now. One foam horn dangled tragically. His lucky hat had fallen off somewhere in the gym.

"Well," Chloe said, deadpan. "That's definitely a choice."

"I'm literally dying," Marcus said. "Can you just... not tell anyone?"

Chloe tilted her head, actually smiled. "Nah. This stays between us. But you owe me boba after school."

"Deal."

Later, walking to the boba place with his hat back on correctly, Marcus realized something. His carefully curated cool image was absolutely cooked. But maybe — just maybe — being a total disaster in front of the person he liked was actually the most real thing he'd done all year.

"So," Chloe said, "same time next week?"

Marcus laughed. "I'm never putting that suit again."

"We'll see." She smirked. "We'll see."