The Mechanical Bull Incident

The neon lights of the county fair blurred together as Maya adjusted the stupid orange cowboy hat her cousin had forced on her. "You look ridiculous," Chloe said, laughing. "But like, in a cute way?"

Maya rolled her eyes. The hat was staying. It was armor against the awkwardness of being here with the popular crowd for the first time. Junior year was supposed to be her glow-up era, not her standing by the goldfish pond watching everyone else have fun era.

"Bet you won't ride it," Tyler challenged, nodding at the mechanical bull across the way.

Her stomach did that thing where it forgot how to stomach. The bull looked less like an animal and more like a sentence waiting to happen. MAYA DISASTERS ON MECHANICAL BULL, BEG FOR MERCY. But Tyler was watching. Tyler, who'd finally noticed she existed this semester.

"Watch me," she said, before her brain could stop her mouth.

The operator — a guy with greasy hair and a dead-inside expression — strapped her on. "Hold tight, little lady." The machine lurched to life beneath her, and suddenly Maya was bucking and swaying, the orange hat flying off, exposing her frizzy hair to everyone.

People were filming. Of course they were filming. She could feel her face burning hotter than the fried dough stands nearby.

Then her shoe flew off. Hit some guy carrying a goldfish in a plastic bag. The bag burst. Fish on the ground.

Chaos. Absolute chaos.

Maya fell off the bull into the sawdust, wheezing with laughter. Tyler was doubled over. Even the goldfish guy was cracking up. She crawled over to the flopping fish, scooped it into a water cup someone handed her, and stood up, hair everywhere, one shoe missing, holding a rescued goldfish like a trophy.

"That," Tyler said, wiping tears from his eyes, "was literally the most unhinged thing I've ever seen."

Maya looked at the orange hat on the ground, the fish in the cup, the crowd still laughing with her now, not at her. She felt light somehow. Like she'd passed some test she didn't know she was taking.

"I'm keeping the fish," she said. "His name is Chaos."

Tyler grinned. "Fits you."

Maybe junior year wouldn't be so bad after all.