The Morning I Learned to Breathe

6:00 AM. The alarm blares like a dying robot and I drag myself out of bed, feeling like a straight-up zombie. Junior year is literally killing me slowly — AP Physics, college applications, swim practice at 6:30, and my parents on my case 24/7 about "maximizing my potential." Whatever that means.

"Did you take your vitamin D?" Mom calls from the kitchen as I stuff a bagel in my mouth. Like that one pill is gonna fix my entire life.

"Yeah, Mom, I'm good."

The pool is already chaos when I get there. Coach Martinez barking orders, chlorine stinging my eyes, Tyler from the football team doing laps with his shirt off because of course he is. I've been on the swim team since freshman year, but I still feel like I'm drowning half the time.

Then I see her.

Maya. The new girl. She's sitting on the bleachers, sketching in a notebook, not even in a swimsuit. She catches me staring and gives me this little wave that makes my stomach do actual flips.

"You're Leo, right?" she asks after practice, while I'm trying to look casual and not like I just swam 2000 meters. "I heard you're good at physics."

"I'm... okay?" I manage. My brain is still swimming somewhere.

"I need help. With the assignment. I'm kinda terrible at this stuff."

We end up at a coffee shop, and somehow we're talking about everything except physics. How she moved here from Chicago, how she feels like everyone at this school is already divided into their little kingdoms, how she misses real winters.

"I feel like a zombie here," she admits, stirring her iced latte. "Just going through the motions."

"Same," I say, and it's the first time all year I've felt real.

The next morning at practice, I actually try. Like, really try. I cut five seconds off my hundred freestyle. Coach Martinez looks at me like I've grown a second head.

"What changed, Vasquez? You finally sleeping?"

"Something like that."

That afternoon, Maya texts me: *thanks for the physics help. you're actually not terrible at explaining things.*

I'm grinning like an idiot while my mom hands me my daily vitamin. I swallow it without thinking, but for the first time, I don't feel like I need it to make it through the day.

Maybe I've been swimming through life on autopilot, but I think I'm finally waking up.