The Orange Fox Summer

Marcus stood at the edge of the patio, nursing his flat soda while the party raged inside. Sixteen years old and still awkward as hell at these things. His best friend Jen had ditched him twenty minutes ago to flirt with Tyler, leaving Marcus to contemplate the existential crisis of being the third wheel.

Then he saw it: an orange fox darting along the backyard fence, impossibly casual, like it owned the place. The fox paused, bright eyes locked on something in the garden below the deck.

Marcus crept closer. The fox was stalking toward a small pond with—no way—a solitary goldfish swimming in lazy circles, completely oblivious to its pending mortality.

"Yo, you gonna rescue Nemo?"

Marcus jumped. Chloe, the girl from his history class who always sat in the back wearing vintage band tees, stood behind him holding a baseball bat like she was ready to step up to the plate.

"The fox is just doing what foxes do," Marcus said, suddenly defensive. "Circle of life, right?"

"But that's my grandma's goldfish," Chloe said, already moving toward the stairs. "Her name's Sparkle. We've had her since like, preschool."

Before Marcus could process the absurdity of a sixteen-year-old caring about a fish named Sparkle, Chloe's orange tabby cat, Nacho, came bolting from nowhere, hissing at the fox. The fox rolled its eyes—Marcus swore it did—and disappeared into the night.

Nacho sat on his haunches, looking ridiculously proud of himself.

"My cat's a freaking hero," Chloe said, impressed.

Marcus found himself laughing, really laughing, for the first time all night. They ended up sitting on the back steps, talking about everything and nothing. Her vintage baseball tee (Indians, classic), his embarrassing attempt at joining the baseball team freshman year, how they both felt like they were constantly faking being normal teenagers.

"You know," Chloe said, "being cool is exhausting. I'd rather hang with the goldfish and my weird cat any day."

"Same," Marcus said, and meant it.

The fox watching from the distant fence line seemed to agree.