The Orange Incident

Jordan stared at his reflection, horrified. His arms glowed like radioactive traffic cones. The bottle had said "natural glow," not "carrot cosplay."

"Bro, you look like a cheeto," his little sister snorted from the doorway.

"Shut up, Maya," Jordan groaned, pulling his hoodie sleeves down.

Tonight was Maya Chen's pool party. The invite had sat on his dresser for two weeks, mocking him. Everyone who was anyone would be there—including Alex, who'd finally noticed Jordan in bio lab last week. Jordan couldn't bail. Not again.

The pool party was already in full swing when he arrived. Music thudded from backyard speakers. Kids cannonballed into the **water**, screams and laughter cutting through the humidity. Jordan hovered at the edge, sweating in his hoodie.

"Jordan!" Maya Chen waved, poolside. "You made it!"

He forced a smile, tugging his sleeves lower.

"You gonna swim?" Alex materialized beside him, droplets ****of** water** clinging to their shoulders. Jordan's stomach did that stupid fluttery thing.

"Uh, maybe later."

"Suit yourself." Alex dove in, surfacing with a splash.

Jordan watched from the sidelines. This was fine. Better to be the mysterious hoodie kid than the **orange** freak. But then Tyler, gorgeous and confident Tyler, started stripping for a dive. "Last one in is a rotten egg!"

Suddenly Jordan was thirteen again, watching from the edge while everyone else floated in the deep end of growing up. He was tired of shallow water.

He yanked his hoodie off.

The **pool** went silent.

Then someone snorted. Tyler started laughing. Not mean laughing—real laughing, doubled over, holding their stomach.

"Dude," someone gasped. "Did you... did you try to self-tan?"

Jordan's face burned hotter than his arms. He turned to leave, to run, to hide forever—

"Wait." Alex swam to the edge. "That's literally the most legendary thing I've ever seen." They grinned. "Get in here, you neon masterpiece."

Jordan paused. Then jumped.

The **water** shocked his skin, cool and accepting. Hands pulled him under, laughter bubbling up around him. When he surfaced, Tyler tossed him a **water** gun.

"On my team," Tyler said. "We're gonna need your camouflage skills."

Floating there, glowing and ridiculous, Jordan realized something: the deep end wasn't so scary once you stopped worrying about how you looked getting wet.