The Orange on the Mechanical Bull

Maya's stomach churned as she stepped into the Electric Corral. The air smelled like cheap cologne and desperation. She was only here because Tyler said he'd be here, and Maya had been crushing on Tyler since seventh period English when he loaned her a pen she never returned.

"You gonna ride or just stand there holding that orange like it's a grenade?" Jordan called from across the room. Great. The guy who made her life miserable in middle school was here, of course. Maya clutched the fruit tighter—her mom had packed it in her lunch like she was still six years old, and Maya had forgotten to ditch it.

The mechanical bull loomed in the center of the room, looking like something from a nightmare. Students from Westbridge High clustered around it, cheering as some jock in a backwards baseball cap held on for three embarrassing seconds before flying off.

"Maya!" Tyler waved her over. He was standing near the bull with his friends. "You should try it."

"I don't think—" she started, but someone bumped into her hard. The orange flew from her hand in slow motion, arcing through the air and landing with a sickening splat against the bull's fiberglass flank. Orange juice dripped down its side like the world's worst war paint.

Everyone went silent. Then Jordan burst out laughing. "Nice throw, Maya! Maybe next time aim for your dignity instead."

Her face burned. She turned to run when Tyler caught her arm. "That was legendary," he said, grinning. "Seriously. Nobody's ever had the guts to vandalize the bull before."

The operator shrugged. "It's just juice. Who cares?" He hit the button, and the bull jerked to life, slippery and bright with orange pulp.

"Five bucks says you can't stay on longer than Jordan," Tyler said, and Jordan stopped laughing.

Maya looked at the bull, then at Tyler, then at her fraying charging cable dangling from her pocket—she'd been planning to leave early anyway, charge her phone at home, and scroll through TikTok alone in her room like every Friday night.

She climbed onto the bull, sticky and absurd, and as it bucked beneath her, Maya realized she didn't care if she fell off in three seconds. She was already flying.