The Palm Reader's Prophecy

Maya's first mistake was letting Alexis drag her to Jasmine's house party. The second mistake was letting that random senior read her palm.

"You're going to meet someone special," the girl predicted, tracing the lines on Maya's sweating palm. "But first, you have to stop hiding in the background."

Maya yanked her hand back. "That's like, the most generic fortune ever."

But the words stuck. Because Maya *was* hiding — always watching from the edges, cataloging every social micro-aggression like she was some kind of self-appointed spy gathering intelligence on a species she didn't understand.

Jasmine's house was basically a social pyramid in action. The popular crew claimed the living room like it was their throne room, while everyone else orbited hopefully. Maya stood near the orange punch bowl (which was definitely spiked, no matter what anyone said) and watched Alexis immediately abandon her for the cool crowd.

Whatever. She didn't need Alexis.

She reached for her phone, then stopped. The palm reader's voice echoed in her head: *stop hiding in the background.*

Maya's heart pounded as she walked toward the sliding glass door. The backyard was empty except for one guy sitting alone on a lawn chair, hoodie up, scrolling through his phone.

"Hey," she said before she could talk herself out of it.

He looked up, surprised. "Hey."

"I'm Maya."

"Ethan. Are you hiding too?"

"Maybe." She sat in the chair next to his. "Or maybe I just needed actual oxygen instead of whatever they've got pumping in there."

Ethan laughed. And then they talked — about nothing, about everything, about how high school felt like everyone had gotten a manual that somehow missed both of them. When the back door slid open, they both jumped.

"There you are!" Alexis appeared, slightly buzzed, with two girls from the varsity team trailing her. "Ethan, this is Maya. She's basically my sister."

The girls waved. Ethan's face lit up.

"You're the one who wrote that poem for English," he said. "The one about social media addiction?"

Maya's cheeks burned. "You read that?"

"Everyone read that. It was actually good."

One of the varsity girls nodded. "Mrs. Hernandez read it out loud in our class."

Maya's palm tingled where the fortune teller had touched it. Maybe the prophecy wasn't total BS.

"Want to get out of here?" Ethan asked. "There's a boba place down the street."

Maya stood up, grinning. "Absolutely."