The Palm Reader's Strikeout

Leo's palms were sweating. Again. He wiped them on his jeans, leaving dark streaks on the denim. It was the third time this week.

"You nervous about the game?" Marcus asked, smacking his baseball bat against his palm.

"What? No. I'm just... running through my pitches." Leo lied. The truth? He was terrified of the social pyramid that was Westwood High, and he was currently somewhere near the bottom, probably between the kids who brought stuffed animals to school and the guy who screamed during lunch.

Practice ended, and Leo found himself alone with the cable box in the dugout. Coach had been complaining about the TV not working for weeks. Leo squinted at the tangled wires, his fingers finding their way into the mess. One twist, one reconnect, and the screen flickered to life.

"Whoa." A voice behind him. Maya, the girl who sat behind him in history, was watching. "You fixed it?"

"Yeah, my uncle's an electrician. I've been messing with cables since I was like, six."

Maya's eyes lit up. "Can you do mine? My dad's been trying to fix our garage door opener for months."

That's how it started. Leo began fixing things—cable boxes, phone chargers, even Marcus's broken gaming headset. But then someone jokingly asked if he could "fix" their future problems. Leo, caught up in the moment, grabbed Maya's hand and started talking about her "life line."

It was supposed to be a joke. But suddenly, Leo was the guy who could read palms. Kids started lining up before homeroom. For the first time, Leo was someone people noticed. He was climbing the pyramid, one fake palm reading at a time.

Until the day Maya's older sister, a senior who actually knew about astrology and stuff, asked him to read her palm. And called him out in front of everyone.

"That's not even a real thing," she said, laughing. "You're making this up."

Leo's face burned. The pyramid crumbled beneath him.

But then Maya stood up. "So? He fixed my cable box. And he listens. That's more than most people do around here."

Leo looked at Maya, really looked at her, and realized something. The pyramid didn't matter. The people who stuck around when things got weird—those were the ones worth keeping.

"You coming to the game Friday?" Leo asked, his palms suddenly dry.

"Wouldn't miss it," Maya smiled.

Leo grinned. Maybe being at the bottom of the pyramid wasn't so bad. Especially when you had people to catch you.