The Palm-Sweat Promise

My palms were sweating so bad I could practically water plants with them. I gripped the detention slip so hard it started to dissolve. Three days before homecoming, and I was stuck in Mr. Harrison's classroom because I'd been caught running through the halls with a stolen mascot head under my arm.

"Nice work, genius," Maya whispered from across the room, failing to suppress a grin. She was the reason I'd done something so stupid in the first place. The前任 student body president, now ironically sitting in detention with me for hacking the cafeteria menu to replace everything with spinach smoothies for a week.

"You're one to talk," I shot back. "At least I didn't cause a nutritional crisis."

She laughed, and my stomach did that thing where it forgets how to be an organ. This was the problem. I'd been crushing on Maya since seventh grade, when she beat me in the spelling bee by correctly spelling "bull-headed" while I'd missed it because I'd been too busy staring at her.

The door creaked open. Principal Reynolds stepped in, holding something bright orange. My stomach dropped. My homecoming proposal plan. The poster I'd hidden in my locker, the one that said "I'd be ORANGE you the moon if you went to homecoming with me" with a terrible pun and a heart. Somehow, it had ended up in her office.

"Mr. Chen," she said, eyes twinkling like she knew exactly what she was doing. "You left this... interesting... proposal in the cafeteria during your little mascot adventure."

Maya's eyes widened. I wanted to disappear. Forever. Into the ground. Become one with the earth.

"That's not—" I started, but Maya was already doubling over with laughter.

"Oh my god, Danny!" she gasped. "That's actually... kind of adorable?"

Principal Reynolds set the poster on my desk. "Maybe next time, just ask her directly. No running through hallways required."

Maya was still grinning at me, and for the first time all week, my palms stopped sweating.

"So?" she asked. "Is that a yes?"

I blinked. "Wait, really?"

She shrugged, pulling a piece of spinach from between her teeth with casual confidence. "I mean, anyone who's willing to run through school in a bull costume for me deserves a chance, right?"

I nodded, unable to stop smiling. Some things were worth looking ridiculous for.