The Papaya Protocol

Maya clutched her red Solo cup like it was a lifeline, which honestly, it basically was. Her first real high school party, and she was already regretting wearing her nicest sneakers. Someone had spilled something suspiciously close to her fresh white Converse ten minutes ago.

Across the room, Jordan—the human equivalent of a papaya smoothie, sweet and somehow still trendy—was laughing at something. Maya had been performing what she called 'tactical social observation' (her friends called it being a creep) for twenty minutes. It wasn't like she was actually trying to spy on him or anything. That would be weird. She was just... appreciating from a distance. Totally normal.

"You've been staring at Jordan for, like, a disturbing amount of time," said Kai, appearing beside her with zero warning. Maya jumped, nearly sloshing her drink. "Also, you have huge **spinach** in your teeth. Like, massive."

Maya froze. "Since when?"

"Since dinner probably? You had that spinach artichoke dip, right?"

"Kai, WHY didn't you tell me earlier?"

"I thought you knew! You were smiling all weird!" Kai cackled. "It was kind of iconic, honestly."

Maya's face burned. She'd been smiling at Jordan for the past hour with spinach in her teeth. This was it. The most mortifying moment of her entire life. She needed to evaporate immediately.

But then Jordan was walking over, and Maya's brain short-circuited. She couldn't escape without it being obvious, and she couldn't stay without wanting to die.

"Hey," Jordan said. "You're Maya, right? From English?"

She nodded, terrified to speak.

"Cool." Jordan held out what looked like chunks of bright orange fruit. "Want some **papaya**? My mom brought it from her garden. It's actually fire."

Maya stared. This was not how she imagined this going. "I... I have spinach in my teeth."

"Oh, yeah, I see it." Jordan didn't even flinch. "Happens to everyone. Here." They handed her a napkin. "Also, papaya's supposed to be, like, super good for your teeth or something? Not sure if that's actually true, but my mom swears by it."

Maya wiped her teeth, still processing. "You brought **papaya** to a party?"

"It's called being culturally conscious, Maya." Jordan grinned. "Anyway, I saw you spying on me earlier, which is kind of bold, but also kind of flattering."

"I wasn't—"

"It's fine. I was lowkey spying on you too."

Maya blinked. "Wait, what?"

"Yeah, you're actually kind of iconic. Like, who wears Converse to a house party? That's confidence." Jordan popped a piece of papaya in their mouth. "So, you want to hang out somewhere less... loud?"

Maya looked at Kai, who was already backing away with a knowing smirk.

"Yeah," Maya said, feeling something weird and fluttery in her chest. "I'd like that."

Sometimes the most embarrassing moments led to the best ones. Or at least, that's what she told herself as she followed Jordan toward the quieter back deck, trying not to think about how much spinach she'd probably had in her teeth earlier.