The Pool Noodle Pyramid

Maya stood at the edge of the community **pool**, clutching her clipboard like it could protect her from Brandon's ridiculous scheme.

"Trust me, Maya. It's literally gonna go viral," Brandon said, already arranging **pool** noodles into a questionable structure. "We build the biggest noodle **pyramid** ever, film it, and boom—Instagram famous."

Maya rolled her eyes so hard it actually hurt. "First of all, that's not a **pyramid**. That's a lopsided tent. Second, the lifeguards are literally watching us right now."

Brandon didn't care. He never did. That was the problem with having a best friend who treated social media like his personal reality show. Meanwhile, Maya was just trying to survive junior year without having a mental breakdown every other Tuesday.

The real problem wasn't Brandon's obsession with going viral. It was that whenever they hung out at the **pool**, she ended up third-wheeling him and Sarah—all while secretly wishing she could **bear** to confess her crush on Sarah instead of pretending to be Brandon's hype man.

"Hey, pass me that blue noodle," Sarah said, paddling over. Her wet hair dripped down her shoulders in ways that made Maya's brain short-circuit.

"Yeah, Maya, help a brother out," Brandon yelled from the top of his increasingly unstable **pyramid**.

Maya sighed and grabbed the noodle. Because apparently her life was now a metaphor: building someone else's dream **pyramid** while her own feelings dangled like a forgotten **cable** connection—always there, never quite plugged in.

"You know," Sarah said suddenly, her voice dropping, "my **cable** at home's been out for like three days. My parents are losing it."

"That's rough," Maya managed, her heart doing that stupid fluttery thing.

"Wanna come over and help me fix it?" Sarah's eyes met Maya's, just for a second. "You're good with that tech stuff, right?"

Brandon's **pyramid** chose that moment to collapse spectacularly, noodles flying everywhere like neon confetti. The lifeguards blew their whistles. Brandon started laughing so hard he fell backward into the **pool**.

But Maya didn't care about the failed **pyramid** or Brandon's viral ambitions anymore.

"Sure," she told Sarah. "I can help with your **cable**."

And maybe, just maybe, she could stop **bearing** everything in silence.