The Pool Party Protocol

Maya's phone buzzed. Pool party at Jake's. 4pm.

This was it. The invitation she'd been waiting for since seventh grade, when Jake accidentally called her 'Mayra' and she'd been too nervous to correct him. Now it was junior year and she was finally on the radar.

'You going?' asked Leo, her oldest friend and the only person who knew she still slept with a stuffed narwhal.

'I don't even have a swimsuit that doesn't look like something my grandmother would wear to water aerobics.'

Leo rolled his eyes. 'Just wear what you wore last summer. When we went swimming at the lake.'

'Leo, that was middle school. Things have changed.' Like her body. Like how she couldn't look at Jake without her stomach doing weird gymnastics.

Her house was a disaster zone. Her younger brother's golden retriever, Buster, had chewed through the TV cable again, and their mom was losing it. 'You can't go to that party until you help me fix this mess!' she shouted, holding the severed cable like evidence in a murder trial.

Three hours and multiple YouTube tutorials later, Maya arrived at Jake's house feeling like she'd already completed an Olympic event. The pool glittered like something from a music video. People were everywhere — the popular crew, the theater kids, even some seniors.

And Jake. Shirtless Jake. Jake with the arms that had clearly spent the summer doing something athletic.

She stood frozen at the edge of the pool, her suddenly inadequate swimsuit making her want to evaporate. This had been a mistake. She didn't belong here. She should've stayed home with Buster and the cable drama.

Then she heard it: laughter. Not mean laughter. Jake was doubled over, completely losing it at something Leo had said. Leo — her nerdy, cable-fixing, narwhal-sleeping friend — was holding court with the popular crowd like he'd been born to it.

Leo caught her eye and waved her over. 'Maya! Tell them about the time your dog ate your science fair project and threw it up in rainbow colors!'

She stepped forward, and Jake looked up and actually smiled. 'Hey, Maya. Glad you made it.'

The pool didn't seem so scary anymore. Sometimes the hardest part was just getting in.