The Pool Party Protocol

Chase felt like a straight-up zombie. Three nights of binge-watching The Walking Dead on cable will do that to you. But when Maya texted 'pool party @ Jake's — u coming?' he dragged himself out of bed like the actual walking dead.

Jake's backyard was already chaos when Chase arrived. The pool was packed, music thumping, and somehow Maya looked even prettier in person than through his sleep-deprived eyes. She was laughing with Tyler, the varsity baseball pitcher whose Instagram Chase had been lowkey stalking for weeks.

'Chase!' Jake shoved a red cup into his hand. 'Finally. We were gonna send a search party.'

Maya turned, her face lighting up. 'You made it! We're about to start baseball trivia in the grotto. Teams already picked.'

Baseball. Seriously? Chase knew literally nothing about baseball except you hit a ball with a stick. But Maya was already walking toward the pool house, so he followed like his life depended on it.

The grotto was actually just Jake's screened-in porch with a ratty couch and cable TV still paused on some zombie apocalypse show. Tyler was there, of course, holding court about his pitching stats like they were sacred texts.

'Alright,' Maya announced. 'Chase and me vs. Tyler and Bri. First to five wins.'

Chase panicked. 'I don't know anything about baseball.'

'That's okay,' Maya said, her hand brushing his arm. 'I'll carry us. You just vibe.'

She did carry them — mostly. But somewhere between questions about RBI records and World Series history, Chase started actually paying attention. Started understanding why Maya's eyes lit up when she talked about batting averages. And when Tyler made some dumb joke about Chase not knowing stuff, Maya shut him down so hard Chase felt his soul ascend.

Later, floating in the pool while everyone else migrated inside for more cable TV horror, Chase found himself beside Maya.

'Thanks for being on my team,' she said softly.

'Anytime,' Chase replied, and for once he didn't feel like saying the wrong thing.

'You know what my favorite baseball position is?' She grinned. 'Catcher. Because I like being where the action is.'

Chase laughed. 'That's the cheesiest thing I've ever heard.'

'Maybe.' She splashed him. 'But it worked, didn't it?'