The Pyramid at Poolside

Maya clutched her iphone like a lifeline, thumb doom-scrolling through feeds of everyone having a better summer than her. The screen reflected her worried expression—dark hair already frizzing in the humidity, nerves doing cartwheels in her stomach.

"You coming in or what?" Chloe called from the pool. Perfect Chloe with her somehow water-repellent mascara and friends who formed a perfect social pyramid with her at the apex.

Maya forced a smile. "Just checking something!"

Lie. She was hiding. Again.

Her phone battery icon flashed red. Great. Now she'd actually have to, like, interact with humans.

The pool glittered like something from a music video, all turquoise promise and dodgeball-challenged freshmen. Maya's curls had already graduated to 'uncontrollable fuzz' in the July heat. She'd spent forty minutes this morning trying to tame them, only to arrive and realize nobody cared.

Literally nobody.

"We're doing a pyramid!" shouted Tyler, who'd been Maya's lab partner since kindergarten and still sometimes called her by her third-grade nickname. "Get over here!"

The what now?

But before she could demur, Chloe's crew was already arranging themselves by the diving board. Three on bottom, two in middle, one on top—a literal human pyramid, because apparently this was 1999 and cheer movies were still cultural touchstones.

"Maya's in my spot!" someone squealed.

Suddenly, Tyler was grabbing her hand. "You're bottom row. sturdy foundation and all that."

Her phone sat forgotten on a lounge chair as she found herself sandwiched between two very damp, very loud sophomores. Someone's hair smelled like coconut everything. The pyramid wobbled.

"Lower your butt, Jason!"

"I'm TRYING, Emma!"

Maya's sneakers slipped on wet concrete. She was going to die. This was it. Her legacy: girl who drowned in shallow water during a failed human pyramid at Jake Miller's pool party.

"One, two, THREE!"

Somehow, impossibly, they held. Water dripped down her neck. Someone's elbow dug into her shoulder. And then—

They collapsed.

Screaming. Laughter. A tidal wave of pool water crashing over everything.

Maya surfaced, sputtering, hair plastered to her face like a drowned raccoon. Chloe's waterproof mascara was running. Tyler was doing a victory dance.

"We FREAKING did that!" he yelled.

And then Maya was laughing too, really laughing, bubbles rising to the surface with her. Her iphone was probably waterlogged. Her hair was definitely ruined. But for the first time all summer, she wasn't watching from the sidelines.