The Pyramid Incident

Leo's social life was basically a pyramid scheme – he was at the bottom, everyone else was somewhere above, and climbing up felt impossible.

"You've got to bear with yourself, man," his best friend Sam said as they walked toward Northwood High. "You're overthinking everything again."

Easy for Sam to say. He was a golden retriever in human form – everyone loved him immediately. Meanwhile, Leo had zero rizz. His crush, Maya, didn't even know he existed.

Things went sideways during fourth period AP History. Mr. Henderson had assigned them Egyptian history projects, and Leo was paired with Maya – his first real chance to impress her.

"So," Maya said, tapping her pen against her chin. "We could do something about the Great Sphinx?"

"Yeah, sure," Leo managed, his voice cracking. Smooth.

Then Jason, the sophomore whose entire personality was being annoying, leaned over from the next desk. "Nice cat shirt, Leo. Going for the 'I gave up on life' vibe?"

The class went dead silent. Because yes, Leo was wearing his childhood cat shirt – the one with fluffy kittens playing poker. He'd grabbed it in his zombie-like state that morning, running on three hours of sleep and pure anxiety.

Maya's lips twitched. "Actually, I love cats. That shirt's fire."

Jason looked like he'd been slapped. "Wait, really?"

"Duh." Maya turned to Leo, eyes bright. "My sphinx cat, Cleo, would approve."

Leo felt something shift in his chest. Maybe the pyramid wasn't so impossible to climb after all. "You have a sphinx cat? Those are like, alien cats."

"Exactly." Maya grinned. "Wanna come over after school? Meet her, work on the project?"

"Absolutely." And for once, Leo didn't overthink it.

Later that day, as Maya showed him videos of her weirdly majestic hairless cat, Leo realized something important: sometimes, the stuff that makes you feel like a total loser – like your weird cat shirt – ends up being exactly what makes someone see you.

Social hierarchies were built on nonsense anyway. As long as he could bear to be himself, the right people would get it.