The Pyramid Scheme

I looked like a zombie. No, scratch that — zombies at least had the excuse of being undead. I was just seventeen and surviving on three hours of sleep and caffeine.

"You good, Maya?" Lena asked, practically vibrating with energy beside me. She grabbed my hand, interlacing our fingers, her palm warm against mine.

"Peachy," I lied. "Just contemplating dropping out to become a philosopher hermit."

She snorted. "Cute. But you can't bail before the regional finals. The pyramid needs you at the top."

Our cheer team's competition stunt. The thing I'd been practicing for six months. The thing my parents had already framed college applications around.

The party noise thumped around us — solo cups stacked in their own precarious pyramids, people shouting over some bass-heavy song that made my chest vibrate. I'd only come because Lena refused to let me rot in my room another weekend.

Then I saw him across the room. Lucas, sitting on the back porch like a sphinx carved from social awkwardness, watching everyone with those quiet eyes that made me feel transparent. We'd been paired for that English project last month — spent three afternoons dissecting Frankenstein and complaining about how schools churned out perfect little worker-bee zombies.

"Go talk to him," Lena said, following my gaze.

"I can't. He's..." I gestured vaguely. "Actual conversation. With thoughts. I'm just stress and poor life choices wrapped in a cheer uniform."

"Maya." She turned me toward her, serious for the first time all night. "You're not your schedule. You're not that stunt. And you're definitely not a zombie. You're the person who made Lucas laugh when he was convinced he'd fail English."

I looked back at the porch. He was looking at me now, half-smiling like he knew exactly what Lena had said.

"Five minutes," I said. "Then I have to be back in the pyramid formation by Monday."

"Go. Be a person."

So I went. And maybe I was still exhausted, and maybe regionals were still going to be terrifying. But Lucas's palm was warm when he reached for my hand, and for the first time in months, I didn't feel like I was sleepwalking through my own life.