The Pyramid Scheme

Maya's cat Pancakes was supposed to be her emotional support animal during the worst week of seventh grade. Instead, the orange tabby had just knocked over her ancient Egypt project, sending the goldfish she'd painstakingly glued into a Nile River scene skittering across the kitchen floor.

"Mom's gonna kill you," said Leo, not looking up from his phone. He'd been saying that all week, ever since Maya cut her own bangs with kitchen shears and started wearing a beanie everywhere to hide the disaster.

"Shut up." Maya scrambled to save the goldfish. It was plastic, but still.

Middle school was a pyramid, and Maya was definitely at the bottom. The popular girls formed the pinnacle—makeup already mastered, hair always perfect, boyfriends somehow acquired. Maya had tried to climb her way up with her new aesthetic and attitude, but mostly she'd just alienated her actual friends.

Today was the spring swim meet, and everyone would be there. Maya had joined the team for the same reason she'd cut her bangs: reinvention. But she wasn't good at swimming. The coach had said she "needed to work on her form," which everyone knew meant "you're slow and your arms flail."

She pulled the hat lower over her forehead. The pool hummed with chlorine and middle school energy. Someone laughed—high, musical, familiar. Sydney and her friends sat in the bleachers, perfect legs dangling, sharing earbuds.

Maya's stomach did that thing it always did. She thought about the fake goldfish at the bottom of her fake Nile, just existing in its little plastic scene. That was basically her.

"You're up!" someone yelled.

She dove.

The water was loud and silent at the same time. Her arms flailed. Her legs didn't know what they were doing. But for a second, maybe two, she wasn't thinking about Sydney or Leo or her bangs or the goldfish or what anyone thought. She was just swimming. Just a body moving through water, terrible at it, but moving.

She surfaced last. But she surfaced.

Sydney wasn't watching. Nobody was. The next race had already started.

Maya pulled herself out of the pool, water dripping everywhere, and pulled off her hat. The bangs were still uneven. Her arms still felt like noodles. But weirdly, incredibly, she was okay with that.

"Nice form," Leo said when she got home. He was helping Pancakes knock over more stuff. "Seriously."

"Shut up," Maya said, but she was smiling.

Some days you climbed the pyramid. Some days you just learned to swim.