The Pyramid Scheme Incident

Maya's streamer dream died before it even began, strangled by a rat's nest of HDMI and ethernet cables behind her desk. She'd spent three weeks' worth of Bubble Tea shifts on the setup, and now everything was somehow worse.

"You look like a zombie," said Kiara, flopping onto Maya's bed and scrolling through TikTok. "No offense."

"None taken," Maya muttered, shoving aside another tangled cable. "I literally haven't slept since Thursday."

The door slammed open. Jordan burst in, eyes wild, holding up a glossy flyer. "Y'ALL. I figured out how we're paying for Coachella."

"Human sacrifice?" Kiara asked without looking up.

"No—okay, hear me out." Jordan spread the flyer on Maya's desk, directly on top of her cable management disaster. "My cousin's friend's brother makes six figures selling these energy patches. It's not a pyramid scheme, it's—"

"A pyramid scheme," Maya and Kiara said in unison.

"It's DIFFERENT," Jordan insisted, already pulling out their phone. "You just recruit three people, and they recruit three people, and—"

"That's literally a pyramid," Maya said.

"Whatever. You guys are just closed-minded." Jordan started typing furiously. "I'm gonna be rich. I'll buy you guys off when I'm CEO."

Maya stared at the mess of cables, the flyer, Jordan's intense focus, Kiara's detached scrolling. Something in her chest loosened.

"Hey," she said. "What if—crazy concept—we just get jobs like normal people?"

Silence. Then Kiara finally looked up. "I was waiting for someone to say it."

"You're all haters," Jordan huffed, but slid onto the floor beside them. "Whatever. Who wants boba?"

Maya's phone buzzed. A notification from her streaming software: CONNECTION RESTORED.

She'd untangled the wrong cable and fixed everything by accident.

"I'm buying," Maya said, grinning. "And Jordan? Next time someone invites you to a 'business opportunity'..."

"I know, I know." Jordan groaned. "It's a pyramid scheme."

"It's ALWAYS a pyramid scheme."