The Pyramid Scheme Incident

Leo's cat, Nacho, chose the exact moment his Twitch stream hit 50 viewers to knock over the HDMI cable. Screen went black. Chat exploded with 'RIP' and 'FINAL BOSS' before the connection died.

"Nacho, I'm literally gonna lose my mind," Leo groaned, scrambling under his desk. The cat purred like he'd just accomplished something legendary.

Outside, the varsity baseball team was warming up for the playoffs. Maya, the girl Leo had been lowkey crushing on since September, was in the dugout pretending to pay attention to the game while actually on her phone.

Leo grabbed his backpack and started running toward the field. He needed to tell her something important before graduation—something he'd been bottling up since homecoming.

But first, he had to survive what came next.

"Yo Leo!" shouted Jordan, the sophomore who'd somehow convinced half the freshman class that he'd invented a 'personal growth pyramid system.' "You in? Only three spots left at the second tier."

The pyramid scheme wasn't even subtle anymore. Jordan had drawn actual diagrams. Freshmen paid $20 to join, then had to recruit five people to 'level up.' The whole thing was clown behavior, but somehow kids kept falling for it.

"I'm good, Jordan," Leo said, speed-walking past.

"Your loss, bro. Some people just aren't ready to unlock their full potential."

Leo reached the dugout right as Maya's team scored. The crowd went nuts. She saw him and immediately started walking over, and his stomach did that thing where it forgets how to stomach.

"Hey," she said. "Everything okay? You look like you're gonna pass out."

"I was streaming and Nacho ate it," Leo blurted out. "I mean, he knocked over my cable. The stream died. And I just—okay, this is gonna sound so cringe, but I like you. And I know I'm that quiet kid who sits behind you in calc, and I know Jordan's pyramid scheme says I need to pay to level up in life, but I'd rather just say it and deal with whatever happens."

Dead silence.

Then Maya started laughing. Not mean laughing—genuinely laughing.

"You're not 'that quiet kid,'" she said. "You're the guy who fell asleep during the AP exam and still got a 4. Also, I've been waiting for you to say something for like six months. You're kind of oblivious."

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah. Want to come to the team dinner? Jordan's gonna be there trying to recruit people for his pyramid tier three. It'll be hilarious."

Nacho was waiting by the door when Leo got home, somehow looking smuger than usual. Sometimes the universe works in mysterious ways. Sometimes it's just a cat and a loose cable and a ridiculously convoluted pyramid scheme that somehow brings two people together.

Leo scratched Nacho behind the ears. "Alright, you little goblin. You win this round."