The Pyramid Scheme of First Dates

Maya's life had officially reached peak middle school awkwardness. Her parents had joined some multilevel marketing wellness scheme—basically a vitamin pyramid, her older brother called it—and now their garage was stocked with crates of "energy-boosting" supplements that smelled like strawberry and regret.

"You should try this new Papaya Blast shake!" her mom chirped, holding up a neon-orange tub. "It's packed with natural vitamins!"

"Hard pass, Mom." Maya grabbed her backpack. "I'm going to Lily's."

The real problem wasn't just the pyramid scheme. It was Lucas. Lucas with the messy dark hair and the dimple when he smiled. Lucas who'd invited her to play padel at the community center that weekend, and Maya had zero clue how to play.

"It's basically tennis but shorter and cooler," Lily had explained when they FaceTime'd that night. "Don't overthink it."

But Maya always overthought everything. That was her whole deal.

Saturday arrived. Maya showed up wearing her cousin's old tennis outfit (too big in the shoulders, somehow tight in the wrong places). Lucas was already there, messing with his phone.

"Hey!" He grinned. "Ready to get destroyed?"

"In your dreams."

They played for twenty minutes, and Maya actually didn't suck. She even made Lucas dive for a ball once, which felt like a massive victory. Then—because the universe was cruel and creative—she went for a dramatic overhead smash and tripped. Not just fell, but full-on face-planted.

The universe wasn't done yet. She'd grabbed a papaya smoothie from the vending machine earlier because she'd been nervous and needed something to do with her hands. Now it was everywhere. All over her shirt. All over Lucas's shoes.

"Oh my god," she whispered, face burning.

Lucas stared at her shoes, then up at her. Then he started laughing. Not mean laughing—like, actual laugh-laughing.

"I'm sorry," he gasped. "That was literally the most epic fail I've ever seen."

Maya cracked up too. Because what else could she do?

Later, they sat on a bench sharing his water bottle while she tried to wipe papaya pulp off her shirt.

"So," Lucas said, wiping tears from his eyes. "Same time next week?"

"If you think you can handle another round of getting destroyed," Maya shot back.

"Deal." He checked his phone. "Hey, my mom's been buying these weird vitamin supplements from some pyramid scheme... you ever heard of that?"

Maya groaned. "Don't even get me started."