The Pyramid Scheme of Hearts

Maya's palms were sweating — like, actually dripping — which was exactly why she was hiding behind the bleachers during homecoming instead of inside with everyone else. The social pyramid at Northwood High had placed her firmly at the bottom: theater kid, anxiety king, queen of overthinking everything.

She'd been running on three hours of sleep and two energy drinks, which probably explained why she felt like a zombie. A zombie who'd somehow agreed to help with the stupid Egyptian-themed homecoming decorations because her drama teacher had given her That Look.

"Maya!"

She jumped. It was Liam, the guy she'd been lowkey obsessed with since September. The one who sat behind her in AP Bio and drew tiny pyramids in the margins of his notes whenever they were supposed to be learning cellular respiration.

"Hey," she managed, wiping her palms on her dress like a total weirdo. "What's up?"

"Have you seen Jordan?" He looked stressed. "He was supposed to bring the palm tree decorations for the Egyptian corner and nobody's heard from him."

Jordan. Captain of the football team, top of the pyramid, the guy who'd accidentally pantsed Liam in gym last week. The same Jordan who Maya knew was currently behind the gym vaping with his friends because she'd seen them there twenty minutes ago while hiding.

"He's... busy," she said.

Liam let out this frustrated sigh. "Of course he is. Look, can you help me figure something out? I'm technically supposed to be helping with decorations but I honestly don't know what I'm doing."

They ended up spending the next hour fixing the stupid pyramid prop that Jordan had abandoned. Maya's palms stopped sweating somewhere around the time they started arguing about whether ancient Egyptians would've had spray paint. They were still working when the dance officially started, music thumping through the gym walls.

"We should probably go in," Liam said, but he didn't move.

"Yeah," she agreed. Neither of them moved.

"Hey, thanks for helping," he said. "You're actually... cool. Like, I don't know why I never really talked to you before."

The pyramid of popularity suddenly seemed very far away. Maybe she'd been running toward the wrong things all along. Sometimes the best moments happened when you stopped trying to climb and just existed.

"Well," Maya said, finally wiping her palms on her dress one last time and actually smiling. "I'm glad you noticed."