The Pyramid Scheme of Seventh Period

Maya stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, fingers buried in her frizzy **hair**. She'd tried to straighten it that morning, but humidity had other plans. Now it was a glorious, untamed halo around her face.

"You going to lunch or what?" Kelly called from outside the stall.

Maya sighed. Lunch meant the **baseball** players' table, where Tyler sat. Tyler with his perfect smile and his actual personality, unlike the cardboard cutout version everyone pretended he was. She'd been working up the courage to talk to him for three weeks.

Her palms were sweating. Actually sweating. She wiped them on her jeans, which didn't help at all.

**"So what's the plan?"** Kelly asked as they walked to the courtyard. "Are we doing the thing?"

"The thing" was Maya's plan to finally speak to Tyler during lunch. But when they stepped outside, something caught her eye—a massive **orange** banner stretched across the quad: SPRING FLING KING & QUEEN NOMINATIONS. Below it, someone had arranged students into a literal **pyramid** for a photo.

The social hierarchy of Westwood High, made physical.

Tyler stood at the very top, laughing like he belonged there.

Maya's stomach did something complicated. She wanted to be up there with him, but also she wanted to set the whole thing on fire.

"You okay?" Kelly asked.

Maya looked at her friend, really looked at her. Kelly with her shaved head and unapologetic everything. Kelly who never once tried to climb anyone's pyramid.

"Yeah," Maya said. "Actually, I'm good."

She walked over to the orange banner and grabbed a marker. The cheerleaders watched. The baseball team watched. Tyler watched.

She wrote: **KING & QUEEN ARE CONSTRUCTS. ABOLISH THE MONARCHY.**

"Maya!" Kelly shrieked, but she was grinning.

Then Maya did something she'd never done before. She climbed the pyramid.

Not to the top. To the middle. Where she linked arms with a sophomore she'd never spoken to and a freshman who looked terrified.

"What are you doing?" someone yelled.

"Making it weird," Maya called back. "Who's with me?"

And slowly, people started joining in. The AP kids. The drama kids. The ones who never made it into any pictures. They climbed the pyramid sideways and upside down until the whole thing collapsed into a giggling, tangled heap on the grass.

Tyler hopped down from the top, extending a hand. "Need help up?"

Maya took it, but not because she needed it. "Actually," she said, "I'm good right here."

Her hair was everywhere. Her **palm** was still sweaty against his. But for the first time all year, Maya felt like she was exactly where she was supposed to be.