The Pyramid Scheme of Summer

Maya's summer had been reduced to three things: her AC unit, her bed, and the blue glow of her iPhone screen, which she scrolled until her eyes burned. She was basically a zombie at this point — pale, undead, surviving on snacks and hope.

"You need to go outside," her mom said for the hundredth time. "The community pool party is today. Everyone will be there."

"Everyone" meant the popular crowd, the ones at the top of the high school pyramid scheme where pretty girls dated varsity guys and the rest of them were just... foundation.

But then her phone buzzed. Connor from AP Bio DM'd her: *u coming 2day?*

Maya's stomach did that traitorous fluttery thing. She typed and deleted three responses before settling on: *maybe lol*

The pool was already packed when she arrived. Chlorine hit her nose, mixed with coconut sunscreen and teenage hormones. The popular crew claimed the best lounge chairs like they owned the place. Maya hovered near the snack bar, phone clutched in her hand like a lifeline, watching everyone actually living their best lives while she stood there being weird.

"Hey! You're in my chem class, right?" It was Jasmine, doing that impossibly graceful thing where she could actually swim and look gorgeous simultaneously. "We're doing a human pyramid! Want in?"

A human pyramid. In the water. This was either going to be legendary or a complete disaster.

"Sure," Maya heard herself say, because apparently her zombie brain had stopped functioning.

She ended up in the second row, balancing on Jasmine's shoulders while someone's little brother climbed on top of them. The water sloshed against her legs. Her phone sat on the deck, dry and safe and completely useless.

"You good down there?" Connor called. He was holding up the base layer, his arms actually legit ripped. He winked at her, and Maya almost drowned in zero inches of water.

"Totally!" she lied, while her legs shook like a newborn deer's.

"LEFT SIDE'S FAILING!" someone screamed. The pyramid tilted. Maya grabbed Jasmine's knee while Connor grabbed her waist, and for three terrifying seconds they were all going down together — literally and socially.

*CRASH.*

The whole thing collapsed into a spectacular explosion of water and limbs and laughter. Everyone surfaced coughing and grinning. Maya's hair was a disaster. Her makeup was gone. Connor was splashing her.

"You going to live?" he asked, grinning.

"Barely," she said, splashing back. "That was actually kind of fun?"

"Pyramid queen," Jasmine said, high-fiving her.

Maya glanced at her phone on the deck, then away again. The notifications could wait. She was swimming in the deep end with Connor and Jasmine and she was alive, actually alive, not scrolling through someone else's life.

Sometimes you had to let the pyramid fall apart to figure out how to stand up on your own.