The Pyramid Scheme of Surviving Freshman Year

I felt like a **zombie** dragging myself through third period, my brain still fried from baseball practice at 6 AM. Coach Davis had us running suicides until my legs literally gave out, all because some sophomores said we had to "earn our spot" on the team. Spoiler: we didn't. They just wanted someone to fetch their gear.

"Earth to Marcus?" Lena waved a hand in my face. I jumped, nearly knocking over my tray. **Spinach** from my salad at lunch was stuck in my braces. AGAIN. Of course this would happen the week after I finally worked up the courage to actually talk to her.

"Sorry. Long morning." I pointed at my mouth, trying to play it off. "Also, I have something in my teeth, don't I?"

She laughed. "Only you could make spinach fashion accessories work, Marcus." Something in my chest did that weird fluttery thing that definitely wasn't from lack of sleep.

But then Tyler showed up with that annoying smirk, doing his thing where he tried to "recruit" everyone into his energy drink **pyramid** scheme. The guy was a walking red flag, but somehow half the baseball team had already fallen for it.

"Yo Marcus," Tyler said, all fake-buddy energy now that he needed something. "You in or what? Think about it – you're already running laps with half the team. Why not get paid for the networking?"

I looked at Lena, who raised her eyebrows like *please don't.* And suddenly it hit me – the whole reason I'd been killing myself at practice, letting Tyler's crew treat me like garbage, was that I thought I had to climb their stupid social pyramid to matter.

"Nah," I said, actually smiling for real. "I'm good. Besides" – I gestured to the spinach still stuck in my braces – "I've got bigger problems."

Lena practically wheezed trying not to laugh. Tyler rolled his eyes and stalked off. But something felt different. Better. Like maybe freshman year wouldn't be about surviving the pyramid after all – maybe it was about figuring out who you were when nobody was watching.