The Pyramid Scheme of Us

I was basically a zombie by third period, running on three hours of sleep and regret. Last night's Fortnite binge had seemed like a solid plan at 2 AM, but now? Not so much.

"Earth to Marcus," Lena said, snapping her fingers in my face. "You good? You look like actual death."

"I'm chill," I lied, though my brain felt like it had been put through a blender. "Just tired."

Lena's new friend Jenna stood beside her, giving me that look—the sphinx stare. That's what I called it. Jenna had transferred to Northwood two weeks ago and already sat at the top of the sophomore pyramid like she'd been carved there. Beautiful, mysterious, and honestly kind of intimidating. She always seemed like she was laughing at some joke only she could hear.

"So," Jenna said, her voice smooth and unreadable. "You coming to Tyler's party tonight? Everyone's gonna be there."

I hesitated. Tyler's parties were legendary, but also the kind of disaster that could ruin your whole semester if things went sideways. Plus, I'd sworn to myself I'd actually finish my history project.

"Nah," I said. "I gotta—"

"Marcus always bails," Lena said, but she was smiling. "He's allergic to fun."

"That's cap," I protested. "I'm not allergic to fun. I'm just—disciplined."

"Disciplined," Jenna repeated, testing the word like she wasn't sure whether to be impressed or amused. "In tenth grade? Bold choice."

The bell rang, and we split for our next classes. But fifth period brought the real test—Mrs. Gable announced we'd be doing partner presentations. Starting tomorrow. And you know who she paired me with?

"Guess we're stuck together," Tyler said, dropping into the desk beside me. Tyler, who'd been my best friend until middle school when he discovered sports, hair gel, and being popular, in that order. Tyler, who now moved through the halls like he owned them.

"Yeah," I said. "Guess so."

"You still doing that coding thing?" he asked, actually interested. "My cousin's at Stanford for CS, says it's wild."

We ended up talking the whole period. Not about the project—about video games, about this dumb documentary about ancient Egypt he'd watched, about how neither of us actually wanted to go to his party tonight but felt like we had to.

"It's like being a bull in a china shop," he said, surprising me. "Everyone expects you to just... charge through everything. Sometimes I just want to chill, you know?"

"Yeah," I said. "I know."

That night, I didn't go to the party. Instead, Tyler came over, and we built the world's dumbest history presentation about ancient Egypt—we made a literal pyramid out of Red Bull cans and called it a commentary on modern civilization.

Lena texted me at midnight: party was lame anyway, Jenna was actually super cool, she asked about you.

I didn't feel like such a zombie anymore. Sometimes the best friends aren't the ones you think you've lost. They're just waiting for you to stop being such a stranger.