The Social Pyramid

Leo stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, spinach wedged firmly between his front teeth like a green fluorescent middle finger to his social life. His mom had packed the "healthy stuff" again, and now, three minutes before lunch with Maya—the girl who'd been haunting his thoughts since seventh grade—he looked like he'd been eating a salad while flossing with a lawnmower.

The cafeteria operated like a pyramid. At the base: freshmen, theater kids, anyone who accidentally wore socks with sandals. At the apex: Jake and his crew, the guys who'd somehow convinced everyone that being terrible to people made them cool. Leo usually hovered somewhere in the middle, invisible by design.

But today was different. Today, Maya had actually saved him a seat.

His brain was doing that thing where it moved like a goldfish that had forgotten how to swim—completely useless, zero memory of how to form sentences. His dad was being such a bull about grades lately, lecturing Leo about "future this" and "responsibility that," and honestly, Leo was exhausted from having to bear all that weight on his shoulders.

"You good?" Maya asked as he slid into the seat across from her. "You look like you're having a spiritual crisis."

Leo's face burned. "Just thinking about... stuff."

"Stuff?" She raised an eyebrow, then her eyes dropped to his mouth. "Oh, you've got—"

"Spinach," Leo groaned. "I know."

"No, it's kinda perfect though." Maya smiled, and something shifted. "Makes you look less like you're trying to be someone you're not."

Leo blinked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're always so... careful." She leaned in. "Like you're scared of saying the wrong thing. But everyone has spinach in their teeth sometimes, Leo. Even Jake."

Leo glanced at the apex of the cafeteria pyramid. Jake was laughing too loud, knocking over someone's backpack. And suddenly Leo realized: nobody actually knew what they were doing. Not really. They were all just faking it.

He smiled despite himself, spinach and all. "Yeah. I guess."

"So," Maya said, pushing her tray toward him. "Want to split my fries? Since your lunch clearly betrayed you."

Leo laughed, and for the first time in forever, he didn't worry about where he sat in the pyramid. He was just here, in this moment, with fries and a girl who somehow made spinach teeth feel like a win.