The Social Pyramid

Marcus stood at the edge of the pool clutching his orange tank top like a shield. Jenna's annual pool party — basically the social event of the summer — and he'd spent forty-five minutes in the bathroom trying to look like he hadn't tried at all.

"You gonna swim or just stand there looking aesthetically distressed?" his best friend Ty called from the water.

Marcus's cat, Pancakes, was currently sleeping on his windowsill at home, probably living her best life while he endured this. "Nah, I'm good," he lied, but then he saw IT — the pyramid.

Not the Egyptian kind. The social kind. Jenna and her orbiters arranged on inflatable floats in a literal pyramid formation, laughing at something Marcus couldn't hear.

Bullshit.

His dad had gotten sucked into one of those MLM pyramid schemes last year, selling "wellness juices" that tasted like expired hope. The family had lost $2,400 before Marcus staged an intervention with research from Reddit. He knew pyramids. He knew how people at the top stayed there by convincing everyone below that they were just one level away from making it.

Marcus toe-tested the water. "Whatever." He dropped his orange shirt on a lounge chair and dove in.

The shock of cold water cleared everything. He surfaced near the pyramid's base and accidentally splashed Jenna's perfect float. She screeched, her makeup streaking. The whole formation wobbled.

"My bad," Marcus said, not sounding sorry at all.

"Marcus, you literally —" Jenna started, but then she was laughing. Actually laughing. "You're terrible at this."

"At what?"

"Whatever performance you think you're supposed to be putting on." She kicked away from her float, sending the whole pyramid collapsing into the water. "We've been waiting for you to get in here for like an hour. Ty wouldn't shut up about it."

Marcus blinked. Water dripped from his hair.

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh." Jenna splashed him back. "Now stop standing there and help us flip this float before my dad tries to use it again."

Later that night, Marcus FaceTimed his dad from his room. Pancakes head-butted the camera.

"Hey buddy," his dad said. "How was the party?"

"Learned something about pyramids today," Marcus said, scratching Pancakes behind the ears. "Sometimes you gotta knock the whole thing down just to see who's actually real."

His dad smiled. "Starting a swim team, are we?"

"Something like that."

Pancakes purred, and Marcus finally felt like he could breathe above water.