The Social Pyramid Scheme

Maya stared at the bottle of gummy **vitamin** D on her desk, then at her phone screen glowing with an invitation. Brooke's pool party—the same Brooke who sat at the top of the sophomore social **pyramid** like she owned everyone's self-esteem.

"You going?" Riley asked, sprawled across Maya's bed, scrolling with her usual chaotic energy.

"I can't swim," Maya muttered.

"Same. But we'll stand in the shallow end looking cute. That's the whole point. Also, Jamie will be there."

Jamie. The guy with the messy dark hair and the way he actually listened when people spoke. Last week at lunch, Maya had spent twenty minutes explaining her theory about how the cafeteria pizza was a government experiment, and he'd just nodded thoughtfully like it was the most interesting thing he'd ever heard.

The party was already in full swing when they arrived. The backyard was a sea of bodies—girls in matching bikinis, guys showing off, everyone performing like their lives depended on it. Maya felt like she'd swallowed too much **water**.

Then she spotted him. Jamie was standing by the snack table, looking surprisingly awkward for someone so effortlessly cool. But beside him was Brooke, laughing like she'd just heard the funniest joke in the world, her hand lingering on his arm.

Maya's stomach dropped. Of course. Why would she think someone like Jamie would notice someone like her?

"Hey."

Maya jumped. Jamie was right there, Brooke nowhere in sight.

"I, uh, like your shirt," he said. "The fox on it. It's... I don't know. Cool."

She looked down. Her lucky thrift store find—a stylized **fox** face across the front. "Oh. Thanks. My **dog** actually ate the last one I had."

"Seriously?" Jamie laughed, and it was this genuine, unguarded sound that made Maya's chest do something weird. "That's kind of amazing."

"Yeah, Max has expensive taste," she heard herself say, and suddenly they were talking, really talking, about shelter dogs and weird thrift store finds and how neither of them actually knew how to swim.

Later, standing waist-deep in the shallow end with Riley, Maya watched Jamie across the pool. He caught her eye and smiled.

"Told you," Riley whispered.

Maybe the social pyramid wasn't as solid as everyone thought. Maybe you could climb it—or maybe you could just build your own structure entirely.

"I think," Maya said, "that this party isn't actually terrible."

Riley grinned. "The vitamins are kicking in, huh?"

Maya laughed. "Something like that."