The Social Pyramid Scheme

Maya stared at the poster on the cafeteria wall—SCHOOL DANCE: THISSATURDAY. Next to her, Jordan was practically vibrating with energy.

"Dude, you HAVE to ask Kevin to dance," Jordan said, stabbing at their salad with plastic ferocity. "It's basically now or never. Prom is next year and we'll all be zombies by then anyway."

Maya rolled her eyes. "First of all, we're not going to be zombies. Second, the social pyramid at this school is so messed up that Kevin probably doesn't even know I exist. He's up there with the popular kids and I'm... somewhere in the basement, possibly under a rock."

"Okay, one: you're not under a rock, you're in the middle layer, maybe the upper-middle if we're being generous," Jordan said. "And two: who cares about the pyramid? This isn't ancient Egypt. Nobody's actually going to sacrifice you to the sun god if you talk to someone from a different layer."

"Easy for you to say," Maya muttered. "You accidentally became friends with half the soccer team when you helped them with their math homework."

"Accidentally? Please. That was strategic social climbing, thank you very much," Jordan said with a grin. "Look, here's what we're gonna do. I'll create a distraction—"

"No. Absolutely not. Every time you 'create a distraction,' someone ends up in the principal's office."

"—and you'll just walk up to Kevin and say hey. Simple. Clean. No drama."

Maya looked over at Kevin's table. He was laughing at something, his hair falling in his face, and her stomach did this stupid little flip thing it had been doing since September. She thought about staying in her lane, following the unwritten rules of the high school pyramid, letting fear make decisions for her. She thought about being thirty years old and wondering what would've happened if she'd just been brave for three seconds.

"Fine," Maya said, standing up. "But if this goes sideways, I'm never listening to you again."

"That's a lie and we both know it," Jordan called after her. "I'm your BEST friend! You literally CAN'T live without me!"

Maya walked across the cafeteria, her heart pounding so hard she could feel it in her throat. The noise of the room faded to static. When she reached Kevin's table, everyone looked up at her.

"Hey," she said. "Kevin?"

"Yeah?" He smiled, and just like that, the pyramid collapsed.