The Social Pyramid Scheme

I felt like a zombie dragging myself through third period, my brain still mushy from the math test that had absolutely no business being that hard. At least baseball practice would give me an excuse to not think about the 47% I probably got.

At lunch, I did my usual spy routine—casually scrolling through Jake's Instagram while pretending to be fascinated by my salad. He'd posted a story from the pool party last weekend. Of course he looked perfect doing that cannonball off the diving board, while I'd spent the whole overthinking session clinging to the side like a nervous koala.

"You're doing it again," Chloe said, sliding into the seat across from me. "The stalking. It's creepy, bestie."

"I'm not stalking, I'm conducting research," I protested, though my face was probably giving me away. "Also, can we talk about how you abandoned me at that party? I was practically drowning in social anxiety while you were living your best life with the seniors."

"You're literally on the swim team, Maya. You know how to swim."

"That's not the point, and you know it."

The truth was, I was exhausted from playing the game. The social pyramid at Jefferson High was real, and I was tired of acting like I didn't care where I landed on it. Jake was at the top—star baseball player, effortless charm, probably didn't stress about tests or parties or whether his hair looked stupid when it was wet.

And me? I was somewhere in the middle, overthinking everything, spying on people who seemed to have it all figured out.

"You know what?" I said, closing Instagram with more dramatic flair than necessary. "I'm done with this. The pyramid, the spying, all of it. I'm going to the pool after school to actually swim laps instead of spiraling about whether Jake noticed my existence today."

Chloe grinned. "Finally. Growth."

"Shut up," I laughed. "But seriously—if Jake wants to hang out with the zombie version of me that cares too much about everything, that's his problem. If not, whatever."

"That's the spirit," Chloe said. "Also, he totally watched your story yesterday. Just saying."

My stomach did that annoying flutter thing. "Okay, maybe don't cancel the research completely."