The Social Pyramid Scheme

Maya stood at the bottom of the cafeteria social pyramid, watching Brianna and her minions at the top table like they were royalty. Three months into sophomore year, and Maya still hadn't figured out how to level up.

"You're doing that zombie thing again," whispered Jax, sliding into the seat across from her. "Where you stare at them like they're mythical creatures instead of just girls with good highlighter."

Maya blinked. "I am not. And I'm not a zombie. I'm just... observant."

"You're running on four hours of sleep and an iced coffee, Maya. That's literally zombie behavior." Jax smirked. "Anyway, want to hear my plan?"

His "plan" turned out to be the dumbest thing Maya had ever heard. Jax had decided they needed to "run" for student council co-presidents as a joke, but the joke was catching on because their platform was literally just "no more spinach in the pasta" and "nap rooms for everyone."

"Nobody likes the spinach, Maya! It's about universal struggles!"

"We're going to humiliate ourselves."

"Or we could accidentally win."

They didn't win. But something weirder happened – people started actually listening to them. Because they weren't trying to climb the pyramid. They were just standing there at the bottom, yelling about pasta vegetables, and suddenly everyone else was tired of pretending the spinach was fine too.

By the time Brianna actually came over to their table and asked if they wanted to sit with her and her friends "sometime," Maya realized something.

The pyramid wasn't real. It was just a bunch of exhausted zombies pretending they weren't all just trying to make it through algebra without crying.

"No thanks," Maya told her, and she meant it. "I'm good here."

Jax grinned. "See? We're practically running the school already."

Maya laughed so hard her iced coffee came out her nose. She still had no idea what she was doing, but at least she wasn't doing it alone.