The Spinach Incident

Maya stared at her reflection, the neon glow from the streetlights turning her braces into tiny orange beacons against the dark window. Her phone buzzed again—another group chat blowing up about Jackson's party tonight. Everyone was going. Everyone except her, apparently.

"You're not still obsessing over that, are you?" Her little brother Leo appeared, holding their golden retriever by the collar. "Buster ate your homework. Again."

"Leo, that's a cable from my dad's computer, not my homework." Maya groaned, though honestly, she'd take the dog eating her history worksheet over facing Jackson in her current state. She'd spent forty-five minutes trying to get her hair to lay flat, only to end up with this.

"Your teeth match your shirt now," Leo pointed out helpfully.

Maya's phone lit up with a new notification. Jackson: everyone asking where you at??

Her stomach did that awful fluttery thing. She could fake sick. She could say her parents changed their minds. She could—

"You have spinach in your teeth," Leo said.

Maya's eyes widened. "Since when?"

"Since lunch? You had that spinach wrap from the cafeteria."

She'd walked around with spinach in her teeth for FIVE HOURS. She'd smiled at Tyler in third period. She'd laughed at whatever Jayla said in algebra. And now she was supposed to show up to the party of the year looking like she'd just eaten a whole salad without using a mirror?

Maya typed: sorry, can't make it tonight. Family thing.

But then she paused. The orange emergency button on her iphone gleamed up at her—her mom had made her add it to her home screen, "just in case." Just in case of what? Just in case she needed to be rescued from herself?

Maya deleted the text.

"Leo, get me the floss."

"Seriously? You're still going?"

"Yeah. I am." Maya grabbed her backpack. "If Jackson wants to make fun of me for having spinach in my teeth, then he's not worth my time anyway. But I'm not gonna let him decide whether I show up."

The dog barked like he approved.

"That's actually kind of brave," Leo admitted, tossing her the floss. "Or crazy. Probably crazy."

"Both," Maya grinned, finally spotting herself in the hallway mirror. Orange shirt, spinach-free teeth, messy hair that refused to be tamed. Whatever. She was done letting other people's expectations run her life.

Tonight, she'd show up as herself. And if they couldn't handle it? Their loss.