The Spinach Incident

Marcus stared at the cafeteria pyramid—no, not the food pyramid (though the mystery meat's nutritional value was questionable), but the literal social hierarchy arranged before him. At the apex: Jordan Fox, senior class president, whose last name everyone actually used. Fox commanded the room with terrifying ease. At the base: Marcus, sophomore, invisible, currently clutching a tray of spinach that looked suspiciously like it had been cooked since the Bush administration.

"You gonna eat that?" asked Chloe, sliding onto the bench across from him. Chloe was his coworker at Barnaby's Book Nook, a girl who dyed her hair a different color every month and currently resembled a very grumpy cat.

"No," Marcus said. "I'm gonna use it as a shield."

"Against what?"

"Against Fox, who's walking this way and I'm pretty sure he's gonna ask me to—"

"Marcus!" Fox's voice boomed. "You're good with graphics, right? I need a favor."

The entire cafeteria went quiet. This was it. Marcus's ascent from nobody to somebody began now. Fox needed him. Marcus, who Fox had never acknowledged before today.

"Sure," Marcus said, trying to sound casual. "What's up?"

"I need you to catfish someone."

Marcus blinked. "What?"

"My cousin thinks she's talking to this guy on Instagram, but it's obviously some random dude scamming her. I need you to reverse image search, track the IP, all that hacker stuff you computer kids do."

"That's not how any of this works," Marcus said. "Also, why me?"

"You're always on your laptop at lunch. Figured you were good with tech." Fox clapped him on the shoulder. "Anyway, let me know. Thanks!" And then Fox was gone, ascending back toward his pyramid.

Chloe snorted. "'That's not how any of this works.' God, you're such a nerd. It's adorable."

Marcus's face burned. "Shut up."

"No, seriously, that was amazing. You should've seen his face." She grinned, and Marcus noticed for the first time that Chloe had really nice smile lines. "Hey, wanna come over after work? I have this new video game, we can—"

"Yeah," Marcus said. "I'd like that."

"Cool." She poked his spinach. "You gonna eat this or what?"

"Nope," Marcus said, finally feeling like maybe, just maybe, he was ready to climb his own damn pyramid.