The Spinach Incident

Marcus stood in front of his mirror, carefully removing every trace of green from his teeth. The **spinach** wrap at lunch had been a mistake. A catastrophic, social-suicide mistake. Especially when Emma had been sitting right there, laughing at something Jordan said, while Marcus had been grinning like an idiot with leaves stuck in his braces.

Now he was headed to Jordan's house for the first time. Emma would be there too, obviously, because they were practically attached at the hip this semester. Marcus and Jordan used to be that tight—back when they'd spend hours playing **zombie** apocalypse games in Jordan's basement until Marcus's mom yelled at him to come home for dinner. But lately? Jordan had leveled up socially while Marcus was still stuck in tutorial mode.

"You coming?" Jordan had texted earlier. "Emma's bringing her **friend** from soccer. You should come hang."

Marcus had stared at his phone, his stomach doing that familiar twist. The translation was obvious: Jordan was trying to set him up. Which was equal parts exciting and terrifying. Because what if he said something awkward? What if—oh god—what if he had **spinach** in his teeth AGAIN?

The walk to Jordan's house felt longer than usual. The sky was that perfect late-October **orange**, the kind that made everything feel cinematic and possible. Marcus practiced conversation starters in his head. Hey, how's soccer going? Do you like **baseball**? I played one season in eighth grade and got hit in the face with a pitch, so that was fun.

Smooth. Real smooth.

When he arrived, Emma was already there with Chloe—her soccer friend, who turned out to be actually normal and not terrifying. They were watching Jordan attempt to hit a **baseball** off a tee in the backyard, failing spectacularly each time.

"Your form sucks," Marcus called out before he could overthink it. Chloe laughed, and something in his chest loosened. Maybe this wouldn't be a disaster. Maybe he could actually exist around these people without turning into a total **zombie** of awkwardness.

Then Emma nudged him. "By the way, you had a little something..." She gestured to her teeth. "From lunch."

Marcus froze. His face burned. **Spinach**. Again.

But Chloe just grinned. "Don't worry about it. I had a piece of broccoli in my teeth for like three hours yesterday. Nobody noticed."

"I noticed," Emma said.

"And you didn't tell me?" Chloe demanded. "Fakest **friend** ever."

They were laughing, and Jordan was gesturing for Marcus to take a turn with the bat, and the **orange** light was making everything glow warm and golden, and Marcus thought maybe—just maybe—he could survive this. Even with the perpetual spinach curse. Even with the awkwardness that seemed hardcoded into his personality. Because somehow, impossibly, he was part of this. He was here.