The Spinach Incident

Maya's iPhone buzzed against her thigh during third period history. Another notification from the anonymous Instagram account that had been spy-ing on her friends for weeks, posting awkward candids and blasting group chat secrets. Someone at school was running it, and Maya was determined to catch them.

"Bull crap," Lexi whispered, sliding her phone across the desk. "They posted another one of Jordan. Look."

The photo showed Jordan with spinach stuck in his teeth from lunch, captioned: "When you think you're smooth but you're really not." The whole class had seen it by now. Jordan, who already dealt with enough bull from the varsity football team, hadn't come to school today.

Maya couldn't bear watching her friends get targeted. That night, she created a fake account and started following the anonymous profile, commenting strategically on posts to track their activity patterns. The spy work paid off — whoever ran it was always most active during sixth period lunch.

The next day, Maya positioned herself near the popular table, phone recording, while casually eating her salad with spinach leaves deliberately placed at the corner of her mouth. It was bait, and she knew it.

The notification came five minutes later. She'd posted it herself. Now she just had to wait.

Then she saw it: Tyler, who sat two tables over, phone angled weirdly under the table, typing furiously. The same Tyler who'd been "just friends" with Jordan's ex since the breakup.

Maya walked over, phone out. "Nice account, Tyler."

He froze. "What?"

"The spy account. I know it's you." She gestured to his phone screen, which still showed the post creation interface.

The whole cafeteria went silent. Tyler's face turned the color of bruised spinach.

"It was just jokes," he mumbled.

"Jordan didn't come to school yesterday because of your 'jokes,'" Maya said, voice steady. "This isn't funny."

Someone started clapping. Then Jordan walked in, saw what was happening, and gave Maya the tiniest nod. The bull on the football team who'd made Jordan's life hell? He was glaring at Tyler now too.

"Delete it," Jordan said quietly.

Tyler deleted the account right there.

Later, as Maya and Jordan walked out of school, he handed her a spinach and cheese bagel from the café down the street. "For the detective," he said, finally smiling.

"Anytime," she grinned, already typing the group chat: y'all are never gonna believe what just happened.