The Spinach Pyramid Scheme

Leo's palms were sweating—like, actually dripping onto his phone screen—as he stared at the text message. "Party at my place tonight. BYOB. Be there or be square."

He was fourteen. He'd never been to a high school party. The social hierarchy at Westwood High was basically a pyramid, and Leo was somewhere near the bottom, buried under the athletes and TikTok famous kids.

"You going?" asked Maya, his lab partner and the only person who spoke to him voluntarily.

"I don't know," Leo said. "My parents are weird about parties. Also, I still have that spinach stuck in my braces from lunch."

Maya laughed. "That was three hours ago, Leo. You're good."

The party was at Bryce's house—Bryce, whose older brother had gotten arrested for letting a bull loose in the school gymnasium during homecoming. No one knew why. No one asked. It was just legend.

When Leo arrived, clutching a sparkling cider he'd swiped from his parents' fridge, the house was already chaos. Someone had rearranged all the furniture into a pyramid shape in the living room. People were sitting on different levels, like actual human pyramids of social status.

"Freshman!" someone yelled. "You gotta climb the pyramid!"

Leo's palms started sweating again. He watched a varsity jacket guy shove some kid off the second tier, laughing like it was the funniest thing ever.

"Bullshit," Maya whispered, appearing beside him. She looked different here—more confident. "This is stupid. Come outside."

They ended up on the back patio, surrounded by palm trees that cast weird shadows in the pool lighting. Leo's heart was still racing, but slowing down.

"You know why my brother let that bull loose?" Maya said suddenly. "He was trying to ask a girl to prom. He thought it would be, like, a grand gesture."

Leo stared at her. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. She said no, obviously. But everyone remembered it." She smiled. "Sometimes you gotta do the embarrassing stuff anyway. Even if it's bull."

Leo looked at the sparkling cider in his hand. Looked at Maya, who was probably the coolest person he'd ever met, hanging out with him by the pool while the pyramid burned behind them.

"I brought spinach dip," Leo said. "From my backpack. It's in there. My mom made it."

Maya groaned. "You're so weird, Leo." But she was smiling.

"Is that good or bad?"

"We'll see." She checked her phone. "Hey, you wanna get out of here? There's this all-night diner that serves milkshakes with actual spinach in them. Supposed to be healthy or something."

"Spinach milkshakes sound bull, Maya."

"Yeah, but we can say we tried it." She held out her hand—palm up, waiting.

Leo hesitated, then high-fived her. His hand didn't even shake that much.

The pyramid inside was still going strong. But Leo had found his own way up.