The Spy in the Baseball Cap

Maya pulled her lucky Boston Red Sox cap lower over her eyes. Operation Observe Jordan Crandall was officially underway.

Technically, she wasn't a spy. Technically, she was just a girl eating alone at the salad bar while Jordan sat three tables away, laughing at something that wasn't funny. But Maya preferred to think of herself as undercover. Her mission: gather intel on what made someone like Jordan so effortlessly magnetic.

She stabbed at her spinach with unnecessary aggression. Jordan threw their head back, exposing that perfect throat, that perfect laugh, that perfect everything. Maya felt like she was watching a different species.

"You look intense,"

Maya jumped. Her fork launched a spinach missile into the air. Time seemed to slow as the green projectile arced through the cafeteria, landing with tragic precision on the shoulder of Jordan's pristine white hoodie.

Maya's soul left her body.

Jordan turned. Maya considered faking her own death. Maybe she could just evaporate. Become one with the plastic chair.

But Jordan was walking over. Jordan Crandall, with a spinach leaf on their shoulder like some terrible badge of honor, was approaching her table. Maya's heart did something genuinely unhealthy.

"Yours, I assume?" Jordan asked, gesturing to the offending vegetable.

"I am so sorry," Maya whispered. "I can explain. I was—you know what, there's no explanation. I'm just sorry."

Jordan picked off the spinach and grinned. And it wasn't the polite, tight smile Maya had expected. It was genuine. It was crooked. It was kind of adorable.

"You've been watching me, haven't you?" Jordan said.

Maya's face burned. "I wasn't—"

"You pulled your hat down when I walked in," Jordan said. "You're always watching. I catch you sometimes."

Maya wanted to dissolve through the floor. "Yeah. Sorry. I'm weird."

"No," Jordan said, pulling out the chair across from her. "I think it's kind of cool. I'm always performing for everyone, you know? But with you watching, I feel like I'm being seen. Not just looked at."

Maya blinked. Her cap felt suddenly very unnecessary.

"So," Jordan said, gesturing to her salad. "What's the verdict? Am I interesting enough for your surveillance report?"

Maya smiled, genuinely, for the first time all semester.

"The jury's still out," she said. "But you're off to a promising start."