The Vitamin Bear Incident

Maya stared at the gummy vitamin choker around her neck, wondering why she'd thought it was fashion-forward. The neon orange letters spelled GROUNDED—a permanent reminder of the worst weekend ever.

"You good, May?" Liam asked, plopping beside her on the cafeteria bench. "You've been acting like a total zombie all week."

Maya rolled her eyes, but he wasn't wrong. Between her mom's new wellness kick (hence the vitamin necklace punishment) and late-night study sessions destroying her sleep schedule, she was operating on 1% battery life. The irony? The necklace was supposed to help her focus. Instead, it just made everyone ask what vitamin she was deficient in.

"I'm surviving," she muttered, stabbing at her salad.

"Surviving's not thriving, though," Liam said, all wise and thoughtful like he was some life coach instead of just the guy she'd been crushing on since seventh grade. "Remember when we found that bear cub behind the gym last year?"

Maya snorted. "You mean when you screamed like a literal toddler and made me hide in the dumpster while you 'heroically' called animal control?"

"Hey! I was protecting us!" Liam protested, but he was grinning. "Point is, we faced death and lived to tell the tale."

"It was a baby bear, Liam. And it ran away when you screamed."

"Semantics," he waved off. "But seriously, this zombie act? Not working. Take off the necklace, Maya. Your mom's not gonna know."

She reached for the clasp, then stopped. What if she did? What if she stopped being so worried about disappointing everyone and just... lived? The vitamin choker snapped.

Liam's eyes widened. "So... we still studying for bio after school?"

"Sure," she smiled. "But first, I need actual food. Being a starving zombie is so not the vibe."