The Vitamin C Courage Plan

My palms were sweating so bad I could practically water plants with them. I wiped them on my jeans for the hundredth time, staring at the **orange** hoodie across the cafeteria.

Maya Lin. Sophomore year. The most terrifying human being I've ever crushed on.

"You gonna do it or what?" TJ whispered, shoving a bag of chips toward me. "Or are you gonna **bear** the agony of not knowing for the rest of high school?"

"I'm working up to it," I hissed back. "This is a tactical operation."

TJ snorted so hard Sprite came out his nose. "Bro, you've been 'working up to it' since September. Homecoming's in three days."

I fingered the emergency **vitamin** C pack in my pocket – my mom's solution for literally everything. Stomach hurts? Vitamin C. Nervous? Vitamin C. Existential dread about the future? Also vitamin C. Somehow I doubted chewable citrus tablets could fix this particular disaster in the making.

Maya sat with her friends, laughing at something. That laugh. The one that made my chest feel weird and my brain turn into static.

Then HE walked in. Caleb. The **bull** of Northwood High, physically imposing and socially terrifying. Word was he'd asked Maya yesterday. Word was she'd said maybe.

My stomach dropped into my shoes.

"Now or never," TJ said, actually serious for once.

I stood up. My knees threatened to go on strike. Walked across the cafeteria like I was heading toward execution instead of a table.

Maya looked up. Those eyes. That half-smile thing she did that destroyed me.

"Hey Jason," she said. And then, before I could self-sabotage: "Were you gonna ask me something?"

My brain short-circuited. "I – yeah. Homecoming. With you. Would you – that is, do you want to –"

She smiled. A real one. "I was hoping you would."

"Oh." My brain had officially left the chat. "Cool. Great."

"Pick me up at seven?"

"Bet," I managed, and somehow made it back to my table without tripping over my own feet.

TJ practically tackled me. "You did it! You survived Maya **palm**-sweat-gate 2024!"

I looked back at her orange hoodie one more time. She was looking at me too.

Sometimes you just have to say yes to the terrifying things.