The Vitamin D Operation

Maya pressed herself against the lockers, holding her breath like her life depended on it. Technically, her social life did.

She was on an unauthorized mission—aka, being a total creep and spying on Jordan from behind a row of PE lockers. Jordan, with their perfectly messy hair and that smile that made Maya's stomach do gymnastics. This was week three of the crushing-in-silent-torture phase, and Maya was handling it with absolutely zero dignity.

"You know, lurking isn't exactly subtle," someone whispered.

Maya nearly jumped out of her skin. Whipping around, she found Chloe smirking at her, leaning against the adjacent locker like she'd been there the whole time.

"I'm not lurking," Maya lied. "I'm... strategically positioning."

"Spying, then." Chloe raised an eyebrow. "Bold strategy. Let me know how that works out."

Chloe was the kind of friend who'd roast you but also help you hide a body. Ideally not today, because Maya would straight-up die if Jordan caught her staring.

"I'm not spying! I'm just... conducting informal observations from a tactical distance."

"So stalking. We're calling it stalking now. Good to know."

"Shhh!" Maya hissed. "You're gonna blow my cover."

"Babe, your cover blew itself three minutes ago when you walked into a locker."

Maya felt her face burning. That had happened. The locker had definitely jumped out at her. Unprovoked.

The worst part? Jordan had seen. They'd definitely seen. They'd smiled—that smile—and Maya had practically sprinted away like her shoes were on fire.

"You should just talk to them," Chloe said, suddenly serious. "Jordan's chill. You're overthinking this entire thing."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one who's been running away from human interaction whenever Jordan so much as glances in your direction."

"That's because I'm emotionally competent."

"Bleh."

"Seriously, though." Chloe fished something out of her backpack and tossed it at Maya. Maya fumbled and nearly dropped it—a bright orange bottle of vitamin gummies.

"What's this?"

"Vitamin D," Chloe said. "Because you're pale as a ghost and you spend way too much time indoors overthinking. Take one, go outside, and talk to Jordan like a functioning member of society. I believe in you."

Maya stared at the bottle. "You're giving me emotional advice through gummy vitamins?"

"I'm giving you nutritional support and life coaching. You're welcome."

From across the hallway, Jordan looked up. Their eyes met.

Maya's brain short-circuited.

"Go," Chloe whisper-shoved her.

Maya went. Sort of. She moved forward, then stopped, then started again, then—

Jordan waved.

Maya waved back. It was awkward. Her hand did something weird. It was fine.

But then Jordan started walking toward her.

Panic. Sheer panic. Maya's heart was doing something concerning. She couldn't breathe. This was it. This was how she died. Social interaction: 1, Maya: 0.

"Hey," Jordan said, stopping in front of her. Their voice was nice. Why was their voice so nice?

"Hey," Maya squeaked. "I mean—hey. Normal voice. This is my voice. It sounds like this normally."

Jordan laughed. Good sign? Bad sign? Impossible to tell.

"I saw you... earlier," Jordan said. "When you ran into the locker."

Maya wanted to dissolve into the floor immediately. "Oh. That. That was... intentional. For balance. Core strength."

"Right." Jordan was grinning now. "Cool, cool. Anyway, I was gonna ask—"

But Maya never found out what Jordan was going to ask, because at that exact moment, her phone pinged loudly with a notification she'd definitely forgotten to silence. It echoed through the hallway like a gunshot.

Jordan's eyes dropped to her pocket. "You should get that."

Maya's soul left her body.

"Or," Jordan continued, "you could ignore it and tell me if you want to grab bubble tea later? Since you're apparently very good at running into things, I figured maybe you'd want to intentionally run into somewhere with me instead."

Maya stared.

"Was that... was that a locker joke?"

"Maybe." Jordan's smile was doing things to her heart rate. "So? Bubble tea?"

Maya glanced at Chloe, who was making exaggerated thumbs-up gestures from behind a row of lockers like the world's most obvious wingman.

"Yes," Maya said. "Yes, absolutely. For sure."

"Cool." Jordan pulled out their phone. "Give me your number then, spy."

Maya nearly choked on air. "You KNEW?"

"I have eyes, Maya. You're not exactly James Bond."

Fair point.

That afternoon, Maya got bubble tea with Jordan. And a phone number. And plans for Saturday.

Later that night, Maya texted Chloe: Your vitamin advice was weird but it worked. Also I'm emotionally incompetent. Help.

Chloe responded immediately: I know. That's why we're friends. Now go to sleep, you've got a date on Saturday.

Maya stared at her ceiling, smiling at nothing.

The accidental spy mission was a success. She'd take it.