The Vitamin Incident

Maya's vitamin gummies clattered against her Nalgene as she stumbled up the trail. Behind her, Chad and Jen were already Instagramming the view, because apparently nature needed a filter.

"You good, Maya?" Chad called without turning around. Typical.

"Fine," she lied, wiping sweat from her forehead. The summer wilderness program had seemed like a good idea when her mom signed her up—something about "building character" and "unplugging." What it actually meant was hiking with people who made TikToks about their "authentic experiences."

Her water bottle was half-empty. She'd forgotten to refill it at the last stream because Jen had been complaining about cell service, and Maya had gotten distracted trying to explain that yes, mountains actually blocked signals.

That's when she saw it.

Not twenty yards away, a black bear nosed through a backpack. Someone's unzipped bag, scattered protein bars everywhere.

Maya's breath caught. The bear looked up—curious, not aggressive, but definitely a bear. A real one. Not the cuddly mascot from her school's basketball games, not the emoji she used in texts. An actual, massive, furry bear.

"Guys," she whispered. "BEAR."

Chad turned, phone still raised. "No way—"

"Put it DOWN," Maya hissed.

The bear huffed, grabbed a protein bar, and lumbered off into the trees like it owned the place—which, technically, it did.

Silence. Then: "Did you get it?" Jen demanded.

"No," Chad said, disappointed. "My phone died."

Maya sat down hard, heart pounding. She fished a vitamin gummy from her pocket—her mom insisted they were "essential for growing bodies"—and chewed it slowly. It tasted like artificial cherry and pure relief.

"That was insane," Jen said, finally looking up from her own phone. "We should tell everyone at dinner. Make it sound way more intense, though."

Maya stared at her water bottle, then at the trees where the bear had disappeared. Something shifted inside her—like she'd crossed some invisible line between the girl who worried about filter choices and someone who'd seen something real.

"Yeah," Maya said, a small smile creeping in. "We'll tell them. But we won't need to exaggerate."