The Zipline Incident

Maya's sweaty **palm** gripped the metal handle so hard her knuckles turned ghost-white. Below, the pool glittered like somebody had spilled a truckload of glitter into the **water** — all blue and shimmery and absolutely terrifying from thirty feet up.

"You got this, Maya!" yelled Tyler from somewhere behind her. Tyler, with his perfect **baseball** cap backward and his stupid perfect smile. The guy she'd been low-key obsessed with since seventh grade was watching her possibly die.

The zipline **cable** hummed with that tension-vibration thing, like it knew exactly how not ready she was. This had seemed like such a good idea ten minutes ago when Jenna dared her. Now, standing on the wooden platform while summer heat radiated through her sneakers, Maya realized she was about to humiliate herself in front of everyone.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Probably her mom asking if she wanted to come home early. Always treating her like a baby, like she couldn't handle anything. Maybe that's why she'd agreed to this — to prove something.

"Just lean forward and let go!" someone shouted. Probably Ben. Ben would think this was easy.

Maya's heart hammered against her ribs like it was trying to break out. She closed her eyes and thought about all the things she'd never done. Never kissed anyone. Never told Tyler she thought his Snapchat stories were actually funny. Never been the kind of girl who did stuff like this.

She exhaled, everything slowing down like that moment before rain starts falling. Then she pushed off.

The wind screamed past her ears. Her stomach did that sick lurchy thing. For three seconds, she was flying — actually, truly flying — and it was the most terrifying, amazing thing that had ever happened to her.

Then she hit the water.

The shock of cold swallowed her whole. She thrashed upward, breaking the surface gasping, while everyone cheered from above. When she dragged herself onto the concrete, Tyler was there.

"That was sick," he said, grinning. "You literally flew."

Maya's hand was shaking when she high-fived him, but she was smiling too. Her **palm** was sore, her hair was a disaster, and she'd almost died, but somehow she'd never felt more alive.

"Again," she said. "I wanna go again."