Thirst Trap at the Pyramid Scheme

The air conditioning at Canyon Creek High had been dead for three days, and Maya's sixth period AP Bio classroom felt like the inside of someone's mouth after a three-hour nap. She watched Becca Chen — who had somehow maintained perfect winged eyeliner through the heat apocalypse — pass a neon blue Gatorade to Tyler across the aisle. The water inside swished hypnotically, and Maya's throat literally ached.

"You good?" whispered Riley, her ride-or-die since fourth grade, sliding a slightly crumpled note onto her desk.

Maya nodded, lying through her teeth. She'd forgotten her refillable bottle at home, and asking Becca for anything felt like social suicide after The Incident at back-to-school night. So she sat there, parched, watching Tyler's Adam's apple bob as he chugged.

Mr. Henderson droned on about cellular respiration while Maya's brain felt like it was literally shriveling. Then she remembered: the vending machine by the gym. The one that everyone called The Pyramid because the prices were some kind of pyramid scheme nonsense — $4 for a freaking Smartwater? But she had five crumpled dollars in her pocket.

She raised her hand. "Bathroom?"

The hallways were blissfully empty, the lockers creating mysterious shadows. Maya speed-walked toward the gym, mentally calculating if she could make it back before Henderson noticed. Her palm was sweating against the five-dollar bill as she turned the corner and —

Stopped dead.

Becca Chen was there, leaning against the vending machine, scrolling through her phone with that casual cool that Maya had spent years trying to decode. Becca looked up, and for a second, Maya considered faking a left turn toward the actual bathroom.

"Thirsty?" Becca asked, not unkindly. She reached into her bag and pulled out a unopened bottle of water. "I have an extra. Tyler bought me two even though I said I only wanted one."

Maya stood there, confused. "Wait, what?"

"He's trying to flirt? It's tragic." Becca rolled her eyes, but she was smiling a little. "Here."

She tossed the bottle. Maya caught it automatically.

"Why are you being nice to me?" The words slipped out before Maya could stop them. The Incident replayed in her head — Maya accidentally spilling punch on Becca's white sneakers at homecoming, then making it weirdly worse by trying to clean it with club soda and basically just spreading the pink stain everywhere.

Becca shrugged. "Everyone forgets stuff sometimes. Also, those shoes were already ruined, my little brother got to them with markers like two days before. I was just being dramatic." She paused. "Also, you helped me with that Bio lab last week when my partner was absent. So. We're good."

Maya's brain short-circuited. "We... we're good?"

"We're good." Becca pushed off the vending machine. "Anyway, Henderson's gonna notice you're gone soon. He's surprisingly observant for someone who loses his own glasses twice a week."

"Right!" Maya uncapped the water. "Thanks. Like, actually."

"No problem." Becca started walking back toward the classrooms, then paused. "Hey, you doing anything this weekend? A bunch of us are going to the creek. It's supposed to be actual human temperature outside."

Maya's stomach did that weird flip thing. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I'm free."

"Cool. I'll text you." Becca waved over her shoulder.

Maya stood there for a second, water bottle in hand, the hallways suddenly feeling different — like maybe high school wasn't quite as complicated as she'd made it out to be. Then the bell rang and she sprinted back to Bio, actually smiling for the first time all day.