Three Miles of Invisible

Maya's dad's old camouflage hat sat pulled low over her forehead, her personal invisibility cloak. She adjusted the brim, checking her reflection in the locker room mirror. Cross-country practice in twenty minutes, and she was already calculating her escape route.

"Yo Maya, you coming to Chloe's party Friday?" Haley leaned against the row of lockers, iphone glued to her hand like a vital organ. "Everyone's posting about it."

Maya's stomach did that thing it always did—half excitement, half dread. "Probably? My mom's been on my case about grades though."

"Ugh, same." Haley scrolled, thumbs flying. "But it's gonna be LIT. Tyler's gonna be there and you KNOW—"

"I gotta go," Maya cut in, grabbing her bag. "Coach will literally kill me if I'm late again."

"You're ALWAYS running," Haley called after her, but Maya was already out the door.

She wasn't always running. She was usually walking fast, head down, hat pulled low, existing in the carefully constructed space between not enough and too much. But today, for real, she was actually running.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket—Haley had posted her. A photo from lunch, Maya mid-bite, looking like a confused chipmunk. #awkward #blessed.

Maya's thumb hovered over the screen. She could untag herself. She could ask Haley to take it down. She could—

"ALVARADO!" Coach's voice echoed across the field. "YOU'RE LAPS BEHIND EVERYONE!"

She started running, her phone burning in her pocket like a secret she couldn't hide anymore. Her hat kept trying to fly off. Everything in her wanted to stop, to walk, to disappear into the tree line where nobody could see her struggling.

But then she thought about Friday—about showing up hat-less, phone-less, just Maya in a skirt she'd spent forty minutes choosing. AboutTyler and Haley and everyone watching, posting, judging. About running toward something instead of away.

She picked up speed.

Three miles to go. Three miles of invisible.

One step at a time, Maya decided she was done hiding. First practice, then Friday. She reached up and pulled off her hat, shaking out her hair. The wind hit her face, and she leaned into it, running faster than she ever had before.