Three Strikes at Summer

Maya stood in front of Ryan's bathroom mirror, adjusting her dad's vintage **baseball** cap sideways because that's what TikTok said was cool. The party was already loud downstairs, bass thumping through the floorboards, and she'd been here for twenty minutes without saying more than "hey" to three people.

"You got this,"

Her reflection rolled its eyes at her. She'd been crushing on Ryan since September, when they'd been lab partners and he'd let her keep the classroom **goldfish** over winter break. Now it was June, and somehow she was at his end-of-school party, wearing a **hat** that felt like it was screaming "I'm trying too hard."

She grabbed a handful of chips from the massive bowl on the counter—cheddar **spinach** baked ones, because apparently even party food had to be healthy now—and headed back to the living room where Ryan was talking to some of his baseball friends.

"Maya!" Ryan lit up when he saw her, and her stomach did that thing where it forgot how to be an organ. "I didn't know you were coming."

"Yeah, well..." She shrugged, hoping the cap covered the fact that her ears were burning. "Jesse brought me."

"You want to play beer pong?" This from Tyler, who'd made varsity as a sophomore and somehow still had time to be genuinely nice. "We need a fourth."

Maya hesitated. She'd never played. But Jesse was already giving her that look, the one that said "don't be weird, just say yes."

"Sure," she said, and immediately regretted it.

Four games later, she was laughing so hard at Tyler's terrible aim that she didn't notice the spinach chip stuck to her front tooth until Ryan's eyes darted there, just for a second, before he smoothly looked away.

mortifying.

"Maya, can I talk to you?" Ryan asked suddenly, and she assumed he was going to tell her she had food in her teeth like a normal person would.

Instead, he led her to the back porch where the goldfish swam in its patio bowl.

"I wanted to ask you something," he said, rubbing the back of his neck like he was nervous. "Since you kept Gilbert alive all winter break..."

"Gilbert?"

"The fish."

"Oh."

"Would you want to come to my games next season? Like, actually sit with the team groupies?"

Maya blinked. "Wait, really?"

"Yeah."

She grinned, forgetting about the spinach. "I'd love that."

Later, when she finally checked her reflection in the bathroom mirror, she realized the spinach had been gone the whole time. Tyler had just been messing with her head.

Somehow, that made it better.