Thunder in My Chest

Maya's legs burned as she pounded the trail, Coach Davis's voice echoing in her head: "You've got to **bear** down, Martinez! State qualifiers don't quit when it gets hard!"

Yeah, well, Coach Davis also thought "git gud" was inspirational coaching.

The cross-country team was **running** intervals, and Maya was dead last. Again. Her crush, Leo, was somewhere ahead, probably looking effortlessly athletic while she gasped like a dying fish. Classic Maya energy—always the observer, never the protagonist.

Then the sky turned that weird greenish color that meant you should probably be anywhere but outside.

"Practice is NOT cancelled!" Coach hollered as the first drops fell. "Push through! What are you gonna do when life hits hard, hide under your bed?"

Maya wanted to say yes, absolutely, that sounded like a solid life plan, but she kept **running**.

Then—CRACK.

**Lightning** split the sky like the world's worst Instagram filter, illuminating everything in harsh white. And there, standing twenty feet ahead near the trail marker, was an actual bear.

Like, a BEAR bear.

Maya's brain went completely offline. She was supposed to play dead? Run away? Drop and roll? Was this even real?

The bear just stared at her with this incredibly unimpressed energy, like she was the third remnant of a cancelled streaming service. Then it turned and lumbered away, probably muttering about annoying teenagers in bear language.

Maya stood there, heart hammering, rain plastering her hair to her face, and started laughing. Like, actually couldn't stop laughing because WHAT even was her life?

Leo jogged up beside her, breathless. "You okay? I saw—you saw that, right?"

"I saw the bear," Maya managed. "I think we just bonded."

Leo looked at her, really looked at her, and grinned. "You're weird, Martinez."

But like, in the good way—the kind of weird that meant interesting, not just weird. For the first time all season, Maya didn't feel like the backup character in someone else's story.

"Good weird," Leo added, and her stomach did that embarrassing flippy thing.

Coach Davis blew his whistle. "Alright alright, show's over! Everyone back to the school—NOW!"

As they jogged back together, Leo's shoulder brushed hers. Maybe being weird wasn't the worst thing in the world. Maybe it was exactly what made her main character energy after all.

Even if it took getting struck by lightning's weird cousin and almost dying via bear to figure it out.