Thundercat Confidential

Maya felt like a zombie walking through junior year. Every day the same: shuffle to first period, zone out through pre-calc, pretend to care about college apps while her brain ran at 10% battery. She was pretty sure the popular girls' group chat was called something like "The Squad" but honestly, she'd never be invited to find out.

That was before she saw the new kid, Liam, crouched behind the dumpster near the gym.

"What are you doing?" she asked, and he practically jumped out of his skin.

"Spying," he whispered, like it was the most normal thing in the world. "My dog escaped again. Buster's a rescue. He gets nervous."

Maya's cat, Mittens, was basically her only real friend these days—mostly because Mittens didn't ask why Maya wasn't invited to parties or why she still watched Disney Channel. So she kind of got it.

"I'll help," she found herself saying, even though she'd never skipped class in her life.

They spent twenty minutes crawling through the weird overgrown area behind the football field, dodging thorn bushes and whatever lived in them. Liam kept checking his phone like he was decoding coordinates.

"You're not from around here, are you?"

"Chicago," he said. "My mom's job transferred us. She's always doing that."

"That sucks."

"Yeah. But at least there's nobody here who knows I still sleep with a stuffed animal."

Maya laughed so hard a branch cracked under her hand.

Buster the dog turned out to be hiding under the bleachers, happily munching on someone's discarded sandwich. As they wrangled him out, actual lightning forked across the sky—storm clouds had been gathering all afternoon.

The first drops hit as they sprinted toward the school entrance, soaked through and laughing like maniacs. Maya's hair plastered to her face, her vintage Connes squelching with every step. She looked at Liam, dripping wet and grinning, and thought: oh. OH.

Her heart did something it had never done before, which was honestly annoying because now she was THAT girl, the one who catches feelings over a dog-napping mission.

"Same time tomorrow?" he asked as they reached cover. "Buster's definitely gonna try this again."

Maya wiped rain from her eyes, feeling more alive than she had in months. "Yeah. Tomorrow."

Walking to her next class, soggy sneakers and all, she didn't feel like a zombie anymore. Sometimes the best things happen when you're not looking for them at all.