Treading Water

Summer at the Crawford's house wasn't like summer anywhere else. While I was usually lifeguarding at the community pool for minimum wage, today I was standing on the edge of the *actual* pool — the in-ground, Instagram-worthy kind — wondering if my one-piece from Target would somehow give me away as the scholarship kid.

"You coming in?" Maya waved from the water, her hair slicked back like a mermaid who'd never had a bad hair day in her life.

"In a sec!" I called back, lying through my teeth.

Truth was, I was terrified. Not of the *water* — I'd spent half my life in it — but of everything else. The Crawford estate had a *padel* court, which I'd learned was basically tennis but shorter and with walls, and everyone was *obsessed* with it. Apparently, if you couldn't discuss padel strategy, you were basically socially dead.

Then there was the outfit situation. My hair was already frizzing in the humidity, curling in ways that said "I woke up like this" but not in the cute Beyoncé way — more like "I surrendered to the atmospheric conditions."

I took a deep breath and —

*CRASH.*

I went down, hard, tripping over some *cable* running across the patio. A cable? Who left a cable here? Was it for the speakers? The pool filter? My dignity?

"Oh my god, are you okay?"

Hands reached down to pull me up. Not Maya, but Lucas — the guy I'd been lowkey crushing on since bio lab, who apparently went to the same country club as Maya and therefore existed in a completely different tax bracket.

"I'm fine," I said, my face burning hotter than the patio under my bare feet. "Just... admiring the ground level."

Lucas laughed, and it wasn't mean. "That cable's been there all day. My dad's trying to set up some outdoor sound system or something. You okay?"

"I'm great," I said, straightening my suit and trying to pretend I hadn't just faceplanted in front of the popular crowd.

"Wanna play padel?" he asked. "Maya and Tyler need partners."

"I've never played," I admitted, waiting for the judgment.

"That's okay," Lucas said, like it genuinely was. "I can teach you. It's actually way more fun than tennis. Less running."

So there I was, twenty minutes later, sweaty and gross and absolutely terrible at padel, laughing so hard I could barely breathe. My hair was a disaster, my knees were grass-stained, and I'd tripped over a cable in front of everyone.

And it was... fine? Better than fine.

"Cannonball!" Maya screamed, interrupting the game.

We all ran toward the pool, clothes and everything, and I jumped in right alongside them, sinking into the cool blue everything, feeling the water close over my head.

When I came up for air, Lucas was grinning at me.

"Not bad for a first-timer," he said.

"I'm a natural at humiliating myself," I shot back, splashing him.

"Join the club," he said. "We've got jackets and everything."

I laughed — really laughed — and realized that maybe, just maybe, I'd been treading water in all the wrong places. The deep end wasn't so scary when you had people willing to jump in with you.