Under the Brim

Maya's black beanie was basically fused to her skull at this point. Freshman year had been a nightmare of wrong-name pronunciations and failed friend groups, but sophomore year? She was going invisible. The hat helped.

What nobody knew, not even her mom, was that Maya was secretly running TikTok's most viral account of the month. "@hoodiezera" — anonymous hoodies doing ordinary stuff with epic edits. Three million followers and counting, all from her iPhone under her covers at 2 AM.

The gag account was supposed to be satire. Making fun of how everyone took themselves too seriously online. But then her hoodie video of their AP Bio teacher accidentally went viral. LIKE, viral-viral. The comment section was divided between "this is genius" and "someone's getting expelled."

Now Mr. Henderson was giving her suspicious looks during third period.

"Your edits have... distinctive style, Maya," he'd said the day before, tapping his pen on her desk. Too casual. Too knowing.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Another notification. Another thousand followers. The running joke wasn't funny anymore.

At lunch, someone sat next to her.

"Cool hat," said Lena, the junior whose edgy Tumblr aesthetic Maya had been lowkey jealous of since orientation. "You're @hoodiezera, aren't you?"

Maya's stomach did something acrobatic.

"What? No."

"Your phone case," Lena nodded toward the table. "Same emoji sticker from the intro. And that hat? Literally in every video."

Maya pulled her beanie down.

"I'm not gonna snitch," Lena said, stealing a fry from Maya's tray. "I run that aesthetic meme account you reposted yesterday. Small world."

They talked until the bell rang. About edit software, algorithm secrets, the weird pressure of maintaining online personas while barely surviving high school.

"Maybe lose the hat, though," Lena suggested, standing up. "You've got a vibe. Own it."

Maya watched her walk away, hand instinctively reaching for the beanie. But she didn't pull it tighter. For the first time since September, she adjusted it instead.

Her iPhone lit up: @hoodiezera just hit 4 million.

Maybe tomorrow she'd try wearing her hair down. Baby steps.