Undercover at the Deep End

Maya adjusted the brim of her dad's ridiculous fishing hat, pulling it low over her forehead. If she looked like a weirdo, maybe no one would notice she didn't know how to swim at fifteen. That was the plan, anyway.

The Miller's pool party was already in full swing when she slipped through the side gate. She was on a recon mission—observe, blend in, survive until pizza. Her older sister had insisted that "literally everyone" would be there, including Lucas, whose smile made Maya's stomach do that thing it did when she watched edit after edit of him on TikTok.

"Nice hat," said a voice behind her.

Maya jumped. She turned to find Jasmine, the girl who sat behind her in English, holding a red solo cup and looking genuinely amused. "It's... sun protection?"

"Totally," Jasmine said, her eyes twinkling. "I'm on a mission for more chips. Want to come?"

This wasn't according to plan. Maya was supposed to spy from the periphery, not accidentally socialize. But Jasmine seemed nice enough, and Maya's stomach was doing that nervous-flutter thing again, so she nodded.

They were halfway across the deck when Mr. Miller's Golden Retriever, Buster, came tearing out of nowhere, chasing a deflated beach ball. The ball bounced off Maya's leg, and Buster—happy, chaotic Buster—leaped after it, knocking squarely into her.

Maya stumbled backward.

The hat flew off her head.

She splashed into the deep end.

The water was cold and shocking and suddenly she was under, arms flailing, the world muffled and blue and she couldn't breathe and this was it, this was how she died—

Hands grabbed her waist, pulled her up.

She gasped, coughing, wiping water from her eyes as someone treaded water beside her. Lucas. His hair was wet and plastered to his forehead and he was looking at her with actual concern.

"You okay?"

"I—" Her hat floated past them, looking pathetic and abandoned. "I don't know how to swim."

Lucas blinked. "For real?"

"For real," she said, and suddenly it didn't matter that she was fifteen and couldn't swim and her hair was wrecked and she was being literally held afloat by the boy she'd been lowkey stalking online for months. "This is so embarrassing."

"Dude," Lucas said, and he laughed, but not mean. "I didn't know how to swim until last summer. My cousin pushed me off a dock and I almost drowned." He paddled toward the shallow end, towing her with an easy confidence. "Come on. I'll teach you. It's chill."

By the time Maya climbed out of the pool, wrapped in a towel Jasmine had brought, her hair was a disaster and her makeup was gone and she was shivering but somehow okay. Lucas was in the shallow end showing her how to float, and Jasmine was sitting on the edge with her feet in the water, and Buster was napping nearby, the traitor.

"Operation recon is a bust," Maya said, but she was smiling.

"Nah," Jasmine said. "Operation 'stop being weird and just live your life' is a success."

Maya looked at Lucas waving at her from the water, then at her abandoned hat floating in the deep end. Whatever. She'd learn to swim eventually. For now, she had pizza to eat and a boy to not drown in front of.

Maybe she'd tell her sister she had a good time. Maybe.