Vitamin D Deficient

The pool party was already mid-swing when Maya arrived, fashionably late but mostly just anxiously late. Her mom had made her take a vitamin D supplement before leaving—"you're always inside on that phone"—as if that would cure her social awkwardness.

She slipped behind a massive palm tree, feeling like the world's worst spy. Across the pool, Kai was already in the water, surrounded by half the sophomore class. He was doing that thing where he floated on his back, laughing at something someone said, water droplets glistening on his brown shoulders like he was in a commercial for being effortlessly cool.

Maya's palm was sweating around her phone. She'd practiced what to say if he noticed her. Something chill. Something not totally unhinged.

"Hey Maya!"

The voice belonged to Jenna, who was now swimming toward the edge of the pool. "You coming in or what?"

"Uh," Maya said, brilliantly.

But then Kai was there, pulling himself up from the water, and his eyes locked on hers like he'd been looking for her all day.

"Maya!" He grinned. "I was hoping you'd show."

Her brain short-circuited. "You were?"

"Duh," Jenna said from behind him. "He's been asking if you were coming for, like, an hour."

Kai splashed water at Jenna, then turned back to Maya, his expression suddenly serious. "For real though. You gonna stand behind that tree all night, or you gonna actually hang out with us?"

Maya looked at her phone, at her mom's text: Have fun! And don't forget you took your vitamin!

She laughed, dropping her phone on a lounge chair. "Okay. But if I embarrass myself, I'm blaming Jenna."

"Deal," Kai said, holding out a hand. "Come on. The water's actually not that cold."

She took it, and something in her chest did this little flip thing that definitely wasn't from any vitamin.