Vitamin for Courage

Marcus stood at the edge of the **pool**, toes curled over the concrete lip. Chloe's end-of-summer bash raged behind him—spotify playlist thumping, people laughing, the smell of chlorine mixed with expensive perfume. His heart hammered like he'd just run a mile.

"You coming in or what?" Tyler yelled. The **bull** of Northwood High, complete with varsity jacket and that smirk that made freshmen's lives miserable. Marcus had managed to avoid Tyler's radar all year, but now here they both were.

Marcus's phone buzzed. His mom, naturally: 'Don't forget your **vitamin** D supplement! Love you! 💕' He'd forgotten. Of course. He took a shaky breath and typed back 'got it' even though the bottle sat on his nightstand three miles away.

"Whatever," Marcus mumbled, turning toward the gate.

"Yo, Marcus!" It was Priya, floating on an inflatable slice of pizza. "Your **dog** is live-streaming from your account again."

What? Bean never did that. Marcus pulled up his phone and sure enough, his golden retriever was somehow broadcasting a close-up of his own snout to forty viewers. Comments flooded in: 'bean what are you doing,' 'this is art,' 'king behavior.' Marcus actually laughed, some of the tightness in his chest loosening.

"That's my boy," someone said.

"Your dog has more followers than me," Tyler called, but weirdly, the malice was gone. Everyone was watching Bean's broadcast now, cracking up. Even Tyler.

Something shifted. Marcus realized nobody was actually watching him. They were all doing their own thing—worrying about how they looked, who was watching, whether they were being cool enough. Including Tyler. The **bull** was just as insecure as everyone else.

The water looked different now. Not terrifying, just... water.

Marcus pulled off his shirt and jumped. The shock of cold, the chaos of splashing, Priya screaming because he'd disrupted her pizza slice. He came up gasping, grinning like an idiot. **Swimming** past Tyler with a clumsy stroke that definitely wasn't varsity-worthy but was definitely his.

"Finally!" someone shouted. "Where have you been?"

Marcus treaded water, heart still racing but now from excitement instead of fear. Bean's livestream played somewhere on dry land, his mom's unsent texts about vitamins and sunscreen sat unread, and for the first time all summer, Marcus felt like he was exactly where he was supposed to be.