Vitamin Gummies & First Date Butterflies

Maya stared at her reflection, fingers twitching through her hair for the millionth time. The curling iron had betrayed her—instead of beachy waves, she looked like a poodle who'd stuck a paw in an electrical socket. Her first real date with Ethan was in two hours, and she was low-key spiraling.

Her iphone buzzed on the counter. Chloe's text: "YOU GOT THIS. Remember, he asked YOU out."

Maya grabbed her lucky baseball hat—the one with the weird stain from sophomore year beach trip—and shoved it on. Disaster averted. Hat hair was better than poodle hair.

"Maya! Your vitamins!" her mom yelled from downstairs.

She rolled her eyes so hard they practically fell out. The gummy vitamins her mom was obsessed with were shaped like dinosaurs and tasted like artificial fruit punch. Not exactly vibe material for a sixteen-year-old.

"Coming!" she grabbed the bottle and downed three like they were candy. Whatever.

At the coffee shop, her palms were sweating so much she could barely hold her iced latte. Ethan waved from their corner table, looking annoyingly cute in his vintage band tee.

"Hey," he said, smiling. "You look... different."

"Different good or different like I accidentally joined a circus?"

He laughed. "Different good. Although I was kinda hoping to see the hair situation from your Instagram stories."

Maya froze. Her hair. The hat.

She slowly reached up and pulled off the baseball hat. Her frizz exploded outward like she'd been electrocuted.

Ethan stared. Then he grinned. "Okay, that's actually kind of iconic."

"My curling iron hates me."

"Nah, it's giving mad scientist vibes. I dig it."

Something in her chest loosened. Maybe she didn't need to be perfect. Maybe she could just be the girl with the explosive hair, the dinosaur vitamin gummy addiction, and the lucky hat.

"You want one?" she asked, pulling the bottle from her bag.

Ethan popped a dinosaur gummy into his mouth. "Tyrannosaurus Rex, bro. This is the start of something beautiful."