Water Under the Court

Maya's palms sweat against the padel racket handle. Tryouts for the varsity team. Everyone watching. Her older brother—the team captain, the one who'd been **bear**-hugging her since kindergarten and somehow making her feel tiny and protected and completely exposed at the same time—leaned against the fence, grinning that grin that said he believed in her and somehow that was worse than anything.

The first serve sailed into the net. Second one, she shanked it sideways. A third time. Coach cleared his throat. Someone snickered. Maya's face burned.

She started **running**. Not away from the court exactly, just away. Through the school gates, past the convenience store where she and her friends spent too much money on slushies, down to the creek that wound behind the old industrial park. The water was murky, smelled like algae and rust, but it was familiar. She'd come here last summer after wrecking her bike, after failing that math test, after her first crush stopped texting back.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Probably her brother. Probably everyone wondering where the hell she'd vanished to. Maya stripped down to her sports bra and plunged in.

**Swimming** had always been her thing. Not on a team, not competitively. Just the feeling of weightlessness, of everything that mattered on land dissolving into something elemental and indifferent. She stayed under until her lungs burned, surfaced gasping, and there on the bank sat Leo, her brother's best friend, holding a towel and looking anywhere but at her.

"Your brother's losing it," he said. "Thought you got kidnapped or something."

Maya tread water. "Just needed to not be that girl who choked, you know?"

Leo nodded slowly. He sat on the grass, toes in the water. "You know your brother cried when you made that semifinal last year? Like actual tears?"

She laughed. "No way."

"Saw it myself. Guy's proud of you, Maya. Like, weirdly proud. He's been talking about your tryouts for weeks."

The water lapped at her shoulders. Suddenly the shame felt smaller, manageable. Something she could **bear**.

"You coming back?" Leo asked.

"Yeah," she said. "Just one more lap."