Wild Hair Summer

Lila's hair was doing that thing again. That honest-to-god FRIZZ THING that made her look like she'd stuck her finger in an electrical socket, except on purpose and with more personal humiliation.

"You coming to padel?" Chloe asked, already in her matching outfit, effortless blonde waves perfectly behaved. "Tyler's partnering with Sarah. You can take Ethan's spot."

Padel. The sport where everyone at Camp Silver Lake looked cool and coordinated while holding racquets. Meanwhile, Lila looked like a flaming giraffe on rollerskates.

"Think I'll skip," Lila said, pulling her hair into its third messy bun of the day. "Gotta check on the goldfish."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "You and your fish. You're so weird, Lil."

Weird. Better than pathetic, Lila supposed. She made her way to the counselor cabin, where Bubbles lived in a bowl on the desk. Bubbles, the camp mascot who literally just swam and stared and existed without needing to be good at sports or have straight hair.

Bubbles was gone.

Lila stared at the empty bowl. Water sloshed against the glass, tiny waves lapping at nothing.

"He jumped," a voice said behind her. Lila jumped.

Ethan stood there, hair a controlled mess that probably took twenty minutes. Tyler's actual best friend. The one who'd abandoned his padel spot.

"Goldfish can't—"

"Not him. Me." Ethan nodded toward the back door. "Went for a walk. Found something cooler."

He held the door open. Lila followed him into the woods behind the cabin, to an overgrown garden someone'd abandoned years ago. And there, in a cracked birdbath, Bubbles swam happily among water lilies.

"Better digs," Ethan said, sitting on a mossy stone. "He was miserable in that bowl."

A rustle in the bushes. A fox—sleek copper fur, intelligent eyes, completely unbothered—padded into the clearing. It drank from the birdbath beside Bubbles like they shared custody of the space.

"His name is Fernando," Ethan said, like this explained everything.

Lila sat down. Her hair escaped its bun, wild curls tumbling everywhere. Normally she'd frantically smooth it down, make herself smaller, quieter, less.

The fox watched them through amber eyes. Bubbles did fish things.

"I hate padel," Lila said, testing the words. "I hate how everyone looks cool doing it and I look like I forgot how arms work."

"I hate how everyone pretends to care about winning," Ethan said. "I'd rather hang out with Fernando and Bubbles. They're not trying to prove anything."

The fox yawned, showing sharp teeth, and curled up in a patch of sunlight.

"Yeah," Lila said, not touching her hair. "Same."