Zombie Mode at Padel Camp

Maya dragged her feet across the court, feeling straight-up zombie. Three days of summer padel camp will do that to you — especially when your parents signed you up without asking.

"You're zoning out again," Leo called from the other side of the net. He was annoyingly good at everything, with that effortless confidence Maya wished she had. "Focus, May."

"I'm focusing on how much I'd rather be literally anywhere else," she muttered, though her face heated when he laughed.

Break time couldn't come fast enough. Maya collapsed onto the bench, chugging water like she'd been stranded in a desert. Her mom had packed the dreaded spinach smoothie again — apparently, "it'll help your energy" — which honestly felt like a personal attack.

That's when she heard it. A tiny, pathetic meow from behind the equipment shed.

Maya Investigated. A scrawny gray cat was curled up in the shade, eyeing her spinach smoothie with judgment.

"Yeah, I'm not feeling it either," she whispered, sliding the bowl toward the cat. It lapped up the green slush like it was gourmet.

"You're feeding stray cats your health smoothie?" Leo appeared behind her, smiling in that way that made her stomach do flips.

"She has better taste than me."

He sat beside her, close enough that their shoulders brushed. "You're actually getting better, you know. At padel."

"I'm literally zombie mode out there."

"Yeah, but like... a determined zombie?" Leo grinned. "Seriously though, want to practice after camp tomorrow? Just us."

Maya's heart hammered against her ribs. "Like... a date?"

"Only if you promise not to call it that," he said, standing up and offering her a hand. "But yeah."

She took it, spinach smoothie forgotten, zombie mode suddenly feeling not so bad after all.