Zombie Mode at the Pool Party

I was definitely operating at like 10% battery when Jordan texted "pool party @ my house, everyone's coming" and honestly? I considered entering full zombie mode and pretending I was dead. But Maya was going to be there, and my socially awkward ass needed all the opportunities it could get.

The problem wasn't the swimming part—okay, it was partially the swimming part. It was June and I was still rocking that pale-never-seen-sun aesthetic because I'd spent the entire school year indoors, mostly because my mom decided our family needed to adopt this ~holistic lifestyle~ which meant actual breakfast and these gross gummy vitamin things she swore would "boost my immune system" but actually just tasted like artificial strawberry despair.

Anyway, I showed up to Jordan's party wearing swim trunks that were definitely last year's style (why were they so long? fashion is confusing) and immediately spotted THE snack table. Jordan's mom had gone full Pinterest mom with a fruit spread situation—papaya slices arranged in this aesthetic semicircle, and I stood there awkwardly contemplating whether eating papaya at a pool party was a power move or social suicide.

"Hey Finn," said Sasha, and I turned around too fast and almost knocked over the entire papaya situation. "Nice trunks."

She was definitely being sarcastic. But then I smiled and she wrinkled her nose, and I knew immediately—I had spinach in my teeth. FROM LUNCH. I had literally eaten a spinach wrap like four hours ago and it had been camping in my teeth this whole time while I thought I was being all subtle and mysterious.

"You have—" Sasha gestured at her own teeth, and I wanted to dissolve into the pool water.

"Thanks," I said, and booked it to the bathroom, where I spent approximately five years aggressively flossing with my fingernail and reconsidering every life choice that led to this moment.

When I finally emerged, Maya was there, and she was laughing about something with her friends, and she looked so effortless and confident and nothing like a socially anxious zombie who'd just survived the spinach incident, and I realized something.

Nobody actually cares. Like, at all. Sasha didn't even remember the spinach thing five minutes later. Jordan's dog ate half the papaya off the table and nobody died. I spent the rest of the day actually swimming, and when my mom picked me up and asked how it was, I said "good" for the first time in forever, and I meant it.

Sometimes you have to survive the embarrassing moments to get to the good ones. That's not a vitamin my mom can give you.