Fake it with me
Sofia: *Did you see the poll someone posted in the school group chat?
Ava opened the chat.
The poll was simple, three names, one question: *Who should be the next cheer captain?*
She scrolled to the results.
Lily Carter was winning by fourteen points.
Ava stared at the number for a long moment, at the gap between where she was and where she had assumed she would be, and felt something she almost never let herself feel, the cold, specific fear of someone who had built their entire identity around being the best and was standing at the first real evidence that being the best might not be enough.