Cat Texts and Chlorine

Maya stared at her reflection, trying to tame her frizzy hair into something socially acceptable. Jordan's pool party started in twenty minutes, and she'd barely survived the group chat drama all week.

Her cat, Luna, wound around her ankles, sensing the anxiety radiating off her like heat waves. Maya wished she could stay home and scroll TikTok instead of pretending to be normal around people who'd known each other since kindergarten.

The sky outside was already purple-black, lightning cracking the horizon in jagged bolts. Weather app said storms rolling in by eight. Perfect excuse to bail? No, Jordan would never let her live it down.

Grabbing her phone, she stared at Leo's latest text: "Riddle me this: what has eyes but can't see? 😉" What was this, sphinx behavior now? Leo, the quiet guy in AP Bio who'd suddenly started messaging her daily with random trivia and smiley faces she couldn't decode.

Maya's stomach did that fluttery thing. Was he flirting? Was she reading too much into it? Her friends said she overthought everything.

She arrived at Jordan's house to chaos already—people cannonballing, music thumping, the swimming pool churning with bodies. Maya hovered at the edge, towel clutched like armor.

Then she saw Leo. Not in the pool, but sitting alone on the deck, phone in hand, looking as out of place as she felt. Their eyes met.

"Hey," he said, like it was the most natural thing. "You gonna solve my riddle or what?"

Maya actually laughed. "A needle."

He grinned. "Finally, someone gets it."

Turns out Leo didn't swim either. They spent the whole party talking about everything and nothing—his weird obsession with ancient Egypt (hence the riddles), her anxiety about everything, the way he made her forget she was supposed to be awkward.

When lightning finally flashed close enough that everyone screamed and scrambled inside, Maya didn't even notice the storm. She was too busy saving Leo's contact as "Sphinx Boy" and wondering if maybe, just maybe, high school wouldn't be completely terrible after all.

Her cat would definitely approve. Luna had excellent judgment about people.