Graffiti in the Hallways

Maya pressed her back against the cold locker, heart practically jackhammering against her ribs. The security guard's footsteps echoed down the B-wing hallway—heavy, predictable, and way too close.

This was it. The moment she'd been simultaneously dreading and living for all semester.

She'd become something of a legend at Northwood High, though nobody knew it was her. The mysterious artist who'd been leaving messages on school bathroom stalls, library books, under the bleachers. Tiny paper squares with impossible riddles and artistic sketches. Some genius had started calling them "the sphinx notes" on TikTok, and suddenly everyone was obsessed with solving them. Even the popular kids.

Including Jordan.

Jordan, with the effortless curls and the kind of smile that made you forget what you were going to say. Jordan, who'd sat next to her in English yesterday and casually mentioned how cool the sphinx notes were, and wasn't it crazy how someone was basically playing a massive game with the whole school?

Maya had almost choked on her own spit.

Now here she was, about to get caught installing her latest creation—because yeah, she'd gotten addicted to the thrill of it, the way something she'd made was actually *being seen* for once—and she'd accidentally left a trail of paper scraps like some amateur spy.

Amateur. That was the word.

The footsteps paused.

Maya held her breath, adrenaline flooding her veins. This was the part where she got busted, suspended, her parents would be so disappointed, she'd be the kid who ruined everything—

"Maya?"

Her stomach dropped.

She slowly turned.

Jordan stood there, phone in hand, looking weirdly thrilled instead of about to narc on her. Jordan held up the phone—showing her own note, the one Maya had taped inside a library copy of *The Catcher in the Rye*.

"I've been literally running around trying to figure out who makes these," Jordan said, grinning. "Your style's unmistakable. That riddle about the pond behind the gym? Solved it yesterday."

Maya blinked. "Wait, you—you like them?"

"Are you kidding? Everyone does." Jordan stepped closer. "We could collaborate. I've got ideas."

Maya's heart did something completely different now.

And then they heard the security guard rounding the corner.

"RUN," Jordan whispered, grabbing her hand.

So they ran—laughing, breathless, not running away anymore but running toward something entirely new.