Green Between the Teeth

Maya stood at the edge of the **pool**, clutching her red solo cup like it was a lifeline. Jake's graduation party raged around her—kids she'd known since middle school, now somehow transformed into strangers with better hair and more confidence. The social **pyramid** had been rebuilt over summer break, and Maya had landed somewhere near the bottom, right next to the kid who still wore Minecraft shirts.

"Hey, Earth to Maya." Chloe appeared beside her, flipping perfect beach waves. "You've been staring at the potato salad for ten minutes. Everything okay?"

Maya forced a smile. "Yeah. Just... you know. Socializing isn't exactly my superpower."

"No one's asking you to be Superman." Chloe rolled her eyes, but not meanly. "Just maybe talk to someone who isn't me? We're seniors, Maya. Time to stop being the mysterious **sphinx** of North High."

The sphinx. That's what they called her now—the quiet girl who sat in the back, answering questions only when called upon, riddling everyone with her silence. Maya hated it. She wasn't mysterious. She was just anxious.

"I'll try," Maya said, though she wouldn't.

"You won't." Chloe sighed. "Whatever. I'm going to find Jake. Try not to be too... you know, sphinx-y." She drifted away toward the drink table, where Jake was holding court like he'd already invented the next Facebook.

Maya took a sip of her drink. Something crunched. She frowned, running her tongue along her teeth—

Oh no. OH NO.

She rushed to the bathroom mirror, heart pounding. There, wedged between her front teeth like a neon sign screaming I'M AWKWARD, was a bright green piece of **spinach** from the supposedly-safe potato salad. She'd been walking around with it for MINUTES. Talking to Chloe. Staring at Jake. Jake, who'd definitely looked in her direction twice.

Maya groaned, scraping it away with her fingernail. This was it. This was her life now. The girl with spinach in her teeth while everyone else was busy being cool and confident and not thinking about her at all because they were too busy being—

The bathroom door creaked open.

"Occupied," Maya started, then stopped.

Jake stood there, looking uncharacteristically nervous. "Hey. Chloe said you were in here."

"Cool story," she said before she could stop herself.

He laughed. "Right. Okay." He leaned against the doorframe. "So, I was wondering if you wanted to maybe... I don't know, hang out sometime? Like, outside of school?"

Maya stared. "What?"

"You know. Coffee. Movies. Whatever." Jake rubbed the back of his neck. "You're interesting, Maya. The sphinx thing? It's not bad. It's... I don't know. Refreshing?"

She thought about the spinach. She thought about the pyramid, and Chloe telling her to stop being sphinx-y, and how she'd spent three years building walls when she could've been—

"Yeah," Maya said. "I'd like that."

Jake's grin was genuine. "Cool. Text you later?"

"Yeah."

As he left, Maya caught her reflection in the mirror again. No spinach. Just a girl who might finally be ready to stop riddling everyone with silence and start saying something real.