Midnight Sphinx

The party was already lit when Maya arrived, pulling her beanie down tight like a security blanket. Freshman year at Northwood High had been one long exercise in feeling invisible, and tonight wasn't shaping up to be any different.

Then she saw him—Tyler, the sophomore everyone acted like was some kind of god, leaning against the back fence with that signature **cat**-that-ate-the-canary grin. Maya had been crushing on him since homecoming, when he'd somehow made her feel seen in a crowd of hundreds.

She was halfway across the yard when her older cousin Jake grabbed her arm. "Maya, seriously? You're **running** after Tyler? That dude's got more baggage than an airport terminal."

"Shut up, Jake." She shook him off, but her stomach was doing backflips.

And then it happened. Tyler's eyes locked on hers, and for a second, everything was perfect. Until his friend Marcus—resident **bull** in everyone's china shop—shouted, "Hey Maya! Nice **hat**! Did you get it from the lost and found?"

Laughter rippled through the crowd. Maya's face burned. She'd worn that stupid beanie every day for three years. It was her thing. Her armor.

But then Tyler pushed off the fence. "Actually," he said, voice cutting through the noise, "I think it looks dope on her."

The backyard went silent.

Marcus blinked, confused. "What?"

"You heard me." Tyler walked over to Maya, suddenly right there. "I like the **hat**. I like that you don't care what anyone thinks." He gestured toward the old stone statue in the corner—some pretentious art thing from the previous owners' garden that everyone called the **sphinx** because it had no face. "Most people here are terrified of being themselves. They're like that thing. Blank. You're not."

Maya couldn't breathe. Was this happening?

"I'm Tyler," he said, like she hadn't spent seven months memorizing his schedule.

"Maya."

"Cool." He grinned—that same grin from homecoming, but now it was just for her. "Wanna get out of here? This party's mid anyway."

Her **cat** mittened hand somehow found his. "Yeah."

As they slipped through the back gate, Maya realized she hadn't just been **running** from her fears tonight. She'd been running toward something real.