Operation Goldfish

Maya stared at the cafeteria's social pyramid like it was a biological experiment she'd forgotten to study for. At the top: the influencers, their lunch table practically radiating Instagram-filtered light. At the bottom: everyone else, including her and her goldfish-cracking friend Leo, who was currently tearing apart a snack cake with surgical precision.

"You're totally spying on him again," Leo said, not looking up from his goldfish crumbs. "I saw you scrolling through his finsta during bio. You're like a creepy little spy."

Maya's face burned. "I am not spying. I'm... conducting research. Jackson's been acting weird, and I need to know why."

"Weird how?"

"Weird like he posted a story at 2 AM with just a picture of a sphinx statue and the caption 'some riddles never get solved.' What does that even mean?"

"That he's pretentious?" Leo suggested.

But Maya couldn't let it go. Jackson — the same guy who'd sat behind her in homeroom for three years without saying more than 'borrowed a pencil?' — was suddenly posting cryptic messages at midnight. It was a riddle she couldn't solve, and Maya hated unsolved riddles more than she hated when her phone died at 7%.

Three days of aggressive social media investigation later, Maya cornered him by the lockers. Her heart was doing that embarrassing fluttery thing that made her feel like a middle schooler at her first dance.

"What's with the sphinx post?" she blurted. Jackson looked up, surprised.

"You saw that?"

"I'm a spy," she said, trying to sound casual. "What can I say? Well-trained."

He laughed. For the first time in three years, Jackson — the sphinx of Northwood High — actually smiled. "It's from my mom's garage. She's an Egyptologist and I found it while cleaning out boxes. Just felt... mysterious."

"Oh." Maya's socially-awkward brain scrambled. "That's actually cool. My mom just collects ceramic cats."

"Wanna come see it?"

"The sphinx?"

"And my mom's garage," he said. "She has way better stuff than ceramic cats. Plus, I might need help solving another riddle."

"What kind?"

"How to get the prettiest girl in homeroem to help me clean out a garage."

Maya's face burned again, but this time for a completely different reason. The social pyramid suddenly seemed a lot less important, and she hadn't thought about Leo's goldfish in hours.