Poolside Riddle Apocalypse

The Friday night house party at Maya's place was supposed to be chill. Just the squad, the pool, zero parental supervision for three whole hours. But here I was, leaning against the patio sliding door, feeling like a total **zombie** after pulling an all-nighter to finish that history DBQ.

"You good, bro?" Tyler appeared beside me, holding two sodas. "You look dead."

"Living that undead life," I muttered, accepting the drink. "Mrs. Henderson assigned that essay last minute and I'm out here running on two hours of sleep and pure anxiety."

Around the pool, people were playing this weird game. Someone—probably Jordan, because he was extra like that—had set up these plastic animal statues on the diving board. A bright blue **sphinx** with wings spread wide like it was about to take flight, a crocodile, some random penguins. The goal was to knock them off with pool noodles while everyone screamed.

"Who even owns a sphinx statue?" I asked.

"Maya's mom went through this ancient Egypt phase last year," Tyler said, like that explained anything. "Now we're all suffering the consequences."

The game escalated. Jordan yelled something about answering the **sphinx**'s riddle or whatever, which made absolutely zero sense but everyone went along with it because Jordan had that energy where you just vibed with his chaos.

Then came the splash.

Not the fun kind. Someone—I'm still not sure who—sent the **sphinx** flying. It hit the **water** with a massive CANNONBALL sound and immediately sank like a stone because apparently plastic Egyptian creatures weren't designed for flotation.

"DUDE." Maya rushed over from the snack table, dipping chips forgotten. "That was my mom's FAVORITE."

"I got it!" Marco volunteered, already pulling off his hoodie. But two minutes of searching later, he surfaced empty-handed, looking like a wet golden retriever who'd been promised a treat. "It's gone. The deep end swallowed it whole."

The party kind of died after that. We spent the next hour using pool flashlights to search for a winged cat-thing while someone played an acoustic playlist and everyone pretended this was normal teenage behavior.

Later, as we sat on the pool edge, feet in the **water**, Jordan goes: "You know what? This is honestly iconic. We're the generation that loses a sphinx in a suburban pool. Our ancestors would be so confused."

Maya groaned. "My mom is gonna kill me."

"Tell her it was an offering," I suggested, finally awake from my **zombie** state because honestly, this was better than sleep. "To the pool gods. Very spiritual."

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," she said, but she was smiling.

And honestly? Sometimes the weirdest nights become the best memories. Not because everything went right, but because everything went so wrong it circled back around to being perfect.