Poolside Riddles

Maya stood at the edge of the pool, clutching her **vitamin** C drink like it was some kind of shield. The water rippled blue and inviting, but her stomach did nervous little flips. This was Tyler's party—actual Tyler, who sat behind her in AP English and had that annoying habit of tapping his pen rhythmically against his desk when he was thinking.

"You coming in or what?" Tyler called from the pool, droplets **water** streaming down his face. Maya felt her face heat up. She wasn't exactly what you'd call confident around water. Or people. Or especially confident around people near water.

"Maybe," she managed, which was pathetic.

Suddenly Jenna appeared beside her, flipping her hair with that effortless energy that made everything look easy. "Tyler's been asking about you all week," Jenna said, lowering her voice. "But you've been walking around like a **zombie** lately. What's up with that?"

Maya shrugged. "Senior year stress, I guess."

"You're overthinking it," Jenna said. "You know what you need? You need to solve this like a **sphinx** riddle—stop making it so complicated and just jump in already."

Maya looked at Jenna, really looked at her, and realized Jenna was right. She'd been treating her feelings like this big, scary mystery when really they were pretty simple. She liked Tyler. Tyler had been asking about her. The worst that could happen was an awkward conversation, not the end of the world.

So Maya kicked off her flip-flops, set down her vitamin drink, and cannonballed into the pool.

The water shocked her senses, cool and sudden, and when she came up sputtering, Tyler was laughing. Not mean laughing, but like actually amused. She swam over to him, and something in her chest loosened.

"Finally," he said, splashing her gently. "I was starting to think you'd never actually get wet."

"I run on my own time," Maya shot back, feeling surprisingly bold. "Deal with it."

"I can work with that," Tyler said, and the way he smiled at her made Maya think maybe, just maybe, senior year wasn't going to be so terrifying after all.