Poolside Sphinx

Maya's orange swimsuit felt way too bright. Like, actual traffic-cone orange. Her mom had picked it out, saying it'd 'pop' against her skin, but now, standing at the edge of the pool where half the sophomore class was already splashing around, Maya felt more like a walking hazard sign than a human being.

'You coming in or what?' someone yelled. It was Jared, the cute lacrosse player who'd sat next to her in bio all year. He was treading water near the diving board, grinning like this was literally the best moment of his life.

'Yeah! Just...' Maya gestured vaguely at nothing. '...warming up.'

Lies. She was stalling. Hard.

The real problem wasn't the swimsuit. It was that everyone here seemed to know exactly who they were—like, intrinsically, deep in their bones—and Maya was still figuring it out. She tried out for theater but quit after two rehearsals. Joined the newspaper but never submitted an article. Started learning guitar until her fingers actually bled, then quietly returned the borrowed instrument.

She was a collection of half-attempts. A human rough draft.

Her phone buzzed in her bag. Probably another text from her best friend Chloe, who'd bailed on the party last minute because she 'felt gross' (code for: woke up with a massive zit). Now Maya was swimming solo—literally, she still hadn't gotten in the water—while everyone else paired off into their little cliques.

Jared swam over to the edge and pulled himself up, water streaming off him like something from a movie. The sun hit his wet hair and it looked kinda orange-ish too, actually.

'You good?' he asked.

'Sphinx mode,' Maya said, then immediately wanted to die. Why did she say that? 'I mean... just chilling.' She gestured vaguely again. Her awkwardness was reaching terminal levels.

Jared laughed, but not in a mean way. 'Sphinx mode? Like, the riddle thing?'

'No, I just...' Maya groaned. 'I say weird stuff when I'm nervous. Ignore me.'

'Nah, it's cool.' He tilted his head. 'You know, in bio, I always thought you were, like, super confident. You sit there taking notes like you're gonna teach the class.'

Maya blinked. 'What? I'm literally panicking internally every single day.'

He smiled, and it was different from his usual grin—softer. 'Same, though. Nobody knows what they're doing, Maya. We're all just pretending.' He held out a hand. 'Wanna come in? The water's perfect.'

Maya looked at his hand, then at the pool shimmering gold in the late afternoon light, then back at her stupid bright orange swimsuit that suddenly didn't feel so terrible. It was just a swimsuit. She was just a person figuring it out.

She took his hand.

'Yeah,' she said. 'Let's do it.'

The water was cold at first, then perfect. Somewhere behind her, someone put on music. For the first time all year, Maya stopped overthinking everything and just floated.