Riddle at the Pool House

The chlorine smell hit Maya first thing every morning at the clubhouse job. But at least it beat her mom's "get a hobby" speeches.

"You missed the padel tournament," Liam said, tossing his baseball hat onto her chair. The brim landed perfectly—his signature move.

"Was busy swimming laps for the coach," she lied. She'd actually been hiding in the bathroom, overthinking the invitation to Kayla's party Friday.

Kayla, who'd just walked in with the popular crowd. They clustered around the old stone sphinx statue near the deep end, taking selfies. Some joke from the 80s, the sphinx had been there forever. Last summer, Maya and Kayla had dared each other to sit on its head.

Now Kayla glanced over, caught Maya's eye, and looked away.

Ouch.

"She's still mad about last month," Liam said, reading her mind. "Bro, you gotta apologize."

"I TRIED. She left me on read for three weeks."

He rolled his eyes. "That's because you sent 'sorry' with zero thumbs-up emojis. Who does that?"

Maya groaned. This was why she failed at everything social—too much in her head, like she was constantly solving some riddle with no answer. Like a literal sphinx situation, minus the cool ancient mystery vibes.

Just then, Kayla started walking over.

Maya's stomach did that thing where it forgot how to stomach. She grabbed Liam's hat, suddenly needing to hide her face or hair or something equally dumb.

"Hey," Kayla said, stopping at their table. "My cousin's in town Friday and she's bringing her padel gear if you want to play before the party. Unless you're... busy?"

There it was—the opening. Maya could fix everything right now.

But instead she just nodded, managed a "yeah, sounds cool," and immediately wanted to evaporate into the pool.

"Cool." Kayla's smile was tiny but real. "Text me the details?"

As Kayla walked away, Maya exhaled for what felt like the first time all summer. Liam's phone pinged.

"Bro," he said, grinning. "You just got invited to the party of the year. The riddle's been solved."

Maya pulled the hat down over her eyes, grinning like an idiot. "Shut up, Liam."