Riddle of the Freshman

Maya dragged herself through the cafeteria, feeling like a walking zombie after three hours of sleep. The previous night's TikTok doom-scroll session had seemed like a good idea at 2 AM. Now, at lunch period, she was paying the price.

"Hey! You coming to Mythology Club?" Chris called from across the table. He was the kind of guy who actually enjoyed group projects and had probably never pulled an all-nighter in his life.

"Maybe?" Maya poked at her lunch — some kind of spinach wrap that looked suspiciously like something scraped off the bottom of a shoe. "What do you guys even do?"

"Today's cool. We're doing riddles. Like the sphinx." Chris leaned in, lowering his voice dramatically. "The creature that devours all things: birds, beasts, plants, and humans. It grinds metal to dust and turns hard rocks to mush. What is it?"

Maya stared. Her brain was still buffering from the math test she'd barely survived. "Uhhhh..."

"Time!" Chris grinned. "It's time. Get it?"

"Wow. That's actually kind of fire." Maya found herself smiling despite her exhaustion. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation talking, but this was unexpectedly fun.

"Your turn," Chris said. "What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?"

Maya's mind raced through possibilities. Was this some kind of test? Were they secretly judging her? Freshman year was basically one long social experiment she kept failing.

Then it clicked. "Humans. Babies crawl, adults walk, and old people use canes."

"Yes!" Chris actually high-fived her. "You're good at this. You should join for real."

For the first time since stepping into high school three months ago, Maya felt something shift. The constant low-level anxiety that hummed beneath her skin quieted down. Maybe finding her people wouldn't be as impossible as she'd thought.

She reached into her backpack and pulled out her vitamin gummies — her mom insisted they were essential for "growing brains," whatever that meant. As she chewed one, Maya realized something: high school might be overwhelming, weird, and occasionally terrible, but it also had sphinx riddles and people like Chris who made spinach wraps in the cafeteria almost bearable.

"I'm in," she said. "When's the next meeting?"

Chris's smile widened. "Tomorrow after school. Same sphinx time, same sphinx channel."

Maya groaned at the pun. But she was already looking forward to it.