Riddle of the Pyramid

Maya felt like a zombie. Three hours of sleep after finishing her English presentation will do that to you. She shuffled into the cafeteria, phone buzzing in her pocket.

"Hey, Earth to Maya," Jordan waved, sliding onto the bench across from her. "You look dead."

"Thanks, J. That's exactly what a girl wants to hear." Maya pulled her iPhone from her pocket, thumb hovering over his texts. Nothing new since last night's "gnite ❤️."

The Winter Dance posters covered every wall. ORANGE and silver sparkly letters screamed "SEVENTH WONDER" beneath a cartoon sphinx face. Student Council's theme idea. Cute, if you ignored that the actual Sphinx was in Egypt, not at Creekview High.

"So," Jordan lowered his voice, "you gonna ask him?"

Maya's stomach did that flippy thing it always did when someone mentioned Alex. "Ask him what?"

"To the dance, genius."

Alex Nguyen, who sat two tables away, laughing at something his friend said. His hair was getting long again, curling at his neck. He'd Snapchat her stupid stuff during class—filters making him look like a dog, or that one with the floating hearts.

"I don't even know if he's going," Maya deflected.

"Literally everyone's going."

"Not everyone."

"Name one person who's not going, and don't say yourself."

Maya picked at the orange peeling in the corner of her lunch tray. "What if I ask and he says no? That's weeks of awkwardness in AP Calc. I can't survive that."

Jordan rolled his eyes so hard it looked painful. "You know what your problem is? You treat everything like this big pyramid scheme where one wrong move ruins your whole life. Just ask him."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one whose heart will explode."

"Actually, I did ask someone yesterday, so—"

"WHAT? Who?"

Jordan's phone pinged. His face lit up before he even looked at it. "That would be telling."

"You're the worst."

"I'm the best. And you're gonna ask Alex, or I'll do it for you."

Maya's phone buzzed. New Snapchat from Alex: a picture of the dance poster with him in a cheesy pharaoh filter, captioned "ur ticket 2 adventure?"

Jordan leaned over. "See? Was that so hard?"

Maya's thumb hovered over the reply button. Her heart was definitely going to explode, but like, in a good way.

"I hate it when you're right," she said, typing: "only if u promise 2 save me from any zombie slow dances 🧟‍♀️"

Seconds later: "deal 😘"

The bell rang. Maya stood up, actually awake for the first time all day. The pyramid of school social hierarchy could wait. She had a date to get ready for.