Riddle Under the Sphinx

Leo's palms were sweating through his cargo shorts, which was honestly humiliating. He was fifteen now—wasn't he supposed to be past nervous sweat situations? But here he was, at Chloe's end-of-school party, trying to work up the courage to talk to Maya, who was currently leaning against that ridiculous sphinx statue in Chloe's backyard. Her parents were weirdly into Egyptian mythology or whatever.

The sphinx had this crooked smile, like it knew something Leo didn't. Which was annoying, because Leo didn't know much of anything—especially not how to talk to girls without saying something incredibly awkward.

"You gonna stare at Maya all night, or you gonna make a move?" His best friend Ben appeared, tossing a baseball in the air. Ben had zero anxiety and maximum confidence. "She plays softball, you know. Talk about baseball. It's literally free conversation material."

"I'm not gonna just walk up and talk about baseball," Leo muttered, even though his brain was already running through five different baseball-themed opening lines and rejecting all of them.

Suddenly, this junior named Jordan appeared, holding out a handful of gummies. "Yo, you guys want these? My brother says they're like, focus vitamins for gaming. Supposed to make you sharp."

Ben grabbed one without hesitation. Leo hesitated. He didn't want random gummy vitamins from some guy at a party, but he also didn't want to be uncool.

Before Leo could decide, Maya wandered over. "What's with the sphinx gathering?" She nodded toward the little group forming around the statue.

Her eyes met Leo's, and his brain short-circuited. The sphinx, the baseball, the weird vitamins—it was all background noise to the way she was looking at him, curious and amused.

"Nothing," Leo said, way too quickly. "I mean—we're just—you play softball, right?"

Maya grinned. "Yeah. You play baseball?"

"No," Leo said. "But I could learn. If someone wanted to teach me."

The sphinx seemed to smile wider. Leo's palms were still sweaty, but for the first time all night, he didn't care. Sometimes the riddles solve themselves when you stop overthinking everything.