Riddles at 3 AM

Maya's eyelids felt like they'd been glued shut. Zombie mode activated, again. Third night this week she'd stayed up until 3 AM, and honestly? Worth it.

"You stuck on the sphinx again?" Leo's voice crackled through her headphones.

"She won't let me pass," Maya groaned, her character standing before the massive stone creature in *Myths & Monsters*. "I've tried everything. Fire, ice, summoning my grandma's spirit as a distraction."

Leo laughed. "Maybe she's not into you."

Maya rolled her eyes, even though he couldn't see. "Har har."

Her mom poked her head into Maya's room. "Spinach smoothie time! You need actual nutrients, not just -" she waved at the screens "- whatever this is."

"Ma, I'm literally seventeen. I can decide my own greens situation."

"Your skin looks like you've been living in a cave. A very greasy cave."

Maya waited until her mom left, then typed: *My mom thinks I'm a vampire.*

*Tell her the cable's been out since 2019,* Leo replied. *We're all zombies here.*

The sphinx spoke again, its riddle appearing in glowing letters: *I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with fear.*

Maya sat up. "An echo."

The sphinx's stone face cracked. *Correct.*

"Wait, I got it?" Maya's fingers flew across the keyboard. She dodged the sphinx's next attack, launched a perfectly timed shadow bomb, and watched as the creature crumbled into golden dust.

*VICTORY* flashed across her screen.

"Yesssss!" Maya pumped her fist, knocking over her empty smoothie cup. Green slime splattered across her desk.

Leo's laugh was so warm it made her chest feel weird. "You know you're the only one who's made it past the sphinx this week, right?"

"Whatever. It's just puzzle logic."

"It's not just logic, Maya. You're like, actually good at this. Better than me."

The compliment hung there, heavier than it should have.

*So,* Leo typed after a moment. *There's this party at Jake's on Saturday...*

Maya's heart did something annoyingly fluttery. Jake. Jake with the cute hair and the way he looked at her in chemistry like she was actually interesting, not just the girl who sat in the back doodling sphinxes in her notebook.

*You want me to come?* Maya typed back, her fingers suddenly clumsy.

*I want YOU to come,* Leo sent instantly, then quickly added, *like, as a friend. Obviously. Unless...*

Maya's phone buzzed. An actual notification from Leo, not the game: *unless you wanted it to be not obviously 👀*

She stared at the message, her zombie-mode brain suddenly very much awake.

"Maya! Spinach!" her mom called from downstairs.

"Coming!" Maya shouted back, but her fingers hovered over the keyboard.

*Saturday,* she typed. *Pick me up at 7?*

*It's a date,* Leo replied, then: *I mean, not a date date. Unless...*

Maya laughed out loud. The sphinx was defeated, the party was on, and somehow, miraculously, she wasn't feeling like a zombie anymore.

"I need more spinach if I'm gonna survive this weekend," she muttered to herself, already texting her best friend the details.