Riddles at the Deep End

Maya's palms were literally sweating as she stood at the edge of the pool, clutching her towel like a lifeline. The summer before freshman year, and somehow she'd been invited to Chloe's legendary pool party. The one everyone would be talking about Monday.

"You going in or what?" Chloe called from the water, her waterproof eyeliner somehow still perfect. Chloe, who had this sphinx tattoo on her shoulder and always looked like she knew something you didn't.

"Yeah, just... warming up," Maya lied, hyper-aware of the twenty other kids scattered around the pool area. Some were swimming laps, others sitting on the edge, phones everywhere. Why was this so hard? It's just water. Just people. Just the entire social hierarchy playing out in swimwear.

Then this guy Jake—Jake who'd sat behind her in English since forever—pulled himself out of the water like some kind of scene from a movie. Water dripping everywhere. He walked over to where Maya stood frozen.

"Riddle me this," he said, nodding at Chloe's sphinx tattoo. "What walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?"

Maya actually laughed. "Seriously? The riddle of the sphinx? Human. Humans." She looked at her own hands, then impulsively high-fived him. "Human. We're awkward and we figure it out."

Jake grinned. "Exactly. Now get in before I drag you."

And somehow that was it. The spell broke. She dropped her towel, took a breath, and cannonballed into the deep end, surfacing to laughter and splashes and someone tossing her a floatie. Swimming past the uncertainty, into something exactly like belonging.

Later, drying off under the palm tree in Chloe's backyard, Maya caught Jake's eye across the pool. He winked. Maybe freshman year wouldn't be so bad after all.