Riddles in the Cafeteria

Maya stared at the orange bottle on her lunch tray. Her mom had insisted on the vitamin D supplements, saying something about how teenagers these days never see sunlight. Great. Like she needed one more thing to make her feel weird in the middle of sophomore year.

Across the cafeteria, Sarah Jensen sat surrounded by her usual squad—those perfectly glossed girls who made everything look effortless. Sarah was gorgeous, yeah, but she was also impossible to read. Maya had been crushing on her for months, watching from afar while trying to play it cool. Sarah was like a sphinx, all mysterious smiles and riddles you couldn't quite solve.

"What's up with the pills?" Jason dropped into the seat beside her, nearly knocking over her chocolate milk.

"None of your business," Maya said, but she was already flushing. Jason had started calling her 'Fox' last month after she'd outsmarted their English teacher with some literary analysis. The nickname had stuck, which was both embarrassing and kinda nice.

"You should just talk to her," Jason said, nodding toward Sarah's table. "Instead of being all mysterious and brooding over here with your supplements."

"I'm not brooding," Maya said. "I'm contemplating."

"You're deflecting."

He wasn't wrong. Maya had been overthinking everything lately—her identity, her friends, why she felt so awkward in her own skin. The vitamin bottle rattled as she shoved it into her backpack.

Then Sarah was standing there, holding a tray with a single apple and looking more nervous than Maya had ever seen her.

"Hey," Sarah said. "I, um, noticed you in English. You're really good at the analysis stuff."

Maya's brain short-circuited. "Thanks?"

"There's this mythology project," Sarah continued, "and I'm stuck on the sphinx riddle part. Could you maybe help me after school?"

The sphinx. Of course. The universe had a weird sense of humor.

"Yeah," Maya heard herself say. "I can do that."

As Sarah walked away, Jason fake-fainted onto the table.

"You're welcome," he said.

Maya rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. Maybe the universe didn't hate her after all. Or maybe it was just the vitamin D finally kicking in.