Riddles in the Deep End

The first party of sophomore year, and Maya was already hiding in the bathroom. Outside, the bass thrummed through the door, someone's phone vibrating against the sink. She checked her reflection—hair frizzy from the humidity, totally not the vibe she'd spent two hours crafting.

"Yo Maya, you good in there?" It was Kai, sounding way too casual.

"Fine," she lied, smoothing her shirt.

The pool party at Jordan's house was supposed to be the social reset button after freshman year's awkward spiral. But standing by the edge of the pool, watching everyone cannonball and splash while she clutched her orange soda like a lifeline, Maya felt smaller than ever.

Then she saw it—a sphinx moth, massive and dusty-brown, fluttering near the outdoor lights. It kept dive-bombing the flame, bouncing off like it couldn't figure out why the world was so confusing.

"That moth is literally my spirit animal," she muttered.

Kai slid up beside her, dripping wet, hair plastered to his forehead. "What?"

"Nothing." But then: "Do you ever feel like you're constantly answering riddles you don't understand? Like everyone else got the cheat codes to high school and you're still reading the tutorial?"

Kai blinked. Water dripped from his nose. "That's... weirdly deep for a pool party."

"Sorry, ignore me. I'm just—"

"No, I feel that," he said quietly. "Like last week, when everyone was roasting Tyler's fit and I laughed because I thought that's what you do? Then found out he was going through stuff with his family. I felt like trash afterward."

Maya looked at him, really looked at him, and for the first time noticed the same uncertainty in his eyes that lived in hers.

"We're all just sphinx moths," she said, watching the moth finally veer away from the light. "Banging into things until we figure out where we're supposed to go."

Kai grinned. "That's the most emo thing I've ever heard." But he was smiling, really smiling. "Wanna play chicken? The sphinx moths versus the world."

"Maya laughed—actually laughed, not the fake polite one she'd been using all year. "First of all, we're not doing chicken. Second, what's with the plural?"

"Me and you," he said, like it was obvious. "Us versus the riddles."

The sphinx moth spiraled upward into the night, and Maya set down her orange soda and stepped toward the pool, toward the deep end, where the water was dark and unknown and maybe, just maybe, worth the jump.