Riddles in the Gummy Vitamin Bottle

Maya pressed herself against the lockers, practicing the art of being invisible. Being a self-appointed spy wasn't exactly how she'd imagined starting sophomore year, but after the cafeteria incident last week—when she'd accidentally knocked over a tray in front of half the football team—invisibility seemed like a solid life goal.

She watched Liam navigate the hallway like he was walking through a crowded room with zero friction. People literally moved out of his way. It was some kind of social physics Maya couldn't even begin to understand.

The new girl, Raven, sat by the windows in homeroom like a human sphinx. Her expression was unreadable, her answers in class cryptic. When Mr. Henderson asked what she thought about the assigned reading, she'd said, "The villain is just the hero who stopped explaining." The whole room went dead silent. Maya had wanted to high-five her, but instead she'd just stared at her desk like it held the secrets to the universe.

"You're doing it again," whispered Sasha, sliding into the seat beside Maya. "The observation thing. It's creepy."

"It's research," Maya whispered back. "For when I eventually decide to have a personality."

Sasha snorted. "Girl, you have personality. You just save it for people who don't treat the hallway like their personal red carpet."

That afternoon, the sky opened up. Lightning cracked across the sky like the world's biggest selfie flash, and rain turned the parking lot into a lake. Maya's mom had packed an umbrella, because apparently sixteen-year-olds couldn't be trusted to check the weather app, but Maya had left it in her locker because carrying it would've ruined her aesthetic. Whatever her aesthetic was supposed to be.

She was sprinting toward the covered walkway when someone grabbed her arm. Raven. Her hair was plastered to her face and she looked like she was laughing, but it was hard to tell through the downpour.

"Your backpack," Raven shouted over the thunder. "It's open."

Maya's stomach dropped. Her sketchbook—the one with the terrible drawings of Liam's stupid perfect face, plus some truly embarrassing song lyrics—was probably already dissolving in a puddle somewhere.

"No, no, no—"

"Got it." Raven held up the notebook, completely soaked but intact. "Your secret's safe with the sphinx."

"You know about the—"

"Everyone knows about the staring thing." Raven grinned, and Maya realized this was the first time she'd seen her actually smile. "You're about as subtle as a lightning bolt in a library."

Maya felt her face heat up, which was ridiculous because she was already soaked from the rain.

"It's just... you're interesting, okay?" The words tumbled out before Maya could stop them. "You say weird stuff and you don't care what anyone thinks and I kind of want to be like that."

Raven studied her for a long moment. Then she pulled a bottle from her pocket—gummy vitamins, shaped like dinosaurs—and shook two into her palm.

"Want one? My mom thinks if I don't take them daily I'll get scurvy or something equally medieval."

Maya took the stegosaurus. It tasted like artificial grape and second chances.

"I'm actually terrible at being mysterious," Raven said as the rain slowed to a drizzle. "I just overthink everything and then it comes out as riddles."

"Same," Maya said. "Except mine comes out as staring awkwardly from across the hallway."

Raven laughed, and it wasn't cryptic or unreadable or sphinx-like at all. It was just a laugh, loud and genuine. "Well. At least we're tragic together."

"Tragic," Maya agreed, and something in her chest unclenched. "But like, in a cool way."

"Obviously." Raven shouldered her backpack. "You coming? I heard there's a vending machine in the science wing that actually has the good chips."

Maya fell into step beside her, not thinking about being invisible or about Liam or about aesthetics. Sometimes the universe didn't give you lightning bolts and grand revelations. Sometimes it just gave you a friend, a gummy vitamin, and the courage to stop spying on your own life and actually start living it.