Riddles in the Palm of Her Hand

Maya stood frozen outside the gym, her palms sweating so much she had to wipe them on her jeans. Again. This was it — homecoming, her first high school dance, and she was absolutely not about to have the time everyone promised she'd remember forever.

"You okay?" Priya asked, adjusting her flower crown in the reflection of her phone. "You look like you're about to projectile vomit."

"I feel like a zombie," Maya admitted. "I've been running on three hours of sleep and anxiety since Thursday."

"That's called being a teenager, bestie." Priya linked arms with her. "Now let's go before my mascara starts smudging from the humidity."

Inside, the bass hit Maya's chest like a physical thing. Lasers cut through the darkness, illuminating a sea of bodies moving in sync. And then she saw him — Jason, leaning against the back wall in that stupidly perfect vintage jacket and somehow making it look effortless.

Her brain short-circuited. This was it. The moment. She'd been crushing on him since AP Bio when he'd helped her dissect that frog without making a single weird joke about its insides. But now? Now she was supposed to just walk up and talk to him? Like a normal human person?

Maya's friend Sam appeared beside her, looking like he'd just solved an impossible equation. "Okay, so here's the thing," Sam shouted over the music. "Jason's been looking at you all night."

"No he hasn't."

"I'm literally right here and I have eyes, Maya." Sam pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. "He told me to give you this."

Maya unfolded it. In messy blue ballpoint: *What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?*

"Is he for real right now?" Maya stared at the paper. "He's giving me riddles? At homecoming?"

"It's from mythology," Sam yelled over the bass drop. "It's the sphinx!"

"I know what it is!" But Maya was already laughing, because of course. Of course Jason — the guy who read ancient Greek myths for fun — would ask her to the dance via an impossible riddle instead of just asking.

She found him by the punch bowl, fidgeting with the brim of his gray beanie hat like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"A human," Maya said, walking up to him. Jason looked up, startled. "That's your answer. A person crawls as a baby, walks as an adult, uses a cane when they're old."

Jason's face broke into this huge, ridiculous grin. "You got it."

"You're such a nerd," she said, but she was smiling too.

"So..." Jason rubbed the back of his neck. "Do you want to —"

"Dance with you?" Maya finished. "Yeah, actually. I do."

As he took her hand, Maya thought maybe — just maybe — this wouldn't be the worst night of her life after all.