Running With Cats

Zara wasn't exactly having the time of her life at Jordan's Sweet Sixteen, but her mom had insisted she make an effort. The escape room place had seemed cool enough on Instagram—pyramid-themed, sphinx riddles, the whole aesthetic—but now Zara was stuck with a group of girls who'd been tight since kindergarten, watching them snapchat each other while she pretended to be deeply fascinated by the fake gold artifacts.

Then she saw the cat.

A small tabby cat had somehow gotten into the building and was now crouched by a sarcophagus exhibit, looking like it was about to pounce on something unseen. Zara, who'd been obsessed with spy novels since middle school and totally not projecting her desire to have a secret life onto fictional characters, felt herself being drawn away from the group. The cat darted toward a maintenance door, and Zara followed, telling herself she was just being responsible. The cat could be trapped, right?

What she found instead was a hidden room—employees only, obviously—where staff took breaks. And there, taped to the back of a shelf, was a phone that kept lighting up with notifications. Zara shouldn't have looked. She knew she shouldn't have looked. But the spy novels had taught her that sometimes you had to break the rules to uncover the truth.

"Looking for this?" A voice behind her made her jump. It was Leo, that quiet kid from her AP Chem class who always sat in the back and probably knew way more about ancient Egypt than any normal teenager should.

"I was just—" Zara started.

"Spying on the gamemasters?" Leo finished, grinning. "Relax, I'm not gonna narc. They hide extra clues back here for when groups get stuck. We could probably find something to help your team."

And just like that, Zara wasn't the awkward plus-one anymore. She was part of something bigger, something secret and cool. They found a hint that led to a hidden compartment in the pyramid replica, solving the puzzle before any of the other teams. The cat appeared again as they slipped back into the main room, as if it had been guiding them all along.

Later, when Jordan posted about how Zara and Leo had "lowkey carried the team," Zara found herself smiling at her phone. Maybe next time, she wouldn't need a cat to show her where she really belonged.