Sphinx and the Splash

Maya's throat felt like she'd swallowed a gallon of pool **water**—chlorinated and burning. She stood backstage in the ridiculous papier-mâché **sphinx** mask that made her look like a weird cat-pharaoh hybrid.

"You got this, Sphinx Queen," whispered Jamal, adjusting his fake beard. He was playing the tree. Yes, a tree.

"Dude, I'm literally about to hurl," Maya muttered. "And not just because this mask smells like Jake's old gym socks."

The drama teacher, Mr. Henderson, had given her the lead in the school play because she'd accidentally nailed the audition riddle. Which was hilarious considering she could barely speak to her crush, Tyler, without sounding like a malfunctioning robot.

Tyler played the **bull**—the actual animal mascot for their rival school's football team. He wore this ridiculous foam costume that made him look oddly buff.

"Riddle me this," Maya rehearsed under her breath, "what has four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?" Classic **sphinx** stuff. So deep. So profound. So totally not what any actual teenager would ever say.

The curtain rose. Maya's palms sweat inside her puppet gloves. Her line came up.

"What walks on four..."

Then she saw Tyler in his bull costume, making googly eyes at her from the wings. Something about his ridiculous bull snout wiggling sent Maya into a fit of nervous laughter.

"What has four..." she snorted, losing it completely. "What has four legs and wants to die of embarrassment right now?"

The audience went wild. They thought it was part of the show.

Tyler charged onstage in his bull costume, slipped on some spilled **water**, and crashed into the sphinx prop, sending both of them tumbling into the orchestra pit.

Maya lay there staring up at the lights, bull snout in her face, sphinx mask askew.

"Well," she wheezed, "that's one way to make an entrance."

Tyler cracked up, genuinely laughed. "Yo, you're actually hilarious, Sphinx Queen."

And somehow, covered in fake bull fur and papier-mâché pieces, Maya finally felt cool.