Sphinx at the Slip 'n Slide

Maya's orange one-piece felt like a beacon. A traffic light screaming 'look at me.' She tugged at the straps, feeling exposed as she stepped onto the Lerner's back patio, where half the sophomore class was already fake-laughing at each other's jokes.

"You made it!" Chloe squealed, draping an arm around Maya's shoulders. Chloe, who glided through social situations like she was swimming downstream while Maya was fighting upstream, gasping for air. "We're doing the slip 'n slide. You HAVE to."

Before Maya could protest—her hair was already frizzing in the humidity, thank you very much—Chloe was dragging her toward the plastic monstrosity unfurled across the grass. And there he was. Ethan. Sprawled on a lawn chair, sunglasses pushed up like a crown, his abs doing something unfair to Maya's respiratory system.

He held up his iPhone, the case glinting in the sun. "I'm documenting all the fails. No pressure."

Maya's stomach dropped. Of course he was filming. This would be preserved for eternity, or at least until Instagram died.

She watched as others went. Tyler performed an accidental somersault. Priya abandoned dignity entirely, sliding headfirst like a human torpedo. Everyone was screaming, soaked, utterly unbothered by how ridiculous they looked.

Then Chloe nudged her. "Your turn, bestie."

Maya stood at the top of the slide, water spraying her ankles. Her heart hammered like it was trying to escape her chest. Behind Ethan's chair rose the Lerner's bizarre garden statue—a sphinx they'd imported from somewhere, its stone face frozen in eternal judgment.

What would the sphinx do? Probably not care about looking uncool.

Maya ran.

She hit the plastic, momentum taking her, water everywhere, and she was flying—actually flying—until she realized she wasn't stopping. She slid right off the end, careening across the grass, directly into Ethan's chair, which overturned with a spectacular crash.

Silence. Then laughter. Not mean laughter—everyone was losing it, including Ethan, who was now soaked, his iPhone somewhere in the grass.

"That was legendary," he said, shaking water from his hair, grinning at her like she'd just invented awesome.

Maya lay there, orange bathing suit covered in grass, completely mortified and completely alive. The sphinx watched from its perch, stone face unreadable. Maya smiled. Being cool was overrated anyway.