Sphinx by the Pool

Maya stood at the edge of the pool, clutching her towel like a shield. Sarah's end-of-summer bash was in full swing—literally, with Jake Morrison doing cannonballs that sent waves crashing toward anyone unlucky enough to be standing too close.

"You gonna stand there all night or actually get in?" called Chloe, sliding up beside her. Chloe was everything Maya wasn't: confident, popular, currently wearing a bikini that probably cost more than Maya's entire wardrobe.

"I'm thinking," Maya said, which was a lie. She wasn't thinking. She was overthinking, which was basically her default setting lately.

Jake surfaced from the water, shaking droplets from his hair like some golden retriever who'd just won best in show. He was the starting pitcher for the varsity baseball team, which apparently made him royalty at Northwood High. Not that Maya cared. Okay, maybe she cared a little.

"Hey, Maya!" Jake yelled, water streaming down his face. "Baseball tryouts next week if you're interested. We need someone with your arm."

Maya's face burned. She'd thrown a softball in gym class once, and somehow that had become legend. Everyone thought she was secretly an athlete, when really she was just a girl who'd thrown one good pitch and wanted to disappear into the bleachers forever.

The Sphinx statue by the pool seemed to mock her with its stone face—a prop Sarah's dad had brought back from Egypt that now stared eternally at the splashing, laughing teenagers. Maya caught herself thinking: at least the sphinx never had to figure out who it was supposed to be.

"I'm not trying out," she said, but her voice came out too quiet.

Jake shrugged and disappeared underwater again.

"Rip," Chloe said softly. "But honestly? You should go for it."

"You don't get it," Maya said, finally letting her towel drop. "Everyone thinks I'm this mysterious sphinx person, but I'm just... me. I don't even like baseball."

"So don't play," Chloe said. "But maybe stop letting everyone else write your story. Also? You're overthinking the pool thing. Just jump."

Maya looked at the water, at Jake resurfacing with a whoop, at the stone sphinx staring blankly at nothing. Then she squeezed her eyes shut and took the plunge.

The water was shockingly cold, refreshing, and absolutely freeing. For the first time all night, Maya wasn't worrying about who everyone thought she was. She was just a girl jumping into a pool, and sometimes that was enough.