Sphinx of the 7th Floor

Maya stood outside Room 714, her heart doing that weird fluttery thing that happened whenever she had to do something remotely social. The orange hallway lights made everything look like a filtered photo from 2016. She clutched her phone - dead, because naturally she'd forgotten her charging cable at home. Classic Maya energy.

The door swung open. Jake stood there, looking unfairly good even in an oversized hoodie. "You made it."

"Yeah, sorry I'm late. My mom made me take this giant vitamin D supplement because apparently I never see the sun anymore." She immediately regretted saying that. Who talks about vitamins at a party?

Jake laughed though. "Come in. Everyone's already in full zombie mode."

He wasn't kidding. Six people were sprawled across the living room, all glowing with that weird blue light from screens, moving like the walking dead. Maya felt that familiar panic rising - the I-don't-belong-here feeling that had been following her since middle school.

Then she saw it in the corner: a massive poster of the Great Sphinx of Egypt.

"You like Egypt?" she asked, pointing.

Jake's face lit up. "Obsessed. Did you know the Sphinx's nose is missing because Napoleon's soldiers shot it off for target practice?"

"Actually," Maya said, then stopped. Why was she correcting him? Why couldn't she just be cool and normal for once?

But Jake just leaned in, genuinely interested. "Wait, really? What's the true story?"

And just like that, they spent the next hour talking about ancient mysteries while the zombie squad continued scrolling in the background. Maya's phone stayed dead in her pocket, and for the first time in forever, she didn't care. She wasn't the quiet girl in the orange hallway anymore. She was Maya, Egypt geek, someone worth listening to.

Sometimes the best moments happen when your cable's at home, your mom's vitamin advice is fresh in your system, and you're brave enough to correct someone about a Sphinx's nose.