Sphinx of the Pyramid Dance

Maya smoothed the stupid cat ears on her head, feeling like a total fraud. Homecoming week. Theme: Ancient Egypt. Because obviously, nothing says high school spirit like cardboard pyramids in the gymnasium.

"You look fine, stop fixing it," rolled her best friend Chloe, who'd somehow transformed herself into a convincing zombie prom queen. Fake blood dripped strategically down her chin. "It's not like Jake's gonna notice your hat anyway. He's too busy being quarterback of the everything."

That was the problem. Maya wanted Jake to notice. She'd spent three weeks crushing on him from the back of AP Bio, watching him laugh with the popular crowd while she sat with her nerdy friends and felt invisible.

The school had constructed this ridiculous pyramid of stacked speakers in the center of the dance floor—like, actually dangerous. Mr. Harrison would have a coronary if he saw it. And perched on top? Someone in a sphinx costume, legs dangling, looking like they'd rather be literally anywhere else.

Then the DJ announced the spotlight dance. Couples formed like atoms bonding. Maya stood alone near the punch bowl, suddenly eight years old again, watching everyone pair off while she became the permanent observer of life rather than participant.

Until she saw the sphinx climb down from the speakers. Tumble. Crash.

The sphinx landed right next to her, knocked on their butt for real. A guy's voice groaned from under the cardboard and gold paint. "I'm okay. I think I broke my dignity though."

Maya cracked up. "You literally just face-planted from six feet up."

"Yeah, well." He pushed off the sphinx head. Familiar brown hair, goofy smile she'd seen making terrible jokes in third period English. Leo. The guy who sat behind her and constantly kicked her chair by accident.

His bear costume underneath—don't ask—was both concerning and hilarious. "I lost a bet," he explained. "My friends said sphinx on top of the pyramid or wear this bear suit underneath for the rest of the night."

"And you chose both?" Maya raised an eyebrow. "Bold strategy."

Leo shrugged, still sitting on the floor like this was totally normal. "Figured if I'm gonna be a walking disaster, might as well commit. So... you doing anything, or can I buy you a punch? I promise I'm coordinated when not wearing cardboard."

Maya looked across the room at Jake, laughing with his friends, not even noticing her standing there. Then back at Leo—disheveled, covered in gold paint, wearing a bear costume under a sphinx getup, somehow making it work.

"Punch sounds good," she said. "But you're telling me how you ended up in this situation first."

"Deal." He scrambled up, offered her his arm like a gentleman from a different century. "Also, your cat ears are crooked. Just thought you should know."

Maya laughed, actually laughed, and realized she hadn't thought about Jake once in the last five minutes. Sometimes the night you expected to be a total zombie apocalypse ended up being exactly what you needed.