Sphinx & Snapchats

Maya pulled her baseball hat low, diving behind the cafeteria doors like a total weirdo. But whatever. Vital missions required extreme measures.

"You're literally spying on him again," her best friend Chen whispered, sliding into the seat beside her. "That's low-key stalker behavior."

"It's not stalking, it's... research." Maya angled her iPhone 15 just right, pretending to be deeply fascinated by the stone sphinx statue in the courtyard. The school mascot's winged lion face had seen better days—someone had drawn sharpie eyebrows on it last year—but it made the perfect camouflage.

Tyler was sitting on the fountain edge, exactly where he always sat during third period. Maya had practically memorized his schedule at this point. Not creepy. Just thorough.

"He's looking at his phone," Chen supplied helpfully. "Probably texting his girlfriend."

"He doesn't have a girlfriend. I'd know. I follow his best friend's cousin on Instagram." Maya's thumb hovered over the Snapchat icon. She'd drafted approximately eight hundred possible messages but had sent exactly zero. None of them hit that perfect balance between chill and interested.

The sphinx seemed to judge her silently with its chipped stone face. *Answer me this, riddle girl: why are you like this?*

"You know what you need?" Chen stood up. "To stop lurking like a cryptid and actually talk to him."

"I can't just—" But Chen was already marching toward Tyler, calling out something about bio homework.

Maya's stomach dropped through the floor. Her hat felt suddenly ridiculous. She wasn't some smooth operator; she was a dork who hid behind statues and invented reasons to be in the courtyard.

Tyler looked up. Their eyes met across the distance.

He smiled.

Maya's phone nearly slipped from her sweaty hands as Tyler actually walked over, sphinx beaming at her back like a proud wingman.

"Hey, aren't you in my English class?" He asked.

The sphinx winked, or maybe that was just the sunlight hitting its damaged eye.

"Yeah," said Maya, flipping her phone screen-down. "Yeah, I am."