Sphinx Summer

Maya stood at the edge of Chloe's pool, clutching her phone like a lifeline. The party was already in full swing — music bumping, people doing cannonballs, everyone apparently comfortable in their own skin. Everyone except her.

"You coming in?" Chloe called, doing that effortless hair-flip thing Maya could never pull off.

"Yeah, just, uh, gotta check something," Maya mumbled, even though her notifications were literally zero.

Her family's golden retriever, Buster, had tagged along because her mom was "just running a quick errand" and would be back in "ten minutes" (famous last words). Now Buster was chasing a inflatable flamingo around the pool deck like his life depended on it, barking his head off while everyone stared.

Mortifying. Absolutely mortifying.

Then she saw it — Chloe's little sister had set up this plastic sphinx statue by the diving board as part of some Egyptian phase. The sphinx's painted-on smile seemed to mock Maya's complete inability to just jump in already.

What's the riddle? she imagined it asking. What holds you back from everything you want?

Stupid inanimate object.

Buster chose that moment to shake himself vigorously right next to her, spraying water everywhere. Maya shrieked — this dignified, graceful shriek, obviously — and somehow ended up tripping backward into the pool.

The shock of cold water knocked the air out of her. She came up sputtering, hair plastered to her face, expecting everyone to be laughing at her.

Instead, some guy she'd never met was grabbing her arm. "You okay? That was legendary."

"Legendary尴尬," she muttered, before realizing she'd accidentally spoken half her thought aloud.

He laughed. "I'm Leo. Also legendary尴尬 champion. Last week I called my teacher 'mom' three times in one period."

Maya actually laughed. Real laughter, not the fake polite stuff she'd been doing all night.

"Buster!" her mom called from the gate. "Time to go!"

"Wanna hang out?" Leo asked, gesturing toward the deep end. "I can teach you how not to almost drown."

"Sure," Maya said, treading water as Buster bounded happily toward her mom. "But only if you promise to help me with that sphinx's riddle later."

"Deal." He grinned. "Though I'm pretty sure the answer's just jumping in anyway."

She pushed off the wall, swimming toward him. The sphinx watched silently, and maybe — just maybe — it was smiling a little less mockingly now.