Storms and Sphinx Riddles

Marcus dragged himself into third period English feeling like a straight-up **zombie**. Three hours of sleep would do that to you—especially when you'd spent the previous night overthinking the way your baseball teammate Jordan had looked at you after practice, that stupid half-smile that made your chest do weird flippy things.

"Dude, you look dead," Jamal whispered from the desk beside him. "Big game Friday?"

"Big game every Friday," Marcus mumbled, dropping his head onto his folded arms. Outside, the sky was that bruised purple color that meant trouble. **Lightning** cracked across the window like someone was tearing the atmosphere open with their bare hands.

Ms. Rivera was going on about the **sphinx** again—some riddle about walking on four legs, then two, then four. The whole class had heard it a million times, but Marcus was actually listening for once. Maybe because he felt like he was living through the middle part, that awkward in-between time where you didn't quite fit anywhere.

What walked on two legs but felt like it was stumbling on four? What had a heart that raced when someone got too close but pretended it didn't?

The bell rang. Marcus grabbed his gear bag for **baseball** practice, even though Coach had cancelled because of the weather. He needed somewhere to go, something to do that made sense. Baseball made sense. You swing, you hit, you run. Simple.

Except it wasn't simple anymore.

He found Jordan at the dug anyway, sitting in the clearing storm, baseball cleats dangling from his fingers.

"Thought practice was cancelled," Marcus said, stomach doing that flippy thing again.

Jordan looked up. "Yeah. Just needed to think about stuff."

Silence stretched between them, electric and tense. Marcus could hear his own heart like a thunderstorm inside his ribs.

"You know what the sphinx's riddle is really about?" Jordan asked suddenly. "It's about change. About how we're all becoming something else."

Marcus's breath caught. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Jordan stood up, stepped closer. "And I think I'm becoming someone who's really tired of pretending."

The air between them felt charged, like the lightning outside was passing right through their spaces. Marcus didn't move away.