The Fox on Court Three

Maya had been spying on Leo's Instagram for forty-five minutes when her mom yelled that it was time for padel practice. Again.

"You coming?" Leo texted. padel in 10?

Maya stared at the message. Her best friend had been acting weird all week—ghosting their study sessions, posting cryptic stories, constantly checking his phone like he was hiding something. Maybe a secret girlfriend? Or worse, maybe he'd found new friends and was slowly phasing her out.

The sphinx had nothing on Leo when it came to keeping secrets.

"Yeah," she typed back. "See you there."

The padel courts were packed, as usual. Court three was their spot—had been since seventh grade when they both sucked equally. But when Maya arrived, Leo wasn't alone.

Standing next to him was a girl with copper hair and the most confident smile Maya had ever seen. Everything about her was sharp—her eyes, her movements, the way she held her padel racket like she owned the place.

"Maya! This is Sam," Leo said, weirdly nervous. "She's the new exchange student."

"Hi," Maya said, trying not to feel threatened. "You play?"

Sam shrugged. "A little."

"She's insane," Leo said, his eyes lighting up in a way that made Maya's stomach do this weird twisty thing. "She played competitively back home."

Oh. So that's it.

Maya grabbed her racket from her bag, suddenly feeling like the world's most awkward third wheel. This was fine. Everything was fine. Leo was allowed to have other friends. She wasn't being replaced by some random fox who showed up out of nowhere and was suddenly good at everything.

"Maya?" Leo said softly. "You okay?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" She forced a smile that felt faker than her enthusiasm for math class. "Let's play."

Sam destroyed them. Like, actually destroyed them. But halfway through the second game, something shifted. Sam started laughing at Maya's terrible serves instead of just crushing them. Leo made his ridiculous dolphin noise every time he missed. And when Sam accidentally spiked the ball into the fence, she made a joke about being secretely a fox that couldn't jump.

Maya found herself genuinely laughing.

"Hey," Sam said afterward as they grabbed smoothies. "Leo told me you guys have been best friends forever. That's kinda rare, isn't it?"

Maya looked at Leo, who was mid-sip and studiously avoiding her gaze. "Yeah, I guess."

"Cool," Sam said. "I'm glad he has someone like you."

And maybe Maya had been spying on shadows that weren't there. Maybe the sphinx wasn't keeping secrets—maybe he was just figuring stuff out. And maybe—just maybe—having a fox on court three wasn't the worst thing that could happen.

"Same time tomorrow?" Maya asked, and meant it.

Leo's smile was worth more than any decrypted message. "Yeah. Same time."