The Goldfish Oracle

Maya stared at the sphinx statue in her uncle's backyard, its stone eyes seeming to judge her very existence. The Egyptian-themed garden was, quite frankly, a lot. But Uncle Rico was "embracing his heritage" or whatever, which apparently meant installing a three-foot pyramid fountain that hummed ominously and collected leaves like it was its job.

"You got a little..." Liam pointed at his own smile, gesturing vaguely.

Maya's stomach dropped. She scrubbed at her teeth with her tongue, dread pooling like that time she'd watched her goldfish, Admiral Bubblebutt, swim backward for three straight hours after she accidentally overfed him.

"Spinach," she muttered, mortified. "From the empanadas."

"It's fine," Liam said, but his phone was already out, his attention drifting like the dead leaves in Uncle Rico's fountain.

Her iphone buzzed in her pocket—probably her group chat blowing up about Jake's party tonight. The one she wasn't at because she'd agreed to help "entertain" Liam's cousin who was visiting from Seattle. The cousin who had spent the last twenty minutes taking selfies with the sphinx.

"Uncle Rico says this sphinx is haunted," Maya said, desperate to salvage conversation.

"No way."

"Way. He claims it moved three inches last February."

Liam actually laughed, and Maya felt that weird little flutter in her chest that meant she was in trouble. The goldfish pond—another questionable Uncle Rico addition—rippled in the wind, and one of the fish surfaced, staring at her with what looked suspiciously like judgment.

"That goldfish just side-eyed me," Maya said.

"You're crazy."

"I'm NOT. Look at it. It knows things."

"Like what?"

"Like..." Maya's phone buzzed again. "Like Jake just posted a pic with everyone from the party, and I'm missing it because I'm standing here talking to fish."

Liam looked at his iphone, then back at her. "Or..." He waded into the pond's edge, sneakers be damned, and scooped up the goldfish in his hands. "We could stay here and see what the goldfish oracle has to say about that."

The sphinx didn't move. The pyramid fountain kept humming. But as Liam's hand brushed hers, Maya decided maybe Uncle Rico's weird Egyptian garden wasn't so terrible after all.