The Last Period

Maya clutched her phone like a lifeline, the Vitamin D supplement glistening on her tongue as she swallowed without water. Another day, another attempt to glow up before spring formal. Three weeks until she'd have to **bear** the sight of herself in the formal dress her mom already bought.

The locker room buzzed with whispers about Jordan's party Friday. Maya wasn't invited. Not officially, but everyone was supposedly "tracking location" which was code for showing up unannounced and hoping nobody noticed you hadn't received an actual invitation.

"Hey, Maya!"

She jumped. Ryan leaned against her open locker, all varsity jacket confidence and lazy smile. The same Ryan who'd barely acknowledged her existence since seventh grade, when they'd partnered for that science fair project and she'd accidentally dropped their volcano model on his foot.

"Crazy question," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "You still have that old mythology notebook? The one with all the **sphinx** riddles you made up in Mr. Henderson's class?"

Maya blinked. This was not in her approximately one million mental simulations of Ryan talking to her.

"I... maybe? In my room somewhere. Why?"

"Camille's doing this weird puzzle thing for her birthday party, and she mentioned something about riddles. I remembered yours were actually pretty sick." He actually smiled. Not the polite one he gave teachers, but real. "Anyway, text me if you find it?"

He walked away before she could process that Ryan from chemistry had just asked for her number indirectly.

Maya stood there, Vitamin D already forgotten in her system. Some days, the universe didn't give you answers. It just gave you a cute boy asking about sphinx riddles you wrote three years ago, and the sudden realization that maybe, just maybe, the wallflower was finally ready to bloom.