The Riddle at Jordan's Party

Maya's palms were sweating legit gross amounts as she stood outside Jordan's house. This was it — the first party of sophomore year, and she'd spent two hours straightening her hair only to have the humidity ruin it immediately.

Inside, the basement was already dark. Someone had turned the couches into a pyramid in the corner, and people were sitting on each level like some weird social hierarchy come to life. Maya grabbed a soda, trying to look chill, failing completely.

"Yo, you're Maya right?" This guy Lucas appeared. He had on this bear of a hoodie — oversized, brown, somehow working. "Jordan said you're smart. Like, actually smart."

"Depends who's asking," she said, then immediately cringed. Who says that?

Lucas grinned. "Fair. Come here, we're doing trivia but Jordan made it weird." He led her to a circle where people were taking turns being what Jordan called "the sphinx" — you had to pose a riddle, and if nobody could solve it, you got to choose who had to shotgun a Mountain Dew.

Maya's turn came. Her brain short-circuited.

"Okay," she said, voice weirdly steady. "What has legs but cannot walk?"

"A table!" someone yelled.

"A chair!" said another.

"A dog with spinal issues," offered Jordan's golden retriever, who had been flopped dramatically across the rug the entire night.

Everyone laughed, even Maya. But the answer was "a table" and she'd known three people would guess it immediately, which meant she'd failed the test — except Lucas was looking at her like she'd just invented oxygen.

Later, when they ended up on the back porch away from the noise, Lucas said, "That was a bad riddle. Like, historically terrible."

"I panicked!"

"Yeah, but you owned it." He bumped her shoulder with his. "That's kinda rare around here."

Maya realized her palms weren't sweating anymore. The pyramid of couches inside felt less important, somehow. She'd come worried about passing some social test, but maybe the sphinx's real riddle was figuring out she didn't need to solve anything to belong.

"Wanna help me come up with better riddles?" she asked. "For next time."

"Only if you promise to never use a table again."

"Deal."