The Riddle at Rick's Pool Party

Maya pulled her beanie down tighter, even though it was eighty-five degrees. The hat was her armor—without it, she felt naked, exposed like she'd forgotten to put on actual clothes. Rick's End-of-School Bash was already lit with music thumping from somewhere inside the house and the pool water glowed this ridiculous neon blue from underwater LED lights that nobody had actually asked for.

"Yo Maya! You gonna swim or just stand there looking mysterious?" Jordan called from the pool's edge, water dripping from his stupid perfect hair. He'd been her crush since seventh grade, which felt pathetic now that they were graduating.

Maya's brain did that thing where it became a sphinx guarding its own secrets, all cryptic and closed-off. What she wanted to say: *I hate my body, I hate pool parties, I hate that everyone's pretending this isn't the last time we'll all be together.* What actually came out: "Maybe later."

Then lightning cracked the sky open—a sudden flash that made everyone gasp. The storm they'd been predicting all week had finally arrived. Rain started falling, first as drops and then as sheets, turning the pool into this churning mass of blue and gray.

Everyone scrambled toward the house, laughing and screaming, but Maya stood frozen. Something about the chaos felt right. She pulled off her hat and shook out her hair, letting the rain plaster it to her face. For the first time all night, she could breathe.

Jordan ducked back outside, noticed her standing there. "What are you doing? You're gonna get soaked."

"Already am," she said, and something in her voice sounded different—stronger, maybe. "Jordan? What's the sphinx's riddle?"

"What?"

"The sphinx. What walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, three in the evening?"

"Man. You're so random." But he grinned, splashed over. "It's a human, right? Crawling, walking, then with a cane."

"Yeah. And maybe the answer's also that we're all just figuring out how to stand on our own two legs." Maya stepped toward the pool, the rain still pouring, lightning flashing again in the distance. "You coming in or what?"

Jordan laughed, shook his head. "You're weird, Maya." And then he jumped in.

Maya followed, hat forgotten on the concrete, and for once, she didn't overthink it.