The Riddle Behind The Gym

Maya pressed her **palm** against the cool gym wall during third period dodgeball, trying to become invisible. Again. Being the new kid at Creekwood High was basically like being a **zombie** — walking through halls half-alive, while everyone else moved in perfectly synchronized packs she couldn't crack.

Until she found it.

Behind the gym, past the dumpsters where the stoners skipped class, someone had spray-painted a massive **sphinx** on the brick wall. Riddles appeared beneath it every Monday in neon pink chalk. The whole school treated it like some legendary senior prank, but Maya noticed something the others didn't — the answers led to dead drops. Notes. Secrets.

She'd become a total **spy**, obsessively tracking the pattern for weeks. Who was behind it? Why?

"You gonna stand there all day or actually solve it?"

Maya jumped. Riley, the girl with the half-shaved head and septum piercing from her history class, leaned against the wall, looking completely unbothered.

"I... I was just reading," Maya stammered.

"The riddle's not that deep." Riley grinned. "It's about trust."

"How do you—"

"Because I write them." Riley stepped closer. "Started it freshman year when I felt invisible. Needed to know someone was actually paying attention."

Maya's chest tightened. "So this whole time..."

"I was waiting for someone to actually show up." Riley pulled a Sharpie from her back pocket. "Someone who cared about the answers, not just the mystery. Someone who'd **bear** witness to all the awkward, lonely stuff we're not supposed to talk about."

She extended the marker toward Maya.

"Your turn to leave the next riddle."

Maya took it, her pulse racing. For the first time since moving here, she didn't feel invisible. She felt seen. She wrote three words: *What comes next?*