The Riddle by the Pool

Maya's palms were literally sweating as she stood at the edge of the **pool**, clutching her phone like a lifeline. This was exactly the kind of situation she'd been avoiding all summer—Jake's legendary end-of-school bash, complete with about fifty people she barely knew and zero places to hide.

"Yo, Maya! You gonna stand there all day or actually get in?" Jake called from the deep end, grinning that stupidly perfect grin that made her stomach do backflips.

Before she could answer, lightning crackled across the sky—actual, real **lightning**, illuminating the dark clouds gathering overhead. Everyone groaned. Jake's mom started herding everyone inside like a chaotic sheep dog, and Maya felt weirdly relieved.

The group ended up crammed into the basement, someone's idea to keep the party going. That's when she saw it—the beat-up old trivia game box on a shelf. Sphinx's Riddles, it said, featuring a cartoon **sphinx** on the cover giving major side-eye.

"Wait, I love this game," Jake said, appearing beside her. "My grandma gave it to me when I was, like, ten. It's actually kind of fire."

"You kept a kids' trivia game?" Maya raised an eyebrow.

"No judgment, it's culturally significant," he laughed, and something about the way his eyes crinkled made her forget she was supposed to be socially awkward.

They ended up playing on the floor while people messed around on their phones or binged shows on the warped **cable** connection that kept cutting out every five minutes. The riddles were honestly terrible—What has legs but cannot walk? (A table. Maya guessed spider and Jake nearly died laughing)—but Jake kept getting competitive, pouting whenever she answered correctly.

"Okay, last one," he said, suddenly serious. "What runs but never walks, has a mouth but never speaks?"

She thought about it, really thought, watching the way his expression shifted from playful to focused, how the basement light caught the dark circles under his eyes from finals week, how he'd been carrying around this ancient game because his grandma gave it to him.

"A **river**," she said quietly.

Jake's face lit up. "Yes! You're actually, like, a genius."

"It's just riddles, Jake."

"No, for real." He leaned back, looking at her differently. "I'm glad you came today."

Maya smiled, the knot in her chest finally loosening. Outside, thunder rumbled, but she wasn't thinking about leaving anymore.