The Riddle in the Dugout

I sat in the bleachers, pretending to care about the **baseball** game while my best **friend** Maya nudged my shoulder for the twentieth time.

"You're staring at him again," she whispered, barely containing her laugh.

I felt my face burn. "I am not."

"You so are." Maya gestured toward the dugout where Jason sat, number 12, looking unfairly good in his uniform. "Just talk to him already."

"I can't. Every time I try, I say something stupid." I touched my front teeth, paranoid. "Do I have **spinach** in my teeth? I had a smoothie this morning."

"Your teeth are fine, Nina. You're overthinking this."

Easy for her to say. Maya was confident, gorgeous, and had already had three boyfriends this year. I was still working up to having my first conversation with Jason that lasted longer than "hey" and "thanks."

The game ended. People streamed toward the exit, but Maya grabbed my arm.

"We're staying. Help me with my English project."

"What? Now?"

"Yes, now. I need to understand the **sphinx** riddle for my mythology paper. That thing about what walks on four legs, then two, then three."

I stared at her. "You're serious? We're staying after a baseball game to talk about ancient riddles?"

"Better than going home and admitting you didn't talk to Jason again."

But then Jason was walking toward us. Actually toward us.

"Hey," he said. "I saw you sitting there. You're Nina, right?"

My heart forgot how to beat properly.

"That's my sister's name." He grinned. "Anyway, I heard you guys talking about the sphinx riddle?"

"Yeah," I managed. "For English."

"The answer's a person," Jason said. "Baby, adult, old person with a cane. Four legs, two legs, three legs."

I blinked. "Huh."

"It's about growing up," he said, looking at me in this way that made my stomach flip. "Everything changes. Even the things you think won't."

We talked for twenty minutes. He wrote his number on my hand with a sharpie before he left.

"So," Maya said as we walked to her car. "That happened."

"Yeah."

"See? No spinach involved. You just had to stop overthinking and let it happen."

I looked at the sharpie numbers on my hand, already smudging but still there. "Maybe the riddle was never about the answer. It was about being brave enough to ask."

Maya groaned. "You're so deep. Now let's go get ice cream. I'm declaring it Best Friend Celebration Day."