The Riddle in the Mirror

Maya stared into the mirror, fingers tangling in her frizzy curls. The straightening iron lay cold on the counter—another failed attempt to look like the girls in her feed, the ones whose effortless waves apparently came naturally instead of three hours and second-degree burns.

"You going to Maya's party?" Chen's text glowed on her iphone screen.

"idk maybe"

She'd been at Westwood High for three months and still felt like she was wearing someone else's skin. The cute boys barely glanced her way. Even the geeks had their cliques.

Then came the overnight field trip to the city museum.

While everyone else snuck off to Snapchat in the bathroom, Maya wandered into the Egyptian exhibit. And there it was—the sphinx. Not some majestic lion-guardian, but a weird little statue with a human head and lion body, cracked stone face wearing that same inscrutable expression she'd been perfecting since September.

"I know that look," someone said.

She jumped. A guy leaned against the display case—Ethan, from her AP History class. The one whose hoodie was always inside-out.

"What look?"

"The sphinx face. Like you're hiding something cool behind all that whatever."

He pointed at her hair. "First week, I had green hair. My mom almost cried."

"You did NOT."

"Google it. Freshman year homecoming. I looked like a bear that fell into Kool-Aid."

Maya laughed, actually laughed, for what felt like the first time since moving here.

"So," Ethan said, "you coming to the bonfire tonight? Chen's bringing his acoustic. He's terrible but enthusiastic."

"I..."

She caught her reflection in the darkened glass case. The frizz was still there. But suddenly it didn't seem like the most important thing.

"Yeah," Maya said. "Yeah, I think I will."

Later that night, Chen's iphone lit up the circle of faces with terrible videos everyone pretended not to see. Maya's curls caught the firelight. Ethan's hoodie was, predictably, inside out. And somewhere in the city, a stone sphinx kept its secrets—but for the first time in months, Maya didn't feel like she needed to hide hers.