The Riddle of Kai's Party

Maya pressed her **palm** against her phone case, checking her reflection one last time. Her eyeliner was slightly smudged—vibes were off. She'd spent two hours getting ready for Kai's party, her first real high school gathering since transferring to Northwood.

"You coming in or what?" Leo called from the porch. He'd become her first real **friend** here, mostly because he didn't make her feel like a total loser for sitting alone at lunch that first week.

The party hit her like bass — bodies everywhere, red solo cups, someone's terrible remix of a song that used to be good. Maya immediately went into observation mode, strategically **spy**-ing on the social hierarchies from behind a potted plant. That's when she saw Her.

Rin sat on the kitchen counter like she owned the place, surrounded by an orbit of admirers. She was the **sphinx** of Northwood High — beautiful, unreadable, rumored to have once made a basketball captain cry with three words. Nobody knew what she was actually thinking. Ever.

"Want some?" someone shoved a cup in Maya's face. "It's got **papaya** juice. Super fresh."

Maya took it because refusing felt more awkward than accepting. The combination of questionable fruit punch and teenage hormones was not doing her any favors. She watched Rin slide off the counter and start moving toward her.

"You've been staring at me for twenty minutes," Rin said, stopping directly in front of her. Up close, the sphinx seemed less mythical and more... tired. Her eyes were rimmed with red.

"I wasn't—"

"It's cool. I do it too." Rin cracked the smallest smile. "You're the new girl, right? The one who sits in the library during lunch?"

Maya felt her face burn. She'd thought she was invisible. "You noticed?"

"I notice everything." Rin held out her hand, palm open. "I'm actually supposed to be this terrifying social enigma, but mostly I just overthink everything and people project their fears onto me. You seem chill though. Want to go sit somewhere that isn't a kitchen full of people trying too hard?"

Maya looked at Leo, who was dramatically failing at flirting with a sophomore. She looked at Rin, whose unpolished nail polish was chipped at the edges. The sphinx was just a girl. The party was just people pretending.

"Yeah," Maya said, and for the first time all night, her hand didn't shake when she moved. "Yeah, I do."