The Riddle of sweaty Palms

Maya's palms were sweating so much she could practically water plants with them. Which was ironic, because she was currently standing in front of the school's annual Fall Festival booth called "Madame Zora's Mystical Palm Readings," and she was definitely not supposed to be the one with the sweaty palms here.

"Next!" bellowed Derek, aka Madame Zora, who was wearing a sequined turban that somehow made him look even more like a chaos gremlin than usual. "Step right up for your destiny, fellow travelers of the cosmic highway."

Maya's best friend Jada practically shoved her forward. "Go. You need to know if Tyler will notice you at homecoming or if you're doomed to be a background character in your own rom-com forever."

"I hate you," Maya whispered, but she stepped into the makeshift tent anyway.

Derek dramatically took her hand, squinting like he was solving the riddle of the Sphinx himself. "Ah, I see... great turmoil in your love life, young grasshopper. Your heart is confused. Like, really confused. Also, you should definitely buy the emoji stickers for your phone case."

"You literally just want me to buy your stickers, Derek."

"And yet," he lowered his voice to dramatic whisper territory, "my predictions have been known to come true. Just ask Jessica from chem lab. I predicted she'd get a B on the midterm, and BOOM. B minus. Close enough."

Maya rolled her eyes so hard she briefly saw the afterlife. But then she spotted Tyler by the goldfish toss game across the way, laughing with his friends like he was the sun and everyone else was just orbiting planets.

Her stomach did that embarrassing little flip thing.

"Okay, fine," Maya said to Derek. "What do you actually see? For real?"

Derek's face softened, dropping the Madame Zora persona for like, two seconds. "I see someone who needs to stop overthinking everything and just go talk to him. Also, your future involves very aggressively winning that goldfish game. No cap."

Maya looked at her palms—still sweaty, still shaking. But then she took a breath, grabbed three ping pong balls, and marched toward Tyler like she was heading into battle.

Sometimes you have to be your own fortune teller. Even if you have no idea what you're doing.

And maybe, just maybe, you'll accidentally win a goldfish named Cornelius in the process.