The Sphinx at the Net

My orange backpack thumped against the fence as I adjusted my grip on the padel racket. First day of summer camp, and I was already sweating through my favorite tank top. Again.

"You're Maya, right?"

The voice came from behind me. I turned around and froze. It was him—the guy from registration with the messy dark hair and easy grin. The one I'd been lowkey spying on all morning from behind my sunglasses.

"Yeah," I managed. "You're... Lucas?"

"Heard you're pretty good," he said, nodding at the court.

I shrugged. "My brother plays baseball. I'm more of a—"

"Sphinx?" he finished, grinning.

I blinked. "What?"

"Mysterious. Hard to read." He stepped closer. "Like that statue outside the community center. Everyone says it's a sphinx, but nobody knows why it's there."

My face burned. I WAS hard to read. That was the whole point of being the quiet girl who blended into lockers and cafeteria walls. But somehow, this stranger saw right through my carefully curated invisibility cloak.

"I'm not mysterious," I mumbled. "Just shy."

"Shy people don't wear orange backpacks," he said. "That's a statement piece."

I looked down at my backpack, suddenly self-conscious. My mom had bought it on sale. I'd just thought it was... orange.

"Want to hit?" Lucas nodded toward the empty court.

My stomach did that weird fluttery thing—the same one I got before algebra tests, but worse. Better? I wasn't sure yet. I adjusted my ponytail and stepped onto the court.

"Game on," I said.

As we played, I stopped worrying about whether my serve looked stupid or if my hair was frizzy. Lucas laughed when I missed an easy shot, but not in a mean way. More like he actually enjoyed playing with me. The orange backpack stayed on the fence, but the invisible cloak I'd been wearing all year? Somehow, it slipped off.

Later, as I walked past the baseball field where my brother was at practice, I realized something: maybe sphinxes weren't supposed to be mysterious forever. Maybe they were just waiting for someone to finally ask the right questions.