The Sphinx by the Pool

Maya dragged her flip-flops across the concrete, the pool deck already baking in the July heat. It was the last day before freshman year, and everyone who was anyone would be at Tyler's party. Everyone except her, apparently.

She'd barely dipped a toe in the water when her older sister Kai appeared like some kind of mythological creature—dark sunglasses perched on her nose, holding a truly ridiculous amount of nachos.

"You're brooding again," Kai said, flopping onto the lounge chair beside her. "It's giving major 'I'm too deep for this pool party' energy."

"I am NOT brooding," Maya protested, though she absolutely was. "I'm just... observing. Like a sphinx. Mysterious. Enigmatic."

Kai snorted so hard a nacho crumb went flying. "A sphinx? Maya, you literally cried when that stray cat showed up at our door last week. You are not mysterious. You're a softie with anxiety."

Maya's face burned. The cat—she'd named him Ramses, obviously—had been scrawny and shivering when she found him behind the dumpster. Now he was asleep on her pillow, completely unaware that he'd ruined her street cred.

"Whatever," Maya muttered. "At least I'm not over here trying to build some social pyramid where I'm at the top and everyone else is—"

"Okay, wow." Kai sat up, actually serious for once. "First of all, that's not how pyramids work. Second, who said you're at the bottom?"

"Um, everyone?" Maya gestured at the pool, where Tyler and his friends were doing cannonballs and generally being loud and confident and effortlessly cool. "That's literally high school in a nutshell. The popular kids, the normals, and then... us."

Kai studied her for a long moment. Then she stood up, grabbed Maya's hand, and pulled her toward the pool.

"What are you doing?"

"We're going in," Kai said. "Together. And you're going to realize that the only pyramid that matters is the one you build yourself, brick by awkward brick, with people who actually get you."

"That was the cheesiest thing you've ever said."

"I know, right? I've been waiting to use it." Kai grinned. "Now jump, you absolute sphinx, or I'm pushing you."

Maya jumped. The water was shocking and perfect, and when she surfaced, spluttering and laughing, Kai was right beside her, and somewhere in the distance, a cat was probably sleeping on her pillow, and pyramids were just old piles of stone anyway.

"So," Kai said, grinning like she knew something Maya didn't. "You coming to Tyler's actual party tonight? Because he literally just asked where you were."

Maya blinked. "Wait, what?"

"Yeah. Apparently someone noticed the brooding sphinx by the pool." Kai winked. "Told you. Mysterious."