The Sphinx in Room 204

Maya felt like a straight-up **zombie** walking into third period. She'd stayed up until 3 AM doom-scrolling through Kai's Instagram, analyzing whether his story about the moon meant something deep or if he just liked space. Now here she was, operating on coffee fumes and anxiety, wearing her favorite **orange** hoodie because Kai had once said it made her look "vibrant." She'd been thinking about that compliment for two weeks straight.

"You good?" asked Sam, sliding into the desk beside her. "You look dead."

"Just tired," Maya mumbled, feeling her face heat up. The whole first-love thing was exhausting. She felt like she was solving some ancient riddle, trapped like she was facing a literal **sphinx** demanding answers she didn't have. Does he like me? Was that smile real or polite? What does it mean when he watches my stories but never replies?

Mr. Henderson announced their partner project: create something mythical, present Monday. Maya's stomach dropped. She wanted to be paired with Kai, but the universe clearly hated her.

"Maya," someone said. She looked up. Kai. Standing there. In all his **orange**-sneaker glory.

"Wanna be partners?" He rubbed the back of his neck, actually nervous. "I saw your Egyptian art project last year. It was sick."

The **sphinx** riddles in her brain went silent. "Yeah," she heard herself say. "Yeah, absolutely."

He sat beside her, close enough that their elbows touched. "I was thinking we could do something about the sphinx," he said. "You know, the riddles. The mystery." He looked at her then, really looked at her. "I feel like everything's a riddle lately. Like, you never know what people actually mean."

Maya's heart did something illegal in her chest. "Yeah," she said softly. "I feel that too."

"Maybe we should just ask," Kai said, half to himself.

"Ask what?"

"What we mean. Instead of guessing." He turned fully toward her. "Like, I've been trying to figure out if you want to get boba after school, but I didn't want to be weird about it."

The zombie exhaustion evaporated. "I would love that," she said, and it came out confident, real.

Kai's grin was everything. "Cool. Cool cool." Some sphinx had just been defeated somewhere.

Sam whispered from the next desk: "Did that just happen? Did you just get asked out through a school project metaphor?"

Maya couldn't stop smiling. "I think I just did." She looked at Kai, who was already looking back. Some riddles didn't need sphinx-level solving. Sometimes you just had to ask.

The bell rang, but for once, Maya wasn't tired anymore.