The Sphinx of Homecoming Court

Maya pressed her sweaty **palm** against her dress, feeling like a total imposter among the glittering crowd. Homecoming Court voting had just closed, and somehow—through some cosmic joke or glitch in the social matrix—she'd actually made the ballot. She stood near the refreshment table, basically **spying** on her own life, watching kids argue over whether to vote for her or Chloe, the girl whose Instagram posts got more likes than the school's official page.

The booth in the corner caught her eye—Madame Zora's Fortune Teller setup, complete with tacky purple curtains and a crystal ball that was definitely plastic from Amazon. Maya adjusted her ridiculous fedora—don't ask, her friends had dared her—wishing she could disappear under the giant **hat** entirely. But something pulled her toward that cheesy fortune teller station like a moth to a very suspicious flame.

"Step forward, seeker," croaked a voice that was definitely doing too much with the theatrics. Maya peeked through the curtains to find... Leo. THE Leo. Junior class heartthrob, varsity soccer captain, the guy whose smile made half the sophomore girls forget basic English. He was wearing a turban made from what looked like a bedsheet.

"The **sphinx** demands your question," Leo said, in what was possibly the worst fortune-teller voice ever recorded.

Maya almost walked out. Almost. But then Leo's real face cracked through the character—this sheepish, totally-not-cool expression that made something in her chest do a weird little flip.

"Okay, real talk," he whispered. "I have no idea what I'm doing. My mom made me work this booth. Want to split some stolen punch and pretend we're mysterious?"

And that's how Maya ended up sitting cross-legged behind a fortune teller's table with the most popular guy in school, both of them making up increasingly ridiculous predictions for nervous freshmen while accidentally spilling fruit punch on a very expensive dress.

"You will meet a tall stranger," Leo told some freshman boy, deadpan. "He will ask for your homework. Do not give it to him."

Later, when they somehow ended up winning King and Queen—because apparently the universe loved plot twists—Maya leaned toward him during the coronation photo.

"Hey Leo?" she whispered. "The sphinx was right about one thing."

"What's that?"

"The unexpected happens when you stop spying from the sidelines."

He actually blushed. It was kind of perfect.