The Sphinx of Riverside Pool

Chloe's phone buzzed in her pocket as she stood at the edge of Riverside Pool, chlorine stinging her nose. Summer before sophomore year, and somehow she'd ended up at Jake Miller's party despite the fact that Jake had made her life miserable in seventh grade.

"You coming in or what?" Maya called from the water, doing that annoying thing where she splashed with both hands like a synchronized swimmer on crack.

"Yeah, just," Chloe started, but then she saw it: on the pool house roof, someone had constructed a beer can pyramid—like, twelve tiers high. Jake stood beneath it, wearing that cable-knit sweater he thought made him look artsy, holding court with the popular kids.

"That's actually impressive," said this guy Leo, who'd moved to town last month and apparently didn't know the social hierarchy yet.

Jake scoffed. "Took us all morning. My dad's gonna flip when he sees his summer ale gone, but whatever."

And then Chloe was **swimming** through the air, no wait that was just her stomach dropping, because Jake was pointing at her.

"Yo, Homeschool Girl! Bet you can't make it to the top without knocking it over."

The group went silent. This was it—she could walk away, let him win, be the quiet girl who avoided conflict like she'd done all year. Or...

Chloe set her phone on a lounge chair. Her hands were shaking but her voice didn't wobble. "What's the wager?"

Jake's face did this thing where he couldn't tell if she was joking. "If you knock it over, you have to—" he thought for a second "—wear that sphinx bikini bottom from the lost and found all week at school."

Someone whistled. Someone else fake-gagged. The lost and found sphinx bottoms were legendary—rumor was, a senior Egyptian-exchanged student had left them freshman year, and they'd been haunting the bin ever since, gold lamé with sequined eyes.

"And if I make it?" Chloe asked.

Jake grinned. "You won't. But sure, if you somehow manage not to destroy my masterpiece, I'll shout everyone pizza AND admit I'm full of bull."

Chloe climbed onto the roof. The cans wobbled in the wind. Her knees shook. But she moved with this weird calm she hadn't felt in years, visualizing each step like Ms. Rodriguez had taught in drama club before funding got cut.

She placed her right foot. Then her left. Three tiers up. Six. Nine. Her breath hitched—she was twelve feet off the ground, and the pyramid trembled beneath her weight.

Someone gasped. Someone else started filming.

Chloe didn't look down. She thought about the sphinx riddle from English class last semester—what walks on four legs, then two, then three? She was seventeen now and still figuring out how to stand on her own two feet without folding into everyone else's expectations.

The top can wobbled. She reached out, steady as anything, and placed her hand on it.

Silence. Then Maya screaming from the pool below.

Jake's face was doing something complicated. Then he started laughing, not mean but—genuinely? "Okay, okay, you got me. Pizza's on me. And I'm full of bull, obviously."

Chloe climbed down, heart hammering against her ribs like it wanted out. She felt different. Lighter. Like she'd finally swum to the surface after holding her breath forever.

Maya ran over, dripping wet, and grabbed her arm. "That was actually iconic." She paused. "Also, can you teach me how to climb like that?"

Chloe looked at the pyramid, at Jake already calling the pizza place, at Leo filming everything for TikTok. She thought about the sphinx bottoms she wouldn't have to wear, about the fact that she'd stood twelve feet off the ground in front of half the sophomore class and hadn't fallen.

"Yeah," Chloe said, and something in her voice surprised her—steady, sure, like she'd known all along. "I think I can teach you that."