The Sphinx of Summer

Maya's palms were sweating, and not from the summer heat.

She'd been **running** track since seventh grade, literal circles around everyone else. But this? This was different territory. The invitation to Jake's pool party had been the highlight of her week, and now, standing at the gate in her new swimsuit, she felt like she'd forgotten how to be a normal human being.

"Maya! You made it!" Jake waved from the pool, water droplets glistening on his shoulders. "Come on in!"

She forced a smile. "Yeah, totally! Just, uh, admiring the landscaping."

Great. Now she sounded like she was forty.

In the middle of the pool floated a massive inflatable **sphinx**—the kind of ridiculous party store purchase that made no sense but somehow made perfect sense for Jake. Its painted-on eyes seemed to judge her from across the water.

"That thing is watching me," Maya mumbled, stepping onto the deck.

"It's definitely plotting something," agreed Chloe, emerging from the water with mascara-smudged eyes. "Jake found it at some discount warehouse. Said it spoke to him."

Maya laughed nervously. The cable-knit bracelet she'd made in craft class last year twisted around her wrist—why had she worn it? It was practically screaming 'I try too hard.'

"You **swimming**?" Chloe asked, flicking water at her. "Or just observing from a distance?"

"Oh, I'm—definitely getting in. Just waiting for the right moment."

What was wrong with her? She could win state finals in the 400-meter dash without blinking, but here she was, paralyzed by the prospect of social interaction. The real sphinx's riddle had nothing on navigating sophomore year without making everything awkward.

Then Jake swam over, ducking under the floating sphinx's wing like it was completely normal to have Egyptian mythology at a pool party. "Maya, your form's all wrong," he teased, splashing her.

"My form's perfect, actually," she shot back before she could overthink it. "State champion, remember?"

"Then show me what you've got in the water."

Maya realized she was done **running**—from the pool, from Jake, from whatever this weird electric tension was that kept drawing them together at parties and school events but never quite connecting.

She jumped.

The water was cold, shocking her system into clarity. She surfaced, sputtering, to find Jake grinning like she'd just passed some test she hadn't known she was taking.

"See?" he said. "Not so terrible."

Maya slicked her hair back, finally feeling like herself. "Yeah. Not terrible at all."

The sphinx floated above them, its painted smile suddenly feeling a lot less judgmental.