The Sphinx's Palm Reading

Maya's palms were sweating so much she could've watered plants. Her first high school party, and she was cornered by Leo—the senior everyone called Sphinx because he never gave straight answers and supposedly knew everyone's secrets.

"Let me see," Leo said, grabbing her hand. His nail polish was chipped black. "You're scared. But not of the party."

Maya pulled away. "You don't know me."

"Sphinx knows all." He grinned, way too pleased with himself. "You'll have a fox encounter. And a baseball will change your life."

"Wow. Cool fortune cookie."

"Twenty bucks says I'm right."

Maya rolled her eyes but couldn't resist. "Fine. What's a fox encounter even mean?"

"You'll know."

She spent the next hour dodging drunk juniors and checking her phone like her notifications mattered. Then she spotted Chelsea—aka The Fox, because she'd somehow managed to date three guys on the baseball team simultaneously without any of them finding out.

Chelsea was sitting alone on the back porch, looking nothing like the social butterfly everyone described.

"You're Sphinx's latest victim, huh?" Chelsea called out. "He told me my cat would die senior year. Still waiting."

Maya sat. "He said I'd have a fox encounter and a baseball would change my life."

Chelsea laughed, and it was genuine. "That's actually sweet. In a weird way."

They talked for two hours about everything—parents who didn't get it, the pressure to be perfect, how much it sucked that everyone expected them to have their whole lives figured out at fifteen.

"I'm not actually a fox," Chelsea said finally. "I just... made mistakes. And the nickname stuck."

"I'm not actually scared of parties," Maya admitted. "Just scared no one will like the real me."

The back door flew open. A baseball from the backyard game came rolling onto the porch, followed by three guys from the team.

"Hey Chelsea," one called. "You coming back?"

She looked at Maya, something uncertain in her eyes.

"Yeah," Chelsea said. "But I'm taking Maya with me."

As they walked inside, Maya caught Leo's eye across the room. He winked.

Damn it. Sphinx was right. The fox wasn't what she thought, and the baseball hadn't changed anything—it was just a ball. What changed was that for the first time, she'd been real with someone.

Her phone buzzed. A text from Chelsea: "Tonight wasn't weird, right?"

Maya smiled, palms dry for the first time all night. "Not even a little."