The Sphinx Spinach Incident

Maya's hair refused to cooperate. Again. She'd spent forty-five minutes trying to tame the frizz that made her look like a startled poodle, all because Jordan had finally noticed her existence. Well, noticed her enough to ask if she wanted to study together at the library after school. Study. As if. Everyone knew Jordan only studied during finals week, and even then, it was questionable.

"You're going to bear it," her best friend Riley said, flopping across Maya's bed while checking her reflection. "Like, literally bear it. The hair, I mean. It's giving main character energy."

"Easy for you to say. You didn't get spinach stuck in your braces while talking to your crush last week." Maya groaned, applying yet another layer of gel. "I'm still recovering from that disaster. Now I have to face Jordan looking like this?"

Riley snorted. "That spinach incident was iconic. And Jordan probably doesn't even remember. They're, like, the human equivalent of a sphinx. Mysterious. Unreadable. Definitely not obsessing over your dental hygiene failures."

The library was packed when they arrived. Maya's stomach did backflips when she spotted Jordan at their usual table, surrounded by what looked like algebra notes but were definitely drawings of dog-headed people.

"Hey!" Jordan's face lit up. Okay, maybe Riley was right about the sphinx thing, because this expression was definitely readable. "I saved you a seat."

Maya's brain short-circuited. She sat down, immediately knocked her backpack over, and watched in horror as a bag of baby spinach she'd packed for a "healthy snack" spilled everywhere. Across the table. Onto Jordan's notes.

"Oh my GOD," Maya whispered, face burning. "I am so sorry. I'm literally the worst."

Jordan stared at the spinach-covered drawing of Anubis, then burst out laughing. Not polite laughing. Full-on, snort-laughing.

"This is actually perfect," Jordan said, wiping tears from their eyes. "I was trying to decide whether to ask you to help me with the mythology project or just to get boba after this. Now I don't have to choose."

Maya blinked. Her hair was still messy. There was spinach everywhere. But Jordan was smiling at her like she'd just solved an ancient riddle.

"Boba sounds good," Maya said, finally smiling back. "But I'm never eating spinach in public again."