The Vitamin Water Pyramid

Maya's older cousin Jaheim had sworn this was the perfect side hustle. "You're not just selling vitamin supplements, cuz. You're building your empire. A pyramid, but the good kind." Maya had nodded, already calculating how many limited-edition sneakers she could buy if this actually worked.

Now she stood in the cafeteria, clutching a bright yellow box of Feel-Great Greens while trying to look casual. Across the room, the sphinx himself—Lucas, who'd transferred from Chicago in September and hadn't spoken more than ten words total—sat alone with his sketchbook. He was beautiful in this quiet, unsettling way, like he knew things nobody else did. Maya's friends called him "the sphinx" because you had to solve a riddle just to get him to make eye contact.

"You got that cable money yet?" her best friend Kiana whispered, sliding into the seat beside her. "Because if I have to hear my mom lecture me about screen time ONE MORE TIME—"

"I'm working on it," Maya hissed, smoothing her oversized hoodie. Her phone buzzed. Dallas, the junior varsity quarterback, had posted a story. A fox. A literal fox on his back porch, looking directly at the camera with these knowing golden eyes. Everyone was commenting: "a foxy fox," "the fox is you," "attention seeker."

"He's trying way too hard," Maya said, but her stomach did this stupid little flip.

She spotted her opportunity: the popular table, where everyone was complaining about being tired from practice, from finals, from life. This was it. Her moment. She'd stride over, drop some casual knowledge about how the vitamin B complex in Feel-Great Greens had literally changed her cousin's whole life, watch them beg for her contact info, and finally afford the new AirPods she'd been coveting for six months.

But when she reached their table, Lucas looked up from his sketchbook. Their eyes met. He didn't look away. He didn't smile. He just... watched her, like the fox in Dallas's story, knowing something she didn't.

Maya's throat went dry. She set the vitamin box on the table with a heavy thud. "So, uh, who's tired?"

The pyramid scheme collapsed by lunch period. She'd sold exactly two boxes—one to Kiana out of pity, one to this sophomore who thought they were protein powder. But Lucas had drawn something in his sketchbook before he left. A fox-faced sphinx sitting atop a pyramid made of vitamin boxes, holding a cable like it was a jump rope.

He slid it onto her table without a word.

Maya stared at it for a long time, then took out her phone and snapped a picture. Her caption read: "at least i'm predictable lol."

Dallas commented: "??"

Lucas liked the post.