Just a Chance - A Michael Clifford Fanfic

Chapter 22 - The Scavenger Hunt

I was driving to the beach, getting mostly distracted from the road while trying to figure this out. I kept swerving and almost hit the car in front of me, and Addy had to even remind me to look at the road a few times. We finally got to the beach, and I immediately got out of the car and walked over to the sand with Addy.

"Kylie, what if the mystery person wants us to sit where we were last time we played iSpy?" Addy asked, looking at me as if she really wanted to help. I thought about that for a minute, then realized she was right.

"Addy, you're a genius." It took me a minute to remember where we were, parallel from the pier. We sat down, and started playing.

"I spy... Something clear." She said after a bit, looking directly at the ground. I followed her eyes, and found a cork sticking out of the sand. I stood up and walked over to it, bending down and digging, pulling a small bottle out of the ground, in it was a piece of paper.

Hopefully you found this, I don't know beaches are risky. But if you did, congrats you are now on your way to a scavenger hunt, kind of. If you didn't, well this sucks. But, we rode something together, and you didn't enjoy it the first time 'around'.

I read the message over and over, not getting it at first.

"Round... First time around... Riding something, dear god I don't know." I mumbled to myself, looking around to see any rides. I took my phone out and called Ashton.

"Hey Kylie, what's up?" He said after the second ring.

"Hey Ash. I'm on this, wild, I don't know, scavenger hunt or something. I'm at the first location and looking at the clue, but I have no idea what it means."

"What is it? Do you want me to come down?"

"I mean if you want to, I can show you the thing. It's in a bottle and everything." I said, sounding sarcastic at the end.

"You at the beach? That's what I think of when there are messages in bottles. I'll be there soon." He said, laughing a bit then hanging up. Addy and I sat back down, and she started drawing in the sand with a stick. I was reading the paper over and over, then stared at the sky.

"Boo!" Ashton yelled, jumping out of nowhere and scaring me.

"Jesus Ashton you scared the shit out of me." I said, my hand over my chest feeling the quickened heartbeat.

"Alright so, what's the clue?" He asked, helping Addy and I stand up. I gave it to her so she could read it, good practice since she's a slow learner. She read it out, only needing help with a few words. Ashton started to think, then looked around.

"Shit I haven't a - wait, didn't you hate the first ferris wheel ride with Michael and Calum?" He asked, looking at me. I thought for a minute and it made perfect sense, face palming.

"I should've known, okay well Addy with vouch for me in the fact that I shouldn't drive, this hunt's got my brain scattered. Take us there?" I asked.

"Kylie there isn't another carnival, so even if there is a note there where the hell would we look?" He asked, and I shrugged and started to walk to his car. He and Addy followed, Addy holding his hand.

***

"Kylie, I told you, nothing's here, this is a bust." Ashton said as we stood in the middle of a huge, deserted carnival venue parking lot. We had to hop the fence surrounding the actual carnival machinery, leaving Addy on the outside so she could keep watch.

"No, Ashton there has to be something here I mean what would this be for?" I said, looking around and landing my eyes on the ferris wheel. 

"Oh what, does he want us to start up the ferris wheel and have us check every car?" He said mockingly, when I looked at him with a slight smile. "No, no no no I was joking." He said, shaking his hands and walking backwards. I followed him, heading for the ferris wheel. We finally got there, and we figured out where all the employees hide their keys. I turned it on, hoping it didn't cause too much attention.

"This is kind of fun, I admit." I said, my eyes following all the different cars.

"Does he really want us to check every car?" Ashton asked, sounding the opposite of amused. I stood there thinking, then an idea popped into my head and I started clapping my hands.

"No, he wants me to ride the same car we did all those nights ago. How the hell am I supposed to remember that?" I said, starting to feel deflated again.

"Well, I was on a green car, so whatever color's next could be it." He said, shrugging.

"Ash, there are like 4 green cars. That could take a while."

"I'm sure Michael's got time." He said skeptically. "Here, you take two cars and I'll take the other two. Cut the time in half." I nodded and walked up to where we got on the cars, getting on first. I looked around my car, and found nothing. Ashton didn't find anything either, so we got off and waited for the other two. Halfway through my second search, I heard Addy calling us.

"Guys, guys there are people coming! They look mad!" I swiveled my head to see her, and she was jumping up and down and pointing.

"Shit." I whispered to myself, and suddenly the ride stopped. "Shit!" I said again, panicking.

"Kylie you're going to have to climb down, there's small grooves in the machine for your hands and feet to fit in, just pretend it's a ladder it'll be okay." Ashton said below me. Of course I was stuck at the top. I started getting nervous, looking down at all the metal and the ground below me. I started to climb down, shaking. I looked up as I was halfway down, and saw a paper taped to the bottom of the car.

"Oh you've got to be shitting me." I said, and reached up and grabbed it, climbing the rest of the way down.

"Guys they're getting closer!" Addy said, pointing to the two employees running to the ferris wheel. Ashton was already at the bottom, and I was a few feet away.

"Think fast." I yelled to Ashton, letting go and falling to him. He caught me, and we ran towards the fence, climbing over that and running with Addy. We got straight into Ashton's car, starting it and not hesitating a second to get out of there.

"Damn, all that for a little piece of paper. What's in it?" Ashton said, panting slightly. I opened the crumpled paper carefully and read it out loud;

Odd spot for some clues, hope you didn't get hurt. But aha, you have found me, or the note rather. Hopefully. Anyway, we shared a special moment at home. What a memory.

It ended there, but that was a dead giveaway. Ashton drove straight to my house, and I walked to the backyard. I looked all over the grill, and found nothing. I opened the doors at the base of the grill, and looked inside, turning over the tanks of gasoline. There I found a note taped behind the tank, opened it and read it.

Sucky at writing them, good at hiding. Now, this hasn't anything to do with us, but I'm running out of options given my shit memory. Earlier today you were at the park. Why don't you go back and play?

I looked at Ashton, utterly confused.

"I was at the park only a few short hours ago, how does he know?" I asked. He looked around, then bending over a bit.

"Maybe he's following us." Ashton said. I shrugged, and turned to Addy.

"Wanna go back to the park?" I asked.