Enlightened

Chapter 3

“Really, what kind of treasure hunt?” I asked.

“Oh, I don’t know, some kind of girl thing I guess … no offense,” he seemed a little unenthused.

“None taken, who knows maybe it will be fun,” I replied.

“Yeah, I’m sure it will be fun even without treasure,” Tyler said.

Like clockwork, he arrived at 8:30 p.m. with Matthew in tow. The chrome accents on his white truck gleamed in defiance of the moonless night. I gazed silently at it for a moment before I realized Stefanie hadn’t shown up yet.

“Where’s Stef?” I asked the boys.

“She’s getting some jewels for us to use tonight,” Matthew announced.

“Yeah, this should be exciting,” Tyler smirked.

“Is she getting real jewels?” I raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

“Na, I don’t think so. She said something about stopping at the rock shop in the mall and getting some of those polished rocks for this little shindig,” Matthew filled me in.

“Oh, well — that makes more sense.” I nodded at the explanation.

Just a few minutes later Stefanie pulled into the driveway in her brand new SUV, which her father just bought her. We all gathered around and “oohed and awed” over her new vehicle.

“Wow, Stef this is sharp!” I gushed.

I could hear the boys behind me mumbling … “Must be nice.”

“I know, I know, isn’t it just awesome!!!” Stefanie squealed with excitement, and stepped out of the vehicle with four little bags of polished rocks after she’d bragged about all of the gadgets in her new vehicle.

“Okay, so here’s what we’re gonna do,” she began, while handing a bag of rocks to each of us. “We’re gonna each take a bag of jewels and we’re gonna hide ‘em, then we’ll get our flashlights and go on a treasure hunt. And no finding the same jewels you hid, Matthew,” Stefanie teased.

“Sounds like fun,” I said.

“Oh, and whoever finds the most is the winner,” Stefanie added.

“Alright, now we have a competition,” Tyler joined in, finally on board with the treasure hunt idea.

“Are we playing as partners or individually?” Matthew asked.

“We can partner up, that will be even more fun. Baylie, you and Tyler can be partners, and Matthew and I will be partners,” Stefanie announced.

“Okay!” Tyler and I both said in unison then smiled at each other.

The thought popped into my head — maybe Stefanie has a secret crush on Matthew, or perhaps she knew about my feelings for Tyler, even though I hadn’t told her. It seemed as though she volunteered the pairing this way, without any hesitation whatsoever.

There was very little moon light to see by and even less breeze. The night air was heavy and humid, so much so, that when Tyler grabbed a hold of my hand and said, “Come on let’s get started,” I knew his sweaty palms had nothing to do with me, it was just the humidity.

My palms had two reasons to sweat — the humidity and him.

“Come on, hurry up,” Tyler pulled on my hand.

“Okay, I’m trying to keep up. You know we’re not playing for gold, these are just rocks, right?” I teased.

“I know, but you know how much I hate to lose. We can win this easy.” Tyler’s competitive nature took control of him.