Chapter Eight ~ "The Treasure Hunt"
•Kade Westin•
"Home sweet home!" Kyle exclaimed, as he dropped his bags in front of him and swung his hands wide open as he opened to door to our villa in Crestville.
"Dude, we were on those islands for all of two days," Derek deadpanned.
We had just come home from our trip to the islands, and we were all tired as shit. Of course, except for Kyle, who was always as hyper as a monkey on steroids.
"Shush, Derek, you're ruining the moment." Kyle pouted, childishly.
Shaking at my head at my cousin's antics, I headed upstairs, closely followed by Ian.
As soon as I reached my shared room, I flung the door open, partially glad to have a solid bed to sleep in. I opened my jet-black suitcase and in one swift swing, dumped its contents in my closet. Ian, on the other hand, was methodically placing his clothes, one by one, placing them in individual stacks.
"You know, your mother isn't going to come here and check if her little boy has a clean room," I couldn't help but sneer at his neatness.
"Well, at least my mother taught me how to be neat, unlike yours," he shot back.
Within seconds, I had him up by the collar against the shut door of my closet.
Bringing my face close to his, I said, angrily,"You don't know one fucking thing about my mother, or even about me, so don't make any judgements about her, got it, punk?"
Instead of being terrified of me, like I'd expected, Ian calmly responded,"Then let me get to know you better."
"How?" I said, my eyes widening in surprise, dropping him to his feet.
"Twenty questions. You get to ask me a question and I'll give you an honest answer. Then you can ask me a question and I promise I will give you an honest answer. We can start small"
Narrowing my eyes at him, I agreed, "Fine."
"Okay, you start." Ian shrugged.
"Hometown?" I asked.
Excuse my creativity.
"LA born and LA brought up. Currently living in Boston, though. What's yours?" Ian replied.
"Seattle." I responded, without missing a beat. "Why does Quinn hate you so much?"
"What?" he asked, obviously flustered.
"Oh, come on, Ian. It's blatantly obvious. She hates you and she acts like was forced on this trip on gunpoint." I rolled my eyes.
"Well," he hesitated. "She's not exactly my biological sister."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, my mother married her dad about two years ago, and we don't get along - never have, truth be told." Ian admitted, sheepishly.
"So, you guys were forced on this trip?" I clarified.
"Sorry, but it's already been one question. Don't you know how to count?," Ian said smugly. "So, why do you hate Quinn so much?"
"Well, aren't you a blunt person?"
"Takes one to know one." He shot back.
I smiled. "I think we're gonna get along pretty well."
"Sure hope so. Considering we're stuck in the same room for the next two months. Now, stop avoiding the question. Why do you hate Quinn so much?"
"It's pretty personal, but let's just say, I have had some really bad experiences with people like her." I replied, vaguely.
"People like her?" Ian echoed, surprised, narrowing his eyes at me. "You don't even know her properly. What are you talking about?"
"Sorry, but it's already been one question. Don't you know how to count?" I smirked in triumph.
"Touché."
"My question, were you guys forced on this trip, and by who?" I asked.
"Our parents forced on this trip. It's supposed to be a 'bonding trip'," Ian said, making air quotes with his fingers.
"Sounds like fun," I chuckled.
"Sure is," Ian said, sarcasm dripping from his voice, like honey. "What do you mean people like Quinn?"
"I mean rich spoiled brats who think they own the world. The kind of people who abuse and insult people on a daily basis without so much as giving two shits about other people's feelings." I said, angrily.
"Woah, chill, Quinn isn't as bad as you think she is. Quinn's definitely not a bully. In fact, she's harmless. You should see the way she runs away from bunnies. It's priceless, actually." Ian defended her automatically.
"You seem to be too much on her side for someone who supposedly hates her." I chuckled, bitterly.
"I don't so much hate her, as much as I dislike her for being so mean to my mom." Ian said, softly. "Especially after she had tried to get Quinn to like her. My mom really tried - she did."
"We really are a bunch of fucked up people, aren't we?" I said, bitterly.
Ian opened his mouth to respond when a scream from downstairs came.
"If you two asses are done with your gay love session, lunch is ready," Kyle yelled.
Leave it to him to yell inappropriate comments loud enough for all of Crestville to hear.
"You're just jealous I can bang your cousin and you can't." Ian yelled back.
With a look of approval, I said, smirking, "We are going to be really good friends. I can tell."
•••
After lunch, we laid out a gigantic map of Crestville and its surroundings areas, in the living room, which Shawn, the villa owner, had been kind of enough to leave for us.
"Whew, who knew Crestville could be so big?" Kyra said, as she unfolded the last part of the map.
"Crestville is not the only thing that is big around here," Kyle said, slyly, throwing a thoroughly disgusted Kyra a wink.
"It's okay, Kyle. We all know that you need to reduce your amount of body fat." Kyra smirked, grinning triumphantly.
"Burrrrnnnnnn," I exclaimed, surprised.
Kyra was probably the only girl I knew who had resisted Kyle's advances. That made me actually respect her on some level.
"Oh shut up, and look at the stupid map," Kyle grumbled.
I sent him a look, making sure that he knew that I wanted to talk to him about Kyra and him.
"How about this?" Quinn said, pointing, to an area marked as Amber Valley trails. "We could go hiking here for a couple hours."
"Sure," Ian agreed. "And afterwards, we can head out to eat some place."
Within half an hour, we were ready to go and in the car. The trails were only a short twenty minute drive from the villa.
Like always, I was driving, with Derek as my navigator. Ian's car still hadn't come from the repair shop (something about repainting it), but while we'd been to the islands, Quinn had gotten my car fixed (and paid for the damages, might I add).
About ten minutes into the drive, when we were driving along a desolate highway, Quinn's shrill voice cut through the Fall Out Boy song that was playing.
"Why is that light blinking all red?" Quinn asked, pointing at the dashboard.
When I realized what she was talking about, only one word came out of my mouth.
"Fuck."
"What happened, bro?" Derek asked, his head still in the map.
"Ummm, guys, there's not much gas left." I said, hesitantly.
The noise that my friends/villa-mates created nearly caused me to crash the car, but Quinn's was definitely the loudest.
"What?!?" she shrieked. "What do you mean there's not much gas left!"
"I mean there's not much gas left," I deadpanned, turning off the A/C, in order to conserve some gas.
"Well, how much is there left?" Quinn asked, just as the car pulled to a stop in the middle of the road.
"Well, shit." I cussed, and immediately hopped out of the car.
"Help me push the car to the side," I urged my friends.
"No way! You forget to fill the car up, you get to push it." Derek said.
"Fine, but at least get your fat asses out of the car."
"Pshh, you're just jealous." Kyle said, as they all filed out the car.
"Yeah, of your non-existent dick," I said, sarcastically.
"Ladies present," Quinn said, in a sing song voice.
"Yeah right," I said as I started to push the car to the side of the road.
Grunting, I managed to push it to the side. As I looked up, I caught Quinn staring at my biceps. I felt my lips twitch upwards.
"You should totally take a selfie with my biceps. It'll last longer that way, you know." I told her, smirking.
"Oh, get over yourself." Quinn huffed, looking away.
"I can feel the creativity just oozing from your pea-sized brain," I said smirking.
"Oh shut up," Quinn said, before storming off.
"Quinn, don't walk away, we have to stick together!" Ian reprimanded.
"Chill, would you, Mr. Uptight? It's not like I'm running away or something!" Quinn replied snarkily, before turning back to us.
"Hate to interrupt the little love-fest, but what exactly are we going to do now?" Kyra pointed out. "There's no cell service in this damned area, so it's not like we can exactly call the towing truck guys."
"I am going to kill you," Kyle glared at me.
"You say that everyday." I chuckled.
"Hey, guys, look, there's a car coming." Ian pointed to the road.
Sure enough, a large cerulean blue van was driving our way.
Immediately, we all, including Quinn, started waving our hands like a bunch of maniacs.
Luckily, the van pulled over, out stepped a tall blonde teen-aged boy.
"Busted tire?" he asked, with a crooked grin.
"No fuel." I said, unashamed.
Chuckling, he held out his hand.
"I'm Matthew Sanders, but you can call me Matt." He introduced.
"Kade Westin." I said, gratefully shaking his hand.
By now, two redheads, a girl and a boy, and an Italian girl had stepped out of the car.
"What's up, Matty?" yelled the red-headed boy.
"They need a ride," he yelled in the direction of his friends. Turning back to me, he asked,"We're heading to Amber Valley Trails, for the Annual Crestville Treasure Hunt. Where do you want to go?"
"We're going to the same place actually, but we had no idea there was a treasure hunt." I shrugged.
"Well, what are you waiting for then? You can join us." he gestured to the car.
"Sure."
We followed him to the car and where its inhabitants were waiting. Matt wrapped his arm around the short red-headed girl's waist.
"This is my girlfriend, Sarah Hawkings. Hands and eyes off her." he said, narrowing his eyes at Kyle, who'd already given her a once over.
Kyle held up his hands in surrender.
"Possessive much?" Sarah laughed, lightly, as she rolled her eyes and kissed him on the cheek.
Waving her off, he pointed to the short red headed boy. "This is Sarah's twin brother, Samuel Hawkings."
Samuel nodded at me curtly.
Finally, he pointed at the leggy Italian. "This is Angelica Romero."
"Heyyy," She said, suggestively eyeing me up and down.
I decided this was probably the only I would have some fun. Seeing as I would never do anything with Quinn or Kyra as I still have to endure two more months with them.
"Ciao, mia bella (Hello, my beautiful one.) " I said, in fluent Italian.
My grandfather was Italian, and I'd spent a couple summers in Rome.
"Voi parli Italiano (You speak Italian?)," Angelica asked, mildly surprised.
"Ho trascorso molte estati a Roma (I've spent many summers in Rome.)" I shrugged.
"E ha dato i suoi frutti, vedo (And it has paid off, I see.)" Angelica smirked, giving me a once-over.
Behind us, Quinn cleared her throat. "I'm so sorry to disturb you amazing multilinguists, but us stupid unilinguists would actually like to go now." Her voice dripped with sarcasm and malice.
Angelica cocked an eyebrow at me.
"Lei è solo geloso. (She's just jealous)," I shrugged.
"I think we'll all be able to make it into the car, but it will be a tight fit," Matt said. "I'll drive, and Sam and Sarah can take shotgun, because he's the only guy I trust her with. The rest of you all can somehow manage it the backseat, I guess."
"Gee, thanks. Just stick me with the fat girl," Sam said playfully, but entered the car anyways.
"Pshhh, you're just jealous that I have a better body than you." Sarah said, following him, laughing.
Matt unlocked the back door and we all rushed in. At the end of it, Ian, Kyle and Derek all sat in the back seat, while I was stuck with the three girls. I sat on the window side, with Angelica next to me, and Quinn and Kyra right next to her. Quinn was fuming to have been stuck the middle, even though we all fit in.
Deciding to have a little more fun, I said, "Ehi, Angelica, vuole sedersi sulle mie ginocchia? (Hey, Angelica, want to sit on my lap?"
"Sicuro (Sure)," Angelica smiled, obviously pleased that I was not rejecting her advances.
I watched in triumph as Quinn's jaw dropped when Angelica moved on my lap and made herself very comfortable.
Quinn caught me looking at her and gave me a tight smile before starting a hushed conversation with Kyra. This was going to be one hell of an interesting car ride.
•••
After a short ten minutes, with Angelica seductively moving on my lap, Quinn almost throttling her, and the boys' not so discreet wolf whistles, we managed to reach Amber Valley Trails in one piece.
Matt quickly registered the ten of us and came up to us.
"We're supposed to be teams of maximum three, so we can have two teams of three, and two teams of two. We can draw names out of a hat."
"Sure," Ian said. "Make chits with our names and put two blanks ones."
When it was all finally ready, I said, "To mix things up, Ian, Derek, Kyle and I'll pick chits." The others simply nodded their heads.
On the first round of drawing, Ian got Sarah, much to Matt's disappointment, Kyle got Sam, and Derek got Kyra. When it came my turn to pick, I wiggled my fingers before removing a chit.
Much to my luck, I got Angelica.
I beckoned her over, and she whispered in my ear, "This is going to be fun."
Nodding my head in agreement, I watched the second round. Ian got a blank chit, Derek got Matt, and Kyle got a blank chit.
That meant-
"Look's like we're stuck with Quinn," Angelica sneered, disgustedly, exactly voicing my thoughts.
"Gee, way to make me feel welcome." Quinn sneered as she walked towards us.
As we made our way to get the first clue, I heard Quinn and Angelica bickering the whole way. Leave it to my luck for me to get stuck with two possesive and extremely jealous, proud of themselves girls. They both were so stuck-up and couldn't wait to prove who was better. This was going to be a hell lot of fun (note the sarcasm).
•••
"Are you estupido?"
"Are you delusional?" Quinn countered.
I sighed, and shook my head. Angelica and Quinn have been going on at each other for the past three hours. It's not even amusing any longer.
"Haha, you lost!" Kyle jumped up down when he spotted us.
"Blame them," I pointed at the girls. "They couldn't agree on one thing!"
"Angelica can be . . . well, she's Angelica." Sarah shrugged, smiling sheepishly.
"Aww, Q!" Kyra exclaimed, bounding to her bestfriend.
"What?" Quinn snapped, but her facial features softened when she spotted Kyra. "What?" She repeated, more politely.
Kyra went up and whispered something in her ear. Upon hearing it, Quinn's eyes began sparkling. Soon she burst out laughing. Her melodious laughter echoing around the trail. And for once, I actually liked something about her, which was a shocker, truth be told.
"Okay," Derek said, grabbing everyone's attention. "I suggest we grab a bite to eat. Then, we can call a towing company to get Kade's car back to our villa."
"Sounds fine," Sam exclaimed.
I turned to Matt, "Is there any good eating joints around?"
"Yeah, there are." Matt nodded.
"Most of them are walking distance, too." Sarah added, leaning into Matt.
"Great!" Kyle exclaimed. "I'm starved."
So, we all ended up following Matt and Sam further down the train. Angelica and Sarah were talking in hushed voices and Kyra and Quinn were talking animatedly to each other. Kyle, being the complete idiot he was, he was skipping around.
About ten minutes later, guess what was happening? That's right! Quinn and Angelica were bickering as usual.
"You're so blonde!" Angelica shrieked.
"Excuse you," Quinn sneered. "Your hair is currently blonde, too. The only difference is; is that mine is a natural metallic blonde while your blonde dye is seeping into your head, affecting your brain!"
At this, Kyra bursts out laughing, and Quinn winks at her, playfully. Most of the guys were stifling their laughters, too. They were truly hilarious but after sometime it can get annoying.
"My hair colour is natural!" Angelica exclaimed, outraged.
"It's as natural as your boobs," Quinn snorted. "Oh, wait those aren't natural either, are they? And you're Italian. Do you really expect me to believe that that's your natural colour."
At this point, Angelica is basically fuming. Sarah steps in and talks softly to Angelica, obviously attempting to calm her down.
"Team Boston!" Kyra whispers, loudly, high five-ing Quinn.
•••
XxThat SummerxX
Heya, all you amazing Spongecakers!
How's it going?
I have great news! Summer break just began for us. I've basically been spending my day doing nothing - absolutely nothing. And it feels amazing.
But on a more serious note, I deeply apologise for not updating yesterday (Monday). It completely skipped my mind and we both are sincerely sorry.
Also, just in case it wasn't clear, Angelica is a brunette and when Quinn mentioned that she was a blonde, it was because Angelica had temporarily bleached her hair. But her actual hair is brown.
Anyway, I have nothing else to say! So have an amazing day, fellow Wattpaders!
Until next Monday,
Xoxo,
M&S
XxThat SummerxX
Ps:- Did you know that the earthquake in Nepal caused the Himalayas to shrink by one inch?
Pps:- both of us just dyed our hair!🎉
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