Chapter 5: The Hunt Is On
Photo of Jason
Oceane's P.O.V
Day 1: Friday 8:00am
It was Friday and undoubtedly the hottest day of the summer. So what was I doing? Sitting by the ocean getting a tan and drinking endless amounts of sweet tea? No, I was at the park waiting to start this scavenger hunt, while everyone debated back and forth about this bet.
"I am not getting feathered and walking down the main street!" Courtney said while touching her hair. "I agree, I just got my hair done," Liz said. "Oh, I know! We can-" I cut Jeremy off knowing his answer already. "We are not streaking!" I gave him a look.
With Jeremy, everything always led to some sort of stripping. I loved Jeremy to death, he was like a brother, but he was a huge player among the girls at school. "You're no fun, O" Jeremy said with a pout. I just shook my head in response. Jeremy and Liz had recently thought it would be fun to start calling me O. They said I needed a nickname and since my name couldn't be shortened, O it was. Plus Jeremy kept calling me wave like Levi and I swore I would dunk his head in a toilet if he did it again.
"Look someone needs to come up with something, were wasting time." I was getting absolutely frustrated. We had been standing here for over an hour fighting on this issue. "I have one, whichever team loses, the first day of school the male partner has to dress in drag. The girl has to profess her undying love for Principal Bradley." Jeremy said with a smirk. I sat there with my jaw dropped. The fact Jeremy had come up with the bet was shocking enough, but even more shocking thing was people were agreeing with it. "I guess we have our bet then. Everyone spit shake on it." Jason said holding out his hand.
All the boys spat in their hands and held it out. I exchanged looks with the rest of the girls. "ugh, really guys, what are you 5? Do we really need to spit shake on this?" I said giving them my best pout. "Yes, we have too!" Liam said with a smile. I instantly melted. Why is he so cute? "Fine" I nodded my head and spit in my hand.
After loads of hand sanitizer, Liz and Jeremy read of the partners. Liz began calling out the names. I slowly prayed I would be partners with Liam. "Courtney and James, Natalie and Lucas, Mia and Liam" My heart stopped when I heard that Liam was partnered with Mia. It was nothing against Mia, I just wanted to be his partner. "Lauren and Jason, Jeremy and I, and Oceane and Levi," Liz said with a smile and ran over to Jeremy.
I actually facepalmed when I heard who I was partnered with. I thought it was some kind of joke at first. Though Liz running to Jeremy was a dead giveaway, that it wasn't. How could it even be possible? I groaned and tried to count to ten. I grabbed Liz and pulled her aside.
"You're not serious!" I whispered to Liv. Counting to ten never works, not to mention my tendency to be over dramatic. "I'm sorry, look it just happened" Liv gave a half smile. "That's a load of shit! You guys totally left me out to dry" I whispered and used my angriest tone. "We picked out of a hat!" Liv shot back. "There is no way in hell I'm working with that prick," I said as my voice began to raise. "You can't back out now. We all promised to do it not matter what. Otherwise, you automatically lose. Do you really want to lose this bet?" She gave me a pointed look. "Fine, but if I commit murder it's on you!" I grabbed the printout of the task list and stalked off to where Levi stood with a smirk plastered on his face.
"Levi" I gave a sneer. "Wave" He gave me a smug smile. Ugh, we were going to lose big time. "Look, I think we need to make a truce. I personally don't want to express the nonexistent love for our principal. I also highly doubt that you want to be remembered as the kid who showed up in drag on his first day." I gave him a pointed look. "Fine, spit shake on it?" He smirked at me. "Ugh, you're truly impossible!" I huffed out and faced the rest of the group, who were all staring.
"Wow, watching you guys makes me feel pretty confident were going to win," Jason said and nudged Lauren. Everyone started to laugh and I glared. All this only fueled my competitive nature. I mean I was horrible in sports, always have been, but put me in front of monopoly and I would crush you within an hour. I really needed to get out more apparently.
"Okay, everyone knows the rules?" Levi asked. Everyone nodded slowly. "Alright, everyone is to meet back here on Monday morning at 8:00 sharp. Don't be late!" Liz said giving everyone a look. "The Hunt is on," Liz said and everyone quickly ran off.
"Great, we're already behind! We were too busy fighting!" I screamed. "Don't blame me! You take things way too seriously." He said in a long southern drawl. Normally I would melt at the sound of his accent, but he was irritating. "Whatever let's just see what one to do first," I said and rolled my eyes. I peered down at the list.
1. Start a food fight in a classy restaurant
2. Camp out in the middle of the forest for a night
3. Dance on the bar in a nightclub
4. Find a sand dollar
5. Steal a Church sign from another town
6. Serenade a random couple
7. Have a photo of two random strangers kissing your cheeks
8. Wax (male) teammates body hair
9. Dress a fire hydrant
10. Go into a mall water fountain and swim
11. Caution tape off a local business and make a chalk outline of a body.
12. Find someone with a mullet
13. Find the oldest grave in the Graveyard
14. Go bungee jumping
15. Give an old person a sponge bath
"Who in gods name created this list? We're never going to be able to complete all of these!" Levi said snatching the list from me and shaking it in my face. I slapped it out of my face. "All of us did! Look if we come up with a game plan we could win this!" I said. "You come up with a game plan, I'm going to start the list," Levi said walking off. "Really great teamwork," I called after him.
I caught up heaving a bit. I really needed to exercise more, swimming in the ocean just is not cutting it. "Where are you going?" I asked, as I finally caught my breath. "We may as well start looking for a sand dollar. We'll have more luck, you know since we have a private beach." He said continuing to walk to his car. "Oh, then I can grab some camping gear and other stuff we might need while you look," I said with a smile.
"Who said I was digging in the sand? You can look, I will grab the stuff." He said hopping into his car and speeding off. Well, I guess I better start preparing my announcement to Principal Bradley.
***
My life had been thrown into the depths of hell. Not only because it was the hottest day of the summer and I was dripping sweat. It had been an hour we still hadn't found a sand dollar. After spending thirty minutes fighting about who would grab the stuff we needed, we settled on rock, paper, scissors. I thankfully won, although it was short-lived. When I finally came back to the beach to find Levi was still searching.
So an hour later and all we had to show were broken shells. "This is hopeless, it's so rare to find a sand dollar." I huffed out. "Well, if you didn't stop every ten seconds to complain we might find one," Levi said shooting sand at me. "Whatever, all I'm saying is the only time I have ever seen a sand dollar is at Mini's trinket shop." I gave him a glare. Then suddenly a light bulb went off. "What the hell is Mini's?" Levi said completely oblivious as always. "Let me see the task sheet," I said jumping up. "Why? Nothing changed on it." Levi rolled his eyes. "Just hand it over." Levi handed it to me and I snatched it up.
"Rude much?" I tuned Levi out and looked down at the list. I knew it! "I know where to find the sand dollar!" I said running off to my car, where I had packed everything in earlier. Levi chased after me. "What are you talking about?" Levi said as we reached the car. "And since when did we decide we were using your car?" He added as he hopped in the jeep.
I screeched out of the driveway and speed to the main street. "You need to slow down! You almost killed me once, let's not make it a habit." Levi was gripping on to the holy shit handle for dear life. Was it wrong it made me happy to see him uneasy? "I will explain when we get there."
Levi's P.O.V
The way Oceane was driving, she definitely had a job in Nascar. The car suddenly stopped with a jerk forward. "Jesus christ, could you be any more reckless?" She hopped out of the car without a word. Are you kidding me! She was so frustrating. I ran a hand through my hair and followed her into the store. As I walked through the store my earlier question was answered. Mini's Trinkets was a tourist shop.
I looked around trying to find Oceane. The store was small and cluttered. I continued walking through the store. Racks had been filled with different T-shirts that had the town's name on it. Bathing suits, towels, and different beach toys were placed in the back corner. Along the back wall, I noticed Oceane shifting through different bins. As I got closer I realized the bins were filled with different types shells, starfish, different things found in the ocean. I looked over Oceane's shoulder and was shocked.
As if sensing it was me Oceane spoke for the first time since we arrived. "The list wasn't specific on where we had to find the sand dollar." She smiled up at me. It was the first time I had seen her smile. She had a beautiful smile that reached her deep blue eyes. I shook the weird feeling. "I have to give it to you, that was pretty smart," I smiled down at her. "Well, I'm not all looks." She smirked and turned to take a photo. Well, that was a nice moment while it lasted.
"Okay, I'm going to pay for this and then we can move on to the next task." She walked away to the women who I'm guessing was Mini. I couldn't help but think maybe we could win this thing. If we were able to put our differences aside and work together.