We've all been bored for days. Peter's been studying nonstop for his exams, and Jax, Lincoln, and Orion have been working. Sam's been practicing his flute—something about a concert or something—so it's just been Dev and I.
We sit on the couch in the den right now. Dev has the tv on, but I'm reading a book. I turn to the next page when Peter comes tramping down the stairs. He falls onto the couch next to Dev and sighs.
"My brain hurts."
"Are you done studying for now?" Dev asks.
"Yeah, but now I wanna do something that makes me forget about everything I just learned." Peter rubs his head. "Who knew summer school would be this stressful."
"Literally everybody," Dev says. He turns off the tv. "But I have an idea." His eyes light up, and Peter starts blushing.
Which grabs my attention because how can someone look so adorable while blushing? I shake my head, snapping myself out of it. I see Peter glance at me before biting his lip, grabbing Dev's hand, and pulling him out of the room.
It's around lunchtime when I finally get up to get some food. I notice that no one has come down to get food, so they must be hungry. I see some bread on the counter and grab the turkey, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mustard from the fridge. I make seven sandwiches, one for each of the boys, and one for me. I put turkey on six of them, leaving it off of Orion's. I leave the tomatoes off of Sam's. No mustard on Peter's, Lincoln's, or mine.
I eat mine quickly before wrapping each in a napkin and putting them on a plate. I take the sandwiches to Orion's office first. I see his closed door and gently knock.
"Come in," he calls.
I open the door, and he smiles when he sees me. He gestures to the phone next to his ear as he leans back in his chair.
I do have to say. He looks good in a suit.
I place the top sandwich on his desk and turn to leave, but I feel a tug on my wrist. I turn around and watch as Orion leans up and kisses me on the cheek before sitting back down and talking on his phone.
I feel my face heat, and I get out of the room before he can see the smile on my face. I shake my head as I climb the stairs, trying to get the smile off of my face. I stop by Jax and Lincoln's rooms next. Similar things happen with them too, and it makes me happy. I get to Sam's room, and I knock again.
This time though, Sam opens the door with a smile on his face. "Hey. I was just coming downstairs because I got hungry."
I hold out a sandwich for him.
He unwraps it. "Thanks, but I don't like—"
"Tomatoes. I know. I left them off."
"Thanks."
I shrug.
"What have you been doing all day?" he asks.
I shrug again, feeling very introverted today. "Reading." I hold up the two leftover sandwiches. "I have two more to deliver."
"To who?"
"Peter and Dev."
"I'll come with. I need a break from practicing anyway."
I nod and lead the way to Peter's room. The door is closed, so I knock and hear some kind of commotion inside. I get a little panicky when I realize that my stuff is in there and that they could be touching it and messing it up and trashing it and hiding it and stealing it—
The door opens, and Dev squeezes himself out before closing the door behind him again. He glances at me before looking at Sam. "Hey, guys. What's up?" he asks, pretending to be calm. He even leans against the doorway and crosses his arms.
"What are you two up to in there?" Sam asks, sounding like he already knows.
I see Sam give him some kind of look before glancing at me and then glaring at Dev.
Dev grins.
"Is everything okay?" I ask.
Sam snaps out of it. "Yeah. Everything's fine." He grabs the two sandwiches. "Why don't I give these to Pete and Dev? You can go downstairs and read some more."
I raise an eyebrow at him and Dev, who I now notice has a dark mark on his neck. "Okay," I draw out. I head down the stairs, taking my time. I hear the door open and close again before silence. But then there's a thump.
Are Dev and Peter dating? That would make sense. You can't keep all these attractive people in the same house without at least one person dating another.
For some reason, though, I don't like it. Peter kissed me. I thought he liked me. I guess I was wrong. But then again, who could ever like me? No one has ever been interested in me before. I got my own hopes up thinking about Peter like that. I won't do that again.
I plop down on the couch and open my book again.
.~:*:~.
It's right after dinner when Orion announces that everyone is to get into the car. Confused, Jax, Lincoln, Sam, and I follow Orion into the car. Orion starts the car and starts driving around the neighborhood.
"What's going on?" Jax asks.
Orion shrugs but pulls an envelope out of his pocket. "Not sure, but Peter gave me this and told me to drive around the neighborhood for a while."
"And you just listened to him?" Sam asks and takes the envelope from Orion's hand. He opens and reads it out loud. "Let's play a game. We're doing a scavenger hunt! When you all get back, you will choose a colour. That colour corresponds with the colour eggs you will be searching for. Each egg has the next clue inside. There are ten eggs for each colour. First one to find the treasure wins! There's only one rule: no helping each other. Each person gets one hint from Dev or I. Don't come back until you get a text from Dev."
Despite the weirdness of it all, I get so excited. I love scavenger hunts. I guess I'm a nerd like that. I love puzzles. For Christmas one year, dad got me an epic book of sudoku puzzles. I finished all of them before school started back up that week. They've been a passion of mine since I could remember, so I am so excited to do this. Even my lazy feeling from earlier today is gone. I am excited for this, and, to my surprise, the others seem excited too.
"This is going to be so much fun," Jax says.
Even Lincoln seems excited with a gentle smile on his face.
"You guys are going down," Orion says.
"Not if I can help it," Jax says with a grin.
It makes me smile.
Then Orion's phone dings. He looks at it and then turns the car around.
The drive back takes no time at all, and soon we're all piling out of the car and into the garage.
Peter stands at the door to the kitchen, wearing a black cloak that drops to the floor and a hood that covers his face in shadow.
"Peter—"
"I am not Peter," Peter says in a fake deep voice.
Jax walks up the steps and stands next to the cloaked Peter. He holds his hand out, measuring the cloaked figure's height next to his own. "Yep. Definitely Peter."
Peter throws his hands up and shoos away a laughing Jax. "I am not Peter," Peter says again. "I am the gatekeeper, here to warn you about the dangers about to be faced in there and to let you know that I forgot to mention in the letter that this is only happening inside and downstairs. Now, are you ready to play?"
Jax shrugs. "Sure, why not?"
I look around and see the excitement on everyone's faces. This is actually kind of fun. The perfect way to fill a boring day.
Peter steps aside and gestures to the door. "Then choose your colour. Abandon all hope ye who enter here."
Jax walks in first, followed by Lincoln, Sam, Orion, and me. We see the island in the kitchen with five plastic bags laid out on it. Each bag has a different colour—pink, green, blue, orange, and yellow. We each grab and a bag—I get pink—and open it, finding our first clue. Mine reads, the village idiot lives here. I go to the kitchen table as the others separate. The hunt has officially begun.
I look in the card bowl that sits on the table and see a pink, plastic Easter egg. I grab it and open it, reading the next clue. Orion's other job. This one gives me pause. Orion's other job? Orion has more than one job? Let's see, he works at the office downtown or in his office here. It's got to be in his office then. I go into his office, passing some of the others on the way. I see how many clues they have and see that they have way more than me. Jax has at least five by now. How? I'm only on my second one. I shake my head. It's okay. Focus. I go to Orion's desk and look over it, seeing if I can see the egg from here. I don't, so I dig deeper. I still try to be respectful of his things though, but I can't find anything, and with the shouts coming from the others, I can tell that they're having the opposite luck that I am.
But we do get one hint, so I stop searching for the clue and instead search for Dev or Peter. I find Dev in the dining room, helping Sam, who has seven clues from what I can see.
This is pathetic. I'm only on my second clue, and I can't even find it by myself. My excitement about the scavenger hunt has made me forget something. I may love puzzles, but I also suck at them.
"You need a hint, Blythe?" Dev asks when he sees me standing there.
I nod and hold out my clue.
He reads it and hands it back. "So Orion works at the office job, but how else does he work?"
I shrug and make a I-don't-know sound.
"Okay. He loves to do this activity. It's work to everyone else but not to him."
What the hell does that mean?
"Dev! I need help," Jax calls and walks over. He holds nine clues in his hand. He's almost done. I look down at my pitiful one, and something clicks in me. Suddenly, I don't want to do this. I would rather be anywhere and doing anything else but be here. I find Orion looking in a closet and go over to him.
"Hey, Blythe. Having fun?" He picks something up in the closet, and he smiles, pulling out his last and final egg. "Found it." He looks at my hands shoved into my hoodie pocket. "Where are your clues?"
I shrug. "I gave up," I say, the words tasting bitter on my tongue.
"Peter's not going to be happy."
I shrug again, caring about his opinion but not being able to express that. All I want to do is go die in a hole. I follow Orion into the kitchen where Jax stands holding onto a paper gold medal and grinning.
"Too late, old man."
Orion laughs and ends up getting third place. Jax got first, followed by Dev. Lincoln comes in behind Orion, and then Peter turns to me. "Where are your clues, Blythe?"
"I gave up," I say quietly with a shrug. My nails bite into my skin.
Peter looks hurt, and I can feel the way everyone is watching me.
"I couldn't find the clue, so I gave up," I say again, feeling like a ghost looking down at myself.
He looks shocked. "You didn't even try?"
I shake my head. "No. I'm good."
"Now I have to go get them," Peter says and goes outside to the garden, picking the egg up out of the dirt. We all follow him as he goes through each of the clues that I didn't do. He gathers them all up and puts them on the counter. "Thanks for playing, guys." He sounds dejected. "I'm gonna go to my room now." He leaves the room, and I feel everyone turn on me.
"You really hurt him," Orion says.
"You couldn't even try?" Jax asks.
"Go apologize to him," Sam says, and now my stubbornness roars its head.
I leave before they can say anything else. I start heading upstairs to the room before I remember that it's Peter's room, and I don't think he wants to see me right now, so I head out the front door instead. I sit next to the side of the house, wanting to just forget. I want my phone, my laptop, my music, my books, anything to let me forget. But everything I have is in the room. The room I am trapped out of. I've never not had a place I could hide away in, and it slaps me in the face how far away from home I really am.
I can't believe I gave up at the game. It's just a game. I've taught myself that giving up is never the option. Ever. You always fight for everything, and if you fall down, get right back up and keep on fighting. Nothing is over until you say it is. There's always a way. There's always a chance. I know that. I believe that. So why did I forget all of that today?
I remember years ago, back in middle school, I tried watching this show. It was set back in the ninja age, and these three kids were training to be ninjas. Well, they had to pass some tests, and somehow, one of the ninjas got tied to a rock, and his partners left him there—tied to a rock and helpless. I couldn't watch anymore than that episode, and that scene has stayed with me all these years, because I hate that feeling. I hate feeling left behind and helpless.
That feeling came back to me full force today, and it overrode everything else within me, but I hurt Peter. I know that. So why can't I apologize? What is so wrong with me that I can't even express that I didn't mean to?
I shake my head. Stop. Stop. Stop.
It doesn't even matter anyway. I don't even care.
I don't care.
I don't care.
I don't care.