❝ Capricorns tend to go zero
or a hundred.
They give you everything
or nothing at all ❞
THE SECOND I SAW WHO was standing on the other side of the door, I knew there had to be some mistake.
"I'm pretty sure you have the wrong room."
"Room 707." Veronica showed me her key and my spirits died. She squeezed passed me and I crossed my arms.
Every year when the sun was in Gemini, the graduating twelfth year class travelled to the Nashira sector for a ski trip that was funded by the student council.
For four days, we would sleep in cozy log cabins by the Mirage Mountains and "study" the environment. But for the students, it was a chance to do something fun and make lasting memories with our friends.
It was supposed to be a fun trip to get away from everything but somebody was going to ruin it for me.
"Where's Sky?" After all, she was supposed to be my roommate, we'd requested each other at the start of school.
"How should I know." Veronica rolled her eyes and threw her brown suitcase on her bed. She started to unpack and claimed the left-sided drawers. "Keep your stuff off of my side and we'll be good."
What the hell, I wasn't going to take this.
"Don't get too comfortable, I'm talking to Mrs. Carrie about this."
She rolled her eyes again and it was getting tiring fast, "Okay."
It was like the start of a terrible joke—a Capricorn and a Sagittarius are trapped in the same room together for four days. . .
»» ─────── ─────── ««
We gathered in the meeting hall and I sat next to Kingston. Sky was nowhere to be found and I itched to tell her the bad news. It turned out that our requests had gotten misplaced and no matter how hard I'd argued with Mrs. Carrie, she wouldn't let us switch. Said it had something to do with the attendance order or some other bullshit.
So now I was stuck with Veronica for the whole trip.
"Let's start the scavenger hunt everybody," Mrs. Carrie shouted, "The teams have already been assigned so you can't switch with somebody else. I'm looking at you, Peter!" She interjected and everyone laughed at his reaction. "Each team has to solve twelve clues, which are hidden somewhere in the area. The first team to finish wins a special prize!"
Everyone looked at the papers that were being handed out by teachers and I searched for my name. It appeared right underneath Cade's on the red team.
The red team congregated at the table next to the fire and after saying bye to Kingston, I left to sit next to Daphne.
"This is almost too easy," she said.
The teams were evenly matched with our only true competition belonging to the blue team, which included Kingston, Mars, Bennett, Veronica and a bunch of other competitive players. Noah was on the yellow team with Hudson, and I finally spotted Sky on the green team.
"Rules. . . there is absolutely no cheating, bribing, harassing, fighting or splitting up. You must also have all twelve envelopes to prove that you didn't skip any clues. The hunt is scheduled to last the whole day and we will all convene for dinner here in the meeting hall when the last team finishes," Mrs. Carrie further explained, "As soon as I give you the first clue, the game will begin. Everyone ready?" All four teams nodded in excitement. "'Clue number one: What is the smallest room in the world?'"
Mars's team and Noah's team took off while the other two teams stayed behind to decipher its meaning.
"Shit, I just realized I'm not good at riddles."
"Me neither." First clue and we were already stuck.
The team started bouncing ideas around.
"A living room? A bathroom?" Peter suggested and the Capricorn and Virgos were quick to point out his flaws.
"It has to be something found in nature."
"A lakeroom? A rockroom?" He tried again. The green team that had stayed behind like us suddenly got up from their seats and ran outside. Now we were the only team who hadn't figured it out yet.
"Does that make any sense?" asked an irritated Virgo.
"I don't hear you helping."
"Not saying anything is better than shouting out stupid ideas." The Virgo said and I knew where this was going. Daphne and I looked at each other, both unsure of whether we should intervene or not.
"I'm just trying to help, no need to get your panties in a twist."
He snorted, "You—"
"I got it!" Zoe, a Gemini, spoke up at the perfect time, "It's a mushroom, isn't there some sort of mushroom farm around here?"
"Let's go!" Praising the Gods, I jumped up from my seat and ran along the dirt trail.
The other teams were nowhere in sight when we reached the mushroom farm. The basket hanging from the lamppost had one envelope that said RED TEAM. I tore it open and read it out loud.
"'Clue number two: What flowers grow between your nose and your chin?'"
"Oh, I've heard this one before," Zoe mumbled and squinted, as if the answer was right infront of her.
"Well, what is it?" An Aries demanded.
"It's, um, it's—oh, I know this," she stammered frantically, "Ugh, I know this, I know this."
The Aries snapped, "Take your time, Gemini."
"It's tulips." Cade helped out. "Tulips, two-lips, get it?"
"Is there a tulip farm somewhere?" I asked him.
"No, but there's a garden."
And we were off again. Clue after clue, the riddles were getting harder and harder to solve—but we somehow managed to figure it out. The game was getting more competitive by the minute and the pressure was beginning to set in.
It was on clue number eleven that we had reached a dead end. We decided to take a break by the well so we could rest our feet.
Daphne sat down on the bench next to me, "I'm pretty sure we're in second place right now."
"We'd still be in last place if it weren't for Cade. He's the only one who knows any of the answers." Zoe had her moments too but sometimes it was like she got hit in the head and got temporary amnesia.
"It's because he's a Pisces."
"No, he's just smart." Parched, I chugged the bottle of water I'd saved.
"You guys seem close."
"Me and Cade?" I clarified after swallowing and she nodded, "Uh, I guess. He did save my life." He was drinking a bottle with someone else on the grass so he wasn't within earshot.
"What?"
"It's really stupid." I told her how we met and then squeezed in the story about us drawing in the park.
Her smile widened at every word. "I didn't know that about you guys."
"Imagine my surprise when I found out he actually went to my school and I didn't even recognize him." There were times when he seemed so familiar but there were more times when he seemed like a completely different person.
Looking at him now, I almost forgot that he was the same person that had drawn my face without my permission.
"We should get going before we fall behind," a Capricorn suggested.
"I still don't get what the clue means." Zoe said.
Movement registered through the corner of my eye and I turned my head to see Mars and the rest of the blue team. They were walking passed the cabins and going towards Crystal Pond.
"Hey Mars, what clue are you on?" I asked curiously.
"No fraternizing with the enemy, Char!" Daphne hissed but I ignored her.
"We're on clue twelve."
"Wow." Crap. "Well, good luck."
"To you too," he ran back to his team and I went back to mine.
"Any ideas?"
"Why bother? They have one more left." Peter grabbed a stick and started drawing in the dirt.
I really wanted to win and we were so close.
"Because I don't want them to win. Ideas. Go." Their motivation was quickly deteriorating at the fact that the blue team was going to beat us.
"It's just a stupid game, we're two clues behind anyway, we're not gonna win." Peter said unapologetically.
I sighed, "And you call yourself a Sagittarius."
"Sorry we can't all be blindly optimistic like you." We were the same sign, why was he calling me out?
"Guys," Cade tried to speak up but I chose to ignore him. I had to set something straight first.
"It's better than weighing the whole team down. From the start, you've done nothing to help us."
He scoffed, "Hey, I tried, didn't I?"
"Guys,"
"Besides," Peter continued but I wasn't really listening, "I'm exhausted from running around all day."
"We're all exhausted but I don't see any of us complaining. We're one clue away, can you please try to work with me here!" I couldn't help but argue.
"I'm not fucking good at riddles, I don't know what you want from me!"
"GUYS." Cade practically yelled and I'd never heard him speak up before. "I just found the clue."
It was so quiet that we could hear Kingston's boisterous voice by the fire pits.
"Where was it?" Faye, a Libra, asked.
"In this blueberry bush."
"Oh." I said quietly.
Cade opened the envelope and read the last clue, "'What occurs once in a minute, twice in a moment and never in a thousand years?'"
"That's the final clue? It seems kinda easy." Peter said.
"I don't know, I sure as hell don't get it." Daphne disagreed.
"It's the letter 'M'." He said quickly.
"It can't be, the letter 'M' doesn't exist in nature," I thought of all the places I'd seen an M but came up empty.
A Virgo named Lawrence spoke from behind me, "What about the meeting hall?"
As soon as his words were registered, we ran back to where we started.
Mrs. Carrie and the other science teachers were chatting on the porch of the cabin when we arrived. The team split up and started searching the kitchen, the tables, the cabinets and all of the sneaky crevices.
We turned up empty-handed after ten minutes and by then, the blue team had caught on and were now on the hunt with us.
"I don't think it's here," I told the group, "We should try the mountains."
"Are you sure? The trail up the mountains could take hours." Lawrence remarked but no one had any better ideas. As they argued about it, I walked up to Mrs. Carrie.
"Is the clue up the mountains?"
"Do you think it's up the mountains?" She wasn't very helpful.
"Yes. I guess we're going up then." I bluffed and her eyebrow rose slightly.
"Okay."
I walked back to my team and proposed my theory.
"I don't think it's in the mountains. When I told her we were heading out, her eyebrows twitched, like she disapproved." I premised but none of my teammates were on my side.
"Or maybe it was because she knew you were right," said Peter, "People do that when they're trying to hide something."
Daphne nodded, "I agree with Peter."
Why was this stupid game so hard?
"What do you think, Cade?" I turned to the person who'd solved the most riddles but he gave a weak answer.
"I don't know."
I looked back at the teachers and they seemed to crowd around the field trip leader. It just didn't make sense to send us miles away from the camp for a clue and then run back for dinner. Why would they set it up that way?
An idea hit me like a train and I walked back over to Mrs. Carrie. Confused and curious, my team followed me.
"You have it," I guessed confidently but she just met my eyes with a blank expression, "It's in the meeting hall but you have the clue." I had absolutely no idea how this would go down but why not give it a shot?
Mrs. Carrie didn't say anything and when several seconds had passed without so much as a blink, a defeated feeling grew in my gut and I began to regret having wasted so much time—
—but then her neutral face transformed into one of genuine satisfaction and she nodded.
"Red team wins."
My team started going crazy at the fact that we won.
"We did it!" I hollered with my teammates and high-fived everyone. From outside, the blue team peered in to see what was happening but soon returned to searching.
"What's the special prize?" Peter asked eagerly and I'd never seen him so excited.
Mrs. Carrie and the other teachers opened a cardboard box and held up a big, triangular golden tin, "You each get a box of delicious and expensive chocolates from the underground belly of Lesath."
I'd never been to the shadow caverns of Lesath but I'd heard that the chocolate found there was legendary. The price for one tin estimated to be around a hundred dollars so this was just beautiful.
"Now we just have to wait for the rest of the teams to figure it out," Mrs. Carrie looked at the analog clock, "Let's just hope it's before six."
»» ─────── ─────── ««
Dinner consisted of honey glazed turkey, wheat rolls, steamed vegetables and pitchers of lemonade. Every inch of the table was full of food and after a long day of running around, it was so freaking satisfying.
"How'd you know it was Mrs. Carrie?" Noah asked, disappointed he wasn't the one to solve the riddle. His team had been last, with Sky's team beating them a minute faster.
"I don't know, honestly, it just made sense." I shrugged then stuffed my mouth with a roll.
"It's not fair, you got all the smart people," Sky sighed, "I really wanted that prize."
Kingston hung his head dramatically, "We should've won, we were so close, too." He tore into his turkey with frustration.
"We would've won if you hadn't led us in the wrong direction." Mars muttered.
"I thought I was going the right way."
"Well, you weren't."
Sky quickly disbanded the conflict by changing the subject, "So how's your roommate?"
"Yeah, what was up with that?" Noah asked.
I didn't really care anymore, "No idea but she said our requests got lost or something. . . so if Veronica's my roommate, who's yours?"
"Jill." Another Sagittarius, lucky. "She's pretty nice."
"Why do you hate her so much?" Noah questioned as he took the last of the rolls.
"We're just not. . . compatible." I'd learned from a very early age what compatibility meant and we just didn't have it. I wasn't blaming her sign, rather that we naturally had nothing in common.
"But why do you hate her."
"You just know with some people," Mars said suddenly and my friends looked at him, as if realizing he was apart of the conversation. He couldn't help it if he didn't like to talk though.
"Like you and Bennett," Sky pointed out and Kingston nodded.
"I got you now."
I didn't have to deal with Veronica today and hopefully I never will again.
➷
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