𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚎'𝚜 𝚙𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠
𝚜𝚊𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚍𝚊𝚢, 𝚖𝚊𝚢 𝚜𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚑, 𝚝𝚠𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚢 𝚝𝚠𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚢-𝚘𝚗𝚎
"No, I'm not doing that!" The tv character yells, holding his sword out at his opponent. I was currently waiting for the Prince and the Knight to battle it out over the Princess' honor. I have no idea what this show is, or how I found it, but it's very entertaining- I can't stop watching it!
Suddenly Aiden's head pops in front of the tv, "Annalise!" He whines loudly, "I'm bored."
I groan, shoving him out of the way. "Hi bored, I'm Annalise, and I'm busy." I try to rewind the episode before realizing that it isn't recorded. I frown, "Now look what you've done, I missed some of the duel!" I complain, pausing the tv show.
Aiden smiles triumphantly, "Let's go do something," he said, slumping down on the couch next to me. introducing my brother, everybody.
Now that I've missed the show, I don't feel that nagging to watch it. So I switch it off, giving in to my brother's childish games. "We could go to the movies?" I suggest, but he just shakes his head. "What about the beach?" This time he makes a face, I sighed in frustration. "What about a scavenger hunt?" This causes him to perk up.
"A scavenger hunt?" I nod, they were his favorite as a child. "That's not a half-bad idea, sis."
I roll my eyes at his idea of a compliment before an idea of my own came to mind. "But we should raise the stakes."
"How?"
I smirked, "Based on the way that dad is treating both of us, I don't think we're going to be taking that New York trip in a few weeks. But, we have three tickets, that's enough for either me and the girls to go, or you and the guys." I wanted to go to New York badly, that's where anyone successful starts their career.
Aiden nodded, "Yeah.. School ends in what, eight days? The trip was supposed to be the first week of summer. That's a great idea, we can commemorate summer with a high-stakes scavenger hunt!"
"We'll make lists, girls against guys." Aiden agrees, "I'll make yours and you make mine."
We sent out vague, mysterious texts to all of our friends before getting to work on the lists of challenges. I had a few good ones in mind. I was going to make one of them wear their underwear outside their pants, do a full face of makeup using only testers, and ask a tourist where the midsummer's eve festival is. Bonus points if they reply with, 'How else do you appease the gods?'
I had a creative mind, and I was going to make these boys work for the win.
Pretty soon I had a long, long list of crazy dares and challenges that the boys would have to do for the scavenger hunt, and I'm sure that Aiden had one that was equally long.
All of our friends were sitting patiently in the living room when we walked out, "I bet you're wondering why we called you here today," Aiden was trying to be mysterious, but it wasn't really working to his advantage.
I cleared my throat, "We've decided that in honor of school ending in approximately eight days, we've created a scavenger hunt to commemorate it."
"And I bet you're wondering what you get out of it-"
I facepalmed before interrupting his bad impression, "The winning team of the scavenger hunt gets an all-expenses-paid trip to New York, New York!" They all looked around at each other in confusion before it clicked, each and every one of them knew of our trip.
But that was before dad and I's big fight...
"There are two teams: girls and guys. I created the guy's list, and Aiden created ours." I handed Aiden his list and he handed me mine, "The objective of the game is to do as many of them as you can before time runs out. Whoever has the most at the end, wins the trip."
Aiden nodded, having not even glanced at his list. "You have to take a video of your teammate doing the challenge for it to count, and at the end, we'll tally them up." I take a moment to start looking over the list but Aiden scoffs, "Seriously Annalise!"
Both Ryan and Zach stand up nervously, "What is it, Aiden?" Ryan speaks up.
He looks him dead in the eye, "You're going to have to wear your underwear on the outside of your pants for the entire challenge." Ryan looked like he was about to throw a hissy fit, "And what's this about makeup and testers?"
I smirk, "You have to complete a full face of makeup using only testers, if any of the workers notice or you're asked to leave, you fail the challenge and don't earn the point." I cross my arms over my chest.
"Well, that's nothing compared to yours," Aiden returns the gesture triumphantly.
I glance down at the list, "Ask a cashier about the nutritional facts of an inedible product? Piece of cake, we've got this ladies!" I say confidently. Aiden's picks are more of embarrassing dares than actual challenges, I can embarrass myself a bit for a trip to New York City.
I watched as both of our teams went over the list, "Shall we begin?" Aiden asks.
I nod, "The hour and a half starts... now!" Both groups rushed out the door, piling into cars. Us girls took my car since it was the newest we knew it's the fastest and we were planning to stay at the mall the whole time. We'd be able to ask many different people these humiliating questions.
•
It had already been an hour and we had managed to complete at least nine of the challenges. We got many weird looks, but also many points! "Excuse me, sir," I heard Summer stop a man. "Have you seen my cousin?" She asked, feigning innocence.
The man looked confused, "What does he look like?"
Then she began to complete the challenge, "He's like average height, bright, and I mean bright, orange hair. It's pretty curly, he loves to wear band t-shirts and he has the voice of an angel. Have you seen him?"
"You mean Ed Sheeran?" That was the challenge.
She snorted, "My cousin's name is not Ed, it's Edward!" She corrected him. He rolled his eyes, walking away. But it didn't matter anyway, we had gotten the point for completing it. "How much time do we have left?" Summer asked, turning back to us.
I checked the clock, "thirty minutes," we'd completed ten challenges already. "One of you come with me, I'm going to do the cashier one." Daphne nodded, following. We walked into the food court next to where we were and I asked for a cup so that I could get a soda, "Excuse me, do you know the nutritional facts for this?" I asked, unashamed.
He raised a brow at me, "For the cup?" I nodded, "There are none, it's paper." I thanked him and we walked away with the video and our new point.
"Daphne, quick, do the fry one." I pointed to the large Chick-Fil-A inside the food court.
After Daphne ordered a single waffle fry for ten cents, we met back up with Summer, who had recorded herself talking loudly on the phone, "No mom I swear, I don't know where they hid the body!" She'd gotten us a point, and a funny reaction video!
"Alright Daphne, your turn."
We didn't have much time left, but we had such a long list of challenges. She nodded, checking the list. Once she'd picked one she went up to Summer and pretended to wipe a tear. "Summer, will you marry me? I know that our families hate us together, but I'd follow you anywhere." She quotes common rom-com lines.
Summer reacted in the best way possible, faking a cry. "Of course!" While I stood by and filmed the whole thing. Around us, people thought it was a real proposal. Some awed, others cried, and some even clapped. I pumped the air, another one done, that gives us fourteen!
"Alright guys, we only have time for a few more. I think I'm going to ask strangers to sign my petition to save the homeless whales."
Daphne spoke up, "I can go to the vape kiosk and ask for a healthy vape." I sent Daphne a look and she sighed, "And I'll remember to scream liar when they try to hand me one." I nodded in approval.
"...And I'll do the dancing one," Summer spoke up, volunteering. I knew that none of us wanted to do that one. It consisted of connecting to a store's Bluetooth speaker, playing the song 'I like big butts and I cannot lie,' and dancing to it.
Both Daphne and I nodded at her commitment and went off in separate ways. It would be more challenging to record ourselves, but we would complete more that way, and time is almost up.
I set up my camera. I only had one shot at this, most people wouldn't stop to talk about the environment, but the second that they realize it's a joke- it's over.
I pretended to hold a clipboard as I flagged people down, "Excuse me, ma'am! Do you have a second to talk about the environment and the homeless whales?" I called after her as she very clearly ignored me.
It's fine, because I got the point!
I gathered my things and went back to the spot where we had been, this is where we agreed to meet. Though, the time has run out. I couldn't complete any more challenges if I tried. The beauty of taking pictures and videos for this is that there's a time-stamp.
I sat there for another five minutes before Summer arrived, her face was beet red. "I'm never going back to Hollister again, ever." Was she banned, or embarrassed? I don't know.
Another minute later and Daphne came running up, too. "I got it, that gives us seventeen points for completed challenges! I just hope that we beat the boys.." She pleaded out loud, though now that time was out, there was nothing we could do about it.
"Alright, let's head back."
•
We had already been home, comfortably sitting on the couch when the guys walked in. "Have fun cheating?" Daphne asked, arms crossed over her chest, and a smirk plastered on her face.
They all looked taken aback, but my brother was the first to speak up. "We weren't, what?"
He sounded nervous.
I stood up, helping her. "Well then why else were you so late? The challenge ended a half-hour ago," I pointed out the obvious. Because even us at the mall got here before long, but I don't think they were cheating, I just want to shake them a little.
Summer stood up and tried to clear the tension, "So, anyways... let's see the lists." I handed her ours and Aiden did his. She looked over them before I saw her lips twinge upwards slightly, "Boys had twelve points, but girls had seventeen!" She announced proudly.
We all started cheering, jumping around, and high-fiving as the boys stood there looking like they had blown a circuit. "S-Seventeen?" Ryan asked, just to make sure. "Let me see that!" He demanded, taking my phone from me.
After it was made clear that we had won fair and square, both Ryan and Aiden shut up. Though Zach seemed particularly quiet the entire time. I went to sit with him, "So how was your hunt?"
He smiled, "Hard. Ryan wore his underwear outside his pants the entire time, Aiden ordered water with whipped cream on it- and then he drank it!" I pretended to fall asleep as he droned on about their dares. "Am I boring you, Lise?"
I popped one eye open, letting out a giggle. "Maybe a bit. But I was listening, it sounds like it was a fun day." He nodded his head, excitement still clear in his eyes.
He landed down and pecked my cheek, "Surprisingly, it was."
I'm glad that we won, but more so I'm glad that everyone had fun. Lately, with the situation with dad and finals, I haven't seen my friends as much as I'd have liked to. And I can't say that I was an easy person to be around because I wasn't.
If we had lost I would have taken it like a champ, letting Aiden and the guys throw it in my face. Because at least then I would know that they were happy.
𝚍𝚒𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚐𝚞𝚢𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚒𝚝? 𝚒 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚐𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚘 𝚊 𝚋𝚒𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚒𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚘𝚢𝚜 𝚙𝚘𝚟 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍'𝚟𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚞𝚗𝚗𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚒𝚛𝚕𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚗! 𝚠𝚎 𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚋𝚊𝚍𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚕𝚘𝚕
𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚢 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚜𝚕𝚊𝚖𝚖𝚒𝚗 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚢𝚘𝚛𝚔 𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚙 ! 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚗𝚘 𝚏𝚎𝚊𝚛, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚞𝚢𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚃𝙾𝚃𝙰𝙻𝙻𝚈 𝚎𝚡𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚍𝚎𝚍. 𝙵𝚞𝚗 𝙵𝚊𝚌𝚝 𝙾𝚏 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛: 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚗𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚌𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚜 𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚛 𝚌𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚛, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚊 𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗, 𝚠𝚑𝚘'𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚏𝚊𝚟𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚛?
𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠!! 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙸 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚕𝚕, 𝚜𝚘 𝚜𝚘 𝚖𝚞𝚌𝚑 :) 𝚡𝚘𝚡𝚘 𝚜𝚢𝚍