~Leap Day~
Rosie hadn't experienced many birthdays. Three, to be exact. On normal 365 day years, Rosie and her mom celebrated on March 1st. Her mom set up streamers and a fancy breakfast and waited quietly at the foot of her bed until Rosie awakened, when her mom would spray her with confetti. It was silly, but Rosie looked forward to it every year.
But on her fourth birthday, as Rosie blinked the sleep dust out of her eyes and sat up in bed, it was to her empty, silent bedroom.
Oh well, Rosie thought. She was going off to college soon; the tradition would have to die eventually.
She rolled out of bed and tossed on a fresh t-shirt, not bothering to change out of her pajama bottoms. The mirror on her desktop reflected her own tired, wan face back to her. Pink dots poked out on the tip of her chin.
Pimples on her birthday? Seriously?
Rosie left her bedroom with a groan and started down the stairs. Her mom might let her get take-out from the good waffle place for breakfast if she begged hard enough.
Rosie slipped down the last few steps and into the darkened living room. Weird. Her mom was usually awake before her. Rosie reached for the light switch--
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"
Noise makers and cheers erupted in an explosion of chaotic sound. For a second, Rosie's heart was beating so fast she couldn't make out anything in front of her. Slowly, her eyes adjusted to Pablo, Brie, Hailey, Beojun, and her mom laughing and clapping. Their apartment neighbors would have something to say about this.
"No way!" Rosie covered her mouth. They'd all surprised her; she couldn't believe it. "Seriously, guys? This is awesome." She pulled them into a group hug. Having them all there, her closest friends, was exactly what she needed.
"You should've seen your face!" Hailey dabbed a tear out of her eye. She tried to recreate Rosie's expression of utter shock, but dissolved into laughter.
Rosie was pleased her friends had come, but she wasn't a morning person and she didn't know how to entertain them all in her tiny apartment. "Well thank you all for the surprise, but it's still early so I'm gonna go back to bed. Do you guys want to get waffles later?"
"Nuh-uh!" Pablo snapped. "I did not wake up at six on a Saturday to watch you sleep in. Come on, girl. You have a busy day today."
"I do?" Rosie's mind jumped back to her bed, still warm and covered in blankets.
"You'll see." Brie grabbed Rosie's arm. "Your mom did a good job of hiding the surprise."
Rosie looked at her mom, who was trying to suppress a grin.
With her friends nagging at her to get moving, Rosie just had time to pull her winter coat from the closet and throw on some boots before Pablo picked her up and hoisted her over his shoulder. Rosie protested that she was still in her pajamas, but Boejun pointed out he was too and Rosie felt a lot better. Brie guided Pablo out the door and down the stairs to the front of the building, where he dropped Rosie onto the grass. No matter how hard Rosie tried, they would not tell her what was going on until they were all strapped into Brie's car.
"Okay." Brie clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. Rosie sat next to her in the passenger seat. Just like homecoming night... "So this was originally my idea, but everyone pitched in. I just wanted to recognize the... uh... great friend you've been" Brie stumbled through the rest of her explanation, but Rosie understood. Everything had been awkward between them since the audition and Brie wanted to make it up to her.
"So what's the deal? Why was I kidnapped?" Rosie looked around at Pablo, Hailey, and Boejun squished into the back seat. "Are we sitting in Brie's car all day?"
Brie wordlessly reached into the pocket of the car door and pulled out a pink envelope.
Rosie took the envelope and opened it. Her eyes traced over a cryptic paragraph, scribbled in messy handwriting. "It's like a riddle!"
"It's the first destination of your birthday scavenger hunt," Brie explained. "Each of us wrote a clue based on a special memory we had with you."
Rosie swore she could feel her heart growing, like at the end of The Grinch. "You guys! This is--"
"We know, we know," Pablo groaned. "We're amazing. Keep reading! My legs are falling asleep."
Rosie rolled her eyes and read the first clue aloud:
My eyes follow superheroes, magic, and treasure--
Battles and fights and all kinds of rages
But never you fear
Trapped in the pages
I'll never run wild
Trapped in the pages. It seemed pretty straightforward. "A bookstore?" Rosie asked.
"I'm going to need specific instructions." Brie stared at the steering wheel. "I'm just your chauffeur."
Rosie thought for a moment. She'd never seen Pablo pick up a book. Hailey only read for school, or from her collection of romance novels, censored by her parents. She knew Brie liked Harry Potter, but there weren't any Harry Potter themed book stores in Chicago... Beojun was the only one Rosie knew liked to read.
"Quimby's Bookstore," Rosie announced. From the way Beojun was smiling, Rosie knew she was right.
The ride there took a while, but with Rosie controlling the music and Pablo leading the conversation, it was almost more fun than sleeping in.
When they arrived at the little brick store, Beojun hopped out of the car with Rosie. The inside of Quimby's was the same as ever-- the dark brick interior filled with overflowing shelves of some of the weirdest books and knick-knacks Rosie had ever seen. Beojun had introduced Rosie to the shop years ago as a place to buy comics, but Rosie had fallen in love with the quirkiness. She strolled down the aisles, breathing in the scent of freshly bound pages.
"Okay, so I'm supposed to let you look around a little," Beojun whispered to Rosie. "But I have to pee and I know the next location has a bathroom, so... if I were you, I'd ask the cashier for a pink envelope."
When they arrived back to the car only a few minutes later, pink envelope in hand, it was to her friends' surprised faces. "Well that was fast!" Brie exclaimed. "Good job, Rosie!"
Rosie and Beojun shared a grin. She tore open the next envelope and recognized Hailey's neat, bubbly print immediately. The clue was also straightforward-- directing Rosie to Jeni's ice cream place, a cute shop only a minute away. They'd gone to Jeni's the first time Hailey and Rosie had ever gone somewhere without Pablo. It was where they'd fallen in love with the most random flavor: "brambleberry crisp." Rosie still didn't know what the ingredients were, but as she and Hailey entered the store, they automatically got in line to order a scoop of the delicious berry ice cream.
While Beojun raced to the bathroom, Rosie looked around for an envelope until she saw one taped on the bottom of the menu. Just about as obvious as possible.
"Did you choose this place just so you could get ice cream at ten in the morning?" Rosie asked.
Hailey grinned, "Maybe." The cashier called Hailey up and Rosie listened as she ordered a three-scoop sundae with cherries and cookie dough. Rosie's eyes widened. She didn't want to judge, but that was not Hailey's typical order.
Apparently, Rosie wasn't the only one thinking the same way. When they got back into the car, Pablo eyed Hailey's dish with interest. "Guess somebody bought themself a birthday treat."
"Stop judging girls for what they eat," Brie said tiredly from the front.
As Hailey dug into her mound of ice cream, Rosie ripped open the next clue. The hunt had been going pretty smoothly so far, but now she was stumped.
We went here like... two months ago??
"Pablo, this isn't even a clue!"
Pablo raised his hands in defense. "But you're confused, aren't you? Can't make it too easy."
Eventually Rosie narrowed down "like two months ago" to mean their trip to Beojun's grandma's apartment.
"Navy Pier?" Rosie had meant it as a question, but Brie put her gear into drive, which Rosie took to mean she had guessed correctly. It was another long ride, which gave Rosie plenty of time to wonder where Brie's clue could possibly lead her...
As the car crept toward the start of the boardwalk, trapped behind a line of taxis, Pablo and Brie hopped out. Rosie pulled her coat tighter around her. The sun gleamed against the windows of the buildings, giving the impression of a warm day, but a chilly breeze gusted off the lake.
"You're going to have to give me a hint." Rosie's teeth chattered. The wind blew through her thin pajama bottoms. "A real one this time."
"Think overpriced and disappointing."
Rosie smiled. "Stay right here." She ran down the boardwalk, her footsteps pounding on the wooden planks. The crowds had thinned since December, but tourists still spotted the boardwalk, posing for pictures and grimacing against the cold.
When she reached the hot chocolate stand, it was covered and bolted shut. Rosie frowned, but then her eyes caught on a glint of pink sticking out from under the cover...
"This next place better be somewhere warm," Rose said as she and Pablo hopped back into Brie's car. Rosie's frozen fingers grasped feebly at the opening of the envelope, so Brie reached over and tore it open. Rosie took a moment to admire Brie's small, neat handwriting before reading aloud:
The place where you convinced me to be brave.
Rosie was stumped. She'd helped Brie before her presentation, but Rosie didn't think Brie would want to share something that vulnerable with everybody. Plus, the last thing Rosie wanted to do on a Saturday was go to Darliss.
Somewhere where she'd convinced Brie to be brave. There was the lake at camp, where she'd practically coerced Brie into the canoe with her. Rosie couldn't decide if that was bravery or stupidity.
Bravery. Rosie wracked her brain trying to come up with all the things she had convinced Brie to do. Maybe...
"The auditions?" Rosie wondered aloud. "But that wouldn't make sense. We were talking about that at my house."
"What better place to end the hunt than where it all began?" Brie turned the gear into drive and started down the road. "This is the last clue, so I'll drop everybody off at home along the way. Who wants to go first?"
"Me!" Hailey and Pablo shouted at the same time.
It took forever to get everybody home to their apartments on opposite sides of the city, but finally Brie pulled up to Rosie's mom's building. They hopped out, Rosie keeping her eye on Brie. She didn't know what was going on, but by Brie's hidden grin, she thought there was something else waiting inside.
Her mom opened the door after Rosie rang the doorbell once. She stood in the doorway, grinning.
"Okay," Rosie said. Things were getting weird. "What's going on?"
Rosie's mom took her by the shoulder. "Remember, I'll help with Rex, but this is your responsibility."
"What--" Rosie started to stay, but Brie tugged on her arm, guiding her up the stairs to Rosie's bedroom. She motioned for Rosie to walk in first.
At first, everything looked the same. Rosie's eyes glazed over her unmade bed, her poster-covered walls, Pablo's mural on her ceiling. Then her eyes fell on the cage, the specks of green scales poking out from behind the bars. Rosie almost laughed from the ridiculousness of it all.
"An iguana!"
Rosie wanted to take her new pet out and give him a name, but Brie pulled her along.
"Come on." Brie's eyes glinted. "There's still one more stop we have to make."
➣