Chapter 27 Three Years Before
3 years before Penny
Once everyone’s done eating, the cheerleaders stand up on one of the tables, clapping to get our attention.
“Alright, people!” one of them shouts over the chatter. “Next game is a scavenger hunt!”
A wave of cheers goes up around the room — half excitement, half pure chaos.
They explain the rules: “We’ve hidden ten colored papers for each team all around — some in the forest, some by the lake, and some inside the house. Once you find all ten, they’ll form a clue. Solve that clue, and it’ll lead you to your object. The first team to bring their object back here wins.”
There’s immediate whispering and plotting around the room. The black team — mostly the same frat types who take every game way too seriously — already start hyping each other up.
The cheerleader raises her voice. “And before you get any ideas—” She looks directly at them. “You can’t steal papers from other teams. That’s cheating.”
The black team puts their hands to their hearts in mock offense.
“We would never!” one of them calls.
“Yeah, we’re men of honor,” another adds, grinning.
“Uh-huh,” she says dryly. “Sure you are.”
Everyone laughs.
Beside me, Jemma leans closer. “Okay, strategy. Two people in the house, two by the lake, three in the forest. That way we cover everything.”
Caleb nods. “Smart.”
Ryan says, “Call the lake! I’m a water guy.”
“Yeah, because you love skipping rocks, not swimming,” Nate mutters.
Ryan ignores him. “Caleb, you’re with me.”
“Fine,” Caleb says, rolling his eyes. “But I’m not carrying you if you twist an ankle.”
Stacy raises her hand. “I’ll take the house. There’s snacks in there.”
Nate grins. “I’ll help. You know, for moral support.”
Jemma turns to me, her eyes bright. “That leaves us three — me, you, and Margo — for the forest.”
“Sounds good,” I say, already standing. “Try not to get lost.”
Margo laughs, slinging her green bandana tighter around her wrist. “If I do, just tell people I died doing what I loved — running through mud.”
The whistle blows again, sharp and loud, and everyone bolts in different directions — sneakers slapping against the grass, doors swinging open, people yelling team colors and half-formed plans.
We head toward the tree line, Jemma and Margo a few steps ahead of me, their laughter cutting through the noise. The forest is already glowing with the last bit of afternoon light, gold threading through the leaves.
“Alright, Green Team,” Jemma says, grinning over her shoulder. “Let’s go win this thing.”
And just like that, we take off into the woods.
We start by checking the obvious places — the kind of spots where the cheerleaders could hide something without breaking a nail. Low tree branches, under logs that don’t look too heavy, between fence slats.
The first one Jemma finds tucked into the hollow of a stump, crumpled but bright green. She grins and waves it in the air. “One down!”
“Good eyes,” I say, scanning the ground. “There’s gotta be another around here.”
Margo squints at a cluster of mossy rocks. “If I were a cheerleader, I’d pick somewhere easy to reach but hard to notice.”
“Like where?”
She smirks. “Like under this rock.” She pries it up with her sneaker and sure enough — another green square sits underneath.
“That’s two,” I say. “Eight to go.”
I stop for a second, thinking, then pull out my phone. “Hold up. I’ve got an idea.”
They both look at me.
“I’m calling Ryan.”
The line rings twice before his voice crackles through, loud as ever. “What’s up, soldier?”
Before I can answer, I add Nate to the call. His voice joins mid-laugh. “This better be good, man.”
“It is,” I say. “We’re on a three-way call now — that way we can all talk and keep track of what we’ve got.”
“Genius,” Ryan says, probably grinning. “We found two by the lake already. One was in the sand under a bucket, the other behind a tree.”
“Nice,” I say. “We’ve got two here in the forest.”
Nate chimes in, “House team reporting in — Stacy and I found three so far. One in the couch cushions, one in a cereal box, and one literally taped to the fridge. Subtle.”
“That’s seven,” I count quickly. “So three missing. Keep searching and text whenever you find one.”
“Copy that, Captain,” Ryan says. “Over and out.”
The call ends and we get back to work.
We comb through the forest slower this time, checking tree trunks, bushes, even fallen leaves. Every once in a while we find a paper from another team — red, blue, pink — but we put them back. No cheating.
After what feels like forever, Margo lets out a cheer. “Got one!” she says, pulling a green paper from under a flat rock by the stream.
“Nice,” I say. “That’s eight.”
Not even two minutes later, Jemma spots another wedged in the fork of a tree. “Nine!” she yells. I update the team.
And right on cue, Ryan’s text pops up:
Found one by the dock!! That’s 10 baby!!!
“Perfect,” I say, already jogging toward the chalet. I text quickly: Rally behind the house!
We run through the trees, branches snapping underfoot, and break through to the back lawn at almost the same time as the others. Ryan’s shirt is soaked with lake water, Caleb’s laughing so hard he’s bent over, and Nate’s still holding a cookie from the house like it’s a trophy.
We drop down in the grass and spread all ten papers out in front of us. The letters on them are jumbled, torn across the edges, like someone ripped a secret into pieces.
“Okay,” Caleb says, kneeling down. “We’ve got: IN, FIND, WHERE, HIDES, AND, WATER, THE, SUN, SHADOWS, ITSELF.”
Ryan blinks. “What the hell does that even mean?”
“Maybe it’s about the lake?” Jemma says. “Water, sun, shadows—it sounds like something near the dock.”
Margo leans over the papers, rearranging them again. “Or it’s describing a place where the sun hides in the water? Like reflection?”
“‘Where the sun hides and the water finds itself,’” Caleb says, piecing it together, reading it out loud like a riddle.
We all look at each other, the same thought slowly forming.
Ryan snaps his fingers. “The reflection!”
Jemma grins. “Where the lake mirrors the sun.”
“Right,” I say, standing. “Then let’s move. Before someone else figures it out.”
And just like that, the Green Team takes off toward the shimmering light over the lake.