Treasure Hunt 2012 Commences (all participants)

[Ginny Campbell]

While last year's treasure hunt had been fun to organize, it had also proved a bit difficult and chaotic to run all around Pilot Ridge setting up clues and requesting people not destroy or remove them. And most of the participants last time had been Hammel students; she knew not all of them could drive, and she had felt a bit bad that her clues had assumed older participants with transportation.

This year she had planned for this by only announcing her game to the Hammel students; that way she could keep the game on campus. That would be easier for everyone involved.

She had gathered everyone in the auditorium, though there were hardly enough players to merit taking up so much space. Still, it made her feel important as she paced the stage, explaining the rules of the game.

"And the teams aaare Haley Shapiro, Sammy Morris and Harmony Muller-Barton on team A, team B iiiis AJ Walker, Dani Wayland, and Levi Xu, and team C is Caroline Mason, Payson Hartley, and Angela Chambers."

As she announced that she held out the three first clues.

"Good luck!"

[Danicca Waylan]

[D]A[N]I[C]C!?

Dani dashed forwards to grab the clue for her team, saluting Ginny as she did so. She was taking charge of this mission, and her team was going to find this treasure first.

She headed back to the boys, holding the clue high. "Okay, let's get rolling, guys!" Holding out the paper, she read from it formally. "What has to be broken before it can be used? Well. I have no clue what the frack that means. JayJay, Vee, got any smart ideas?" Yes, she was talking to AJ and Levi, and probably much faster than she should have been. She didn't exactly care if they understood her words as long as they got it.

She really hoped they did. Or maybe the inspiration fairy would visit her and she'd get the stupidly simple meaning behind this little riddle. Meanwhile, Dani was eyeing the competition. Some weird girls and a blonde squirt. Most of them appearing to be under the age of thirteen. Not really much competition there, huh? At least, she didn't think so.

[Aaron Walker]

AJ would have been the first one to run up to receive his team’s clue, but at usual he had forgotten that the treasure hunt started today. So he ran into the auditorium just as Ginny was making her announcement. He got to his seat as Dani was returning to his group. Taking a step to keep Levi between him and Dani, AJ gave her a cautious look. He was slowly starting to learn that she had forgiven him for his whole attempted pranking. Well maybe forgiven was the wrong word. But at least she wasn’t going to tear of his head every time she saw him.

He actually turned to look over his shoulder for JayJay and Vee before he remembered that Dani had called him that before. He grinned, remembering that he had a nickname. “Um…,”he said, looking for Levi for help. He tried to remember all of the riddles his uncle had told him when he was younger, but nothing seemed to fit. “Well, I know it’s not a sunburn penguin.” He looked over at the other kids in the auditorium to see if any of them seemed to have more luck with their clues.

[Harmony Muller-Barton]

Harmony did not want to be here.

But she’d gotten a earful from her mother about not making enough friends and trying to fit in with the other students. She couldn’t care less about fitting in with these freaks. Still if signing up for some stupid kiddy activity would keep her mother off her back for a few days, the she figured it couldn’t hurt.

That was before she showed up at the auditorium. Glancing around the room, she was immediately sure of the fact that she was surrounded by total losers. She dragged her feet as she walked up to get her team’s clue. Back with her team, she read the clue out loud. “I have no lawyers and no queens or kings but when you visit me you still have to wear different things,” she read in a monotone voice before adding. “You lame-os got any idea what that’s supposed to mean?”

She didn’t know either of her teammates, although they both looked a little familiar. But she was sure if she’d ever seen them in the hall she would have had no reason to speak to them.

This was starting to look like a very bad idea. Next time she’d just lie to her mom and say she’d been voted class president or something.

[Levi Xu]

Levi wasn't particularly good at puzzles or riddles, unless wordplay was involved. But he'd signed up for the scavenger hunt anyway, just because. He'd flaked out last year, but this time he really couldn't. After all, he was going to see Dani and AJ in Mr. Tonaya's history class until the school year ended. And AJ was actually really nice to him, even if he didn't know Danicca too well.

He was relieved, then, when the riddle made perfect sense to him. He could think of exactly one thing that had to be broken to be used. "Glowsticks. They don't work until you break the thing inside that holds some chemical. Then the stuff mixes together and it glows. Who has glowsticks on campus?"

[Haley Shapiro]

Unlike her one team mate, Haley was actually excited to be doing this. She had been sick the last time the treasure hunt was held so she was looking forward to getting all the candy as her prize. She wasn't the brightest of bulbs so the clues might not be as easy to come by for her but she could provide the muscle so, maybe they needed to break some stuff somewhere.

But when she found out who her team mates were, Haley was starting to re-evaluate her enthusiasm for the event. One was a prickly tomboy [who was way too much like her that it would be disaster were she to ever befriend her] and the other was the boy she had thrown glitter water on earlier in the week. Way to dampen her mood.

It didn't help that the girl, Harmony she believed her name was, called her lame-o. Her hands curled into fists but she tried to quell her thoughts before somebody got seriously injured. "Aren't you supposed to be the genius? I mean, if we're lame-os." Haley snarled back in response.

Poor Sammy, having to deal with two hot-heads at once.

[Angela Chambers]

Angie was regretting this. Why in the world had she signed up for this thing? It was just… Well she did not want to be here. She did not want to be in a group of people she didn’t know. However, all of this was nothing really. Not in comparison to what was her biggest issue right now.

That awful girl was here. Harmony. Angie had spotted her almost immediately when she approached the crowd standing around and had done her best to stand as far away from her and out of her sight. If they had ended up on the same team, the blonde would’ve walked away and pretended she had never shown. No matter how rude it made her seem

But luck was on her side. For once. Harmony wasn’t on her team. And while she didn’t know either of her teammates, which horrified her, but other were already forming into the groups, so she thought she had a good idea.

After getting the clue from Ginny, and mumbling thanks, she went to the two other girls. “What building has the most stories?” She read in a barely audible voice and held out the not for one of others.