Zoe smiled faintly. “Bathroom, with Alex holding her hair back.”
“I knew he wouldn’t be any help in the transport department,” Tag said with mirth. While you couldn’t get Tag out of the gym, Alex was all but allergic to it. Instead of playing sports, he was Ames’s favorite student commentator.
“Well, hedoeswant to be a doctor someday,” I said slyly. “He might as well work on his bedside manner.” I looked at a fretful Manik and gestured to the boxes. “May I?”
He nodded slowly. “Just don’t drop it,” he said. “You might dent the books’ covers or crack their spines.”
My brows knitted together. Maybe I didn’t hit the gym regularly, but I’d run the Chicago and Boston marathons and danced in every school musical. “I can handle it,” I told him at the same time as Tag called back, “She can handle it!”
Then he pretended to fumble his box, catching it just before it fell to the floor.
Manik sucked in a sharp breath, and I felt my lips twitch. There was goofy Tag.
Zoe, as predicted, was a workhorse, moving her boxes in half the time I moved mine. Theywereextremely heavy and I didn’t want Manik to have a meltdown if I did accidentally drop one, so I took it slow and steady. “I don’t understand why Alumni Relations gets this room,” Zoe said as we deposited boxes. The center had been cleared, supplies moved aside, and concrete floor swept.When did Tag find the time do this?I wondered. “It seems like it should belong to the Hub.”
“We wouldn’t be able to use it if this was the Hub’s territory,”Tag said, carrying the last box with Manik, Alex, and a seriously pale Maya. “Josh—I mean, Mr. Bauer—would be in and out of here all the time. Alumni Relations doesn’t set foot in this place after the class reunions in May.” He placed the final box on top of the fortress we built. Together, we watched in awe. It was a perfect pyramid.
“Damn.” Alex whistled. “This is worthy of Giza.”
“It needs one more thing,” Tag said before jogging out of the room. A minute later, he returned with none other than his kooky hat. We laughed when he crowned the pyramid.
Ames’s Jester had spoken.
“Alright, alright, everyone out,” Tag said afterward, his cheeks a little red. “It’s time to move on to the scavenger hunt.”
The scavenger hunt was the second phase of the prank. “We can’treallydeprive Ames of the Almanacs,” Tag had said back at King’s Court. “I’m sure as hell not graduating without mine, so after we hide them, we’re going to set up clues all over campus that’ll send our esteemed president on a treasure hunt tofindthem.”
“I love that journey for him,” I’d said, which had made Tag bite his lip so he didn’t laugh. But Alex did. He cackled.Schitt’s Creekwas their favorite, and my Alexis impression was apparently scary good. I used to greet Alex every day by booping him on the nose.
Now though, it struck me again that this was Daniel we were pranking. It wasDanielwho would be going on thistreasure hunt. My stomach stirred. Even though I didn’t like him the way he liked me, he was still…
Well, he was still.
We shuttled out of the storage room and quickly disassembled the lighted pathway, collecting the flashlights and phones. Everyone turned their lights off except for Alex, who shined his on the Jester’s backpack so Tag could dig through it. It seemed to be bottomless. “What’s the first clue?” Manik asked excitedly. “Where does it lead?”
“Someone’s sure changed their tune,” I mumbled and felt Zoe pinch my arm in amusement.
Tag pulled out a nondescript manila folder. I squinted to see that it was full of unsealed black envelopes, the same ones used for the Jester’s invitation. But instead of names, each envelope was numbered. It seemed like everyone was holding their breath as we watched Tag tug out the first clue. Again, there was no handwriting—only the magazine letters.
We all huddled together to read:
To Our Fearless Leader:
If there’s something you seek,
visit Cassiopeia at the peak.
Meet her at midnight for your second clue.
“There’s a catch with this first one, though,” Tag said mildly as I deciphered the clue to mean the observatory. MostAmes students took astronomy at one point or another. It had a reputation of being easy.
“What is it?” Maya asked.
“I’m going to slip it in his mailbox…” Tag gestured to the darkened mail room. “But not tonight. We want him to discover the Almanacs are missing and then sweat for a few days before following the bread crumbs. If we give him the clue now, he might find it before noticing the yearbooks are gone.”
“And what’s wrong with that?” I heard myself say as Maya gave him a thumbs-up before sprinting for the bathroom again. Zoe followed her. “The Almanacs will still be MIA.”
“Yes, but the point is to draw out the prank,” Tag said. “If he recovers the yearbooks only a night after students were supposed to get them, it isn’t very—”
