“Protection from the outdoor elements,” he answered as I vaguely remembered him performing the same ritual on the telescope balcony. I’d just been too wrapped up in his Blair clue to really notice.
“Alright,” Alex said. “Wait until you hear my voice.”
I shifted from one foot to the other. My mom always saidthat Alex could make conversation with a chair, but that didn’t make me feel better tonight.
Tag nodded, and my pulse sped up once Alex left. The walkway’s first step squeaked, and by the time Alex and his flashlight had rounded the bend, the boyish babble had quieted.
“Whoa there!” Alex exclaimed seconds later. He was nearly shouting to ensure we’d hear him. “You guys scared me…”
“Ready, set, go,” Tag said, and after a deep breath, the two of us headed for the walkway. But instead of climbing the low-slung steps, we skirted around them and dropped to our knees. Even with the deep and dark woods for cover, we had no choice but to crawl around the deck. Alex also knew to aim his flashlight above theHour Glasssince we couldn’t risk lighting our way.
There were both sharp-edged twigs and soft pine needles under my palms and soon I came across something wet. “Watch out,” Tag warned too late, my hands already soaked. “There’s a mud puddle.”
I got my revenge when we stood up, wiping them on his sweatshirt.
Meanwhile, Alex had officially taken over the party on the deck. I could smell his pot. “This is purely for medicinal purposes,” he told the boys as Tag and I navigated around a sculpture of Poseidon together. “My insomnia tends to hit me pretty hard, so I came out here to hopefully chill out.”
“Can I take a hit?” one boy asked boldly.
“Nope,” Alex answered, then said to someone else, “Here,scoot over, bud. It’s important to treat your elders with respect. Offering them a seat would be a strong start.”
Only Alex, I thought as Tag and I dodged some tangled tree roots.
Whoever Alex had politely pushed aside on the bench didn’t complain, because after a moment, Maya’s sculpture appeared in all its glory. Our beautiful beacon of light.
But Alex’s beam did not go unnoticed. “Why the flashlight?” someone asked, giving me goose bumps. I could feel all six gazes turn toward us. “Is someone out there?”
“On the ground!” I told Tag at the same time he said, “Plank position!”
Both of us fell to the earth. Dirt went straight up my nose, and I worried my heart would give us away. It thumped wildly against the ground.
“Nah, I don’t think so,” Alex said easily. “At least notyet.” He turned off his flashlight, not really having a choice. “Tag Swell and Blair Greenberg could arrive in a few hours, though. It depends if they’ve gotten back together.” He paused. “Are you interested in joining theiryogaclass?”
I felt Tag tense next to me.
The boys laughed, a buoyant enough chorus that Tag and I could stand and snap sticks in the process. Now on our feet, we broke into a jog. I could still envision where theHour Glasswas, but if I blinked a few times, it would disappear.
Keep talking, I thought.Alex, keep talking.
But I knew he had to be careful. If he talked too much, asked too many questions, the guys would grow suspicious. It was a risk we’d been willing to take.
“No, no, we aren’t here for yoga class,” one boy said. His voice hadn’t dropped yet. “We came to pull a prank.”
“A prank?” Alex sounded as surprised as I was. “Color me intrigued. Shocked, but intrigued.”
“Yeah, there’s like a week left in school and this so-called Jester hasn’t done anything,” another kid said. “We thought it was time we took matters into our own hands.”
I imagined Alex exhaling some smoke. “What did you have in mind?”
All six boys spoke at once, so Tag and I made one last loud push for Maya’s sculpture. I couldn’t follow what anyone was saying, but by the time we arrived, one boy had been elected to speak. His voice sounded so close that I could step around the sculpture and tap his shoulder. He was talking about the Circle’s iconic scattering of Adirondack chairs.
“And dowhatwith them?” Alex asked.
Tag handed me the duct tape and third clue before crouching down and whispering for me to climb onto his shoulders, pool party chicken fight-style.You’re joking,I almost said, but then remembered this job required a dynamic duo. TheHour Glasswas ten feet tall. Daniel would hop up on a bench, but Tag and I didn’t have that luxury.
So I gingerly threw a leg over his shoulder.
“Build a tower out of them,” the freshman told Alex. “Picture a Jenga game—”
