"Fly."

I looked at the word strangely and honestly didn't care that I'd spoken aloud. "What the hell does that mean?"

"Oh, good. I guess we're not going incognito anymore," Dakota scoffed, speaking up as well. "What'd you find?"

I glared at the cracks in the roof and stood up. Grabbing a highlighter from the pencil holder on the fireplace, I traced the cracks.

"Uhh... does that say 'fly'?"

"Nope," I answered Parker sarcastically.

"Yes it does, dummies," Delilah declared. "Wow, you're even stupider than I thought!"

I gritted my teeth together to stop myself from lashing out. "Look," I hissed. "Can someone help me figure out what the hell this means?"

"I will once you stop using that word."

I sat down, pressed my face into a pillow, and screamed.

"Okay Miss Temper-tantrum, you can just stay there with your profanity while we figure this out." After her latest idiotic remark, Delilah turned to the others and began to converse.

I felt like screaming again, but instead, I stood up silently and walked over to the group, where they were still discussing the clue. Delilah was the first to notice me.

"Oh, look, the three-year-old is back. Did I give you any indication you were allowed to come back over here? No, I didn't. So why don't you-"

"Hey, Delilah? Shut it." Dakota motioned to me. "She's in this with us. Also, I know that your tiny brain can't compute this, but Carson was being sarcastic when she said the ceiling didn't say 'fly'. So how about you either be quiet or actually contribute to the conversation?"

Shocked, I stayed silent. Sure, I would have stood up for myself, but I didn't think anyone else would. Especially Dakota. He seemed to hate my guts before this, and I wasn't sure what I'd done to earn this kind of respect- even if it was small. "Who are you looking at?" He snarled at me, and I stopped looking at him. Maybe he still hated me after all.

Delilah sat there, fuming. I was honestly surprised she wasn't bursting out in fury. That took a level of self-control I didn't think that she had.

I guess everyone was just full of surprises today, huh?

"How about we all get back on topic, yes?" I asked. No responses, which meant to me that no one disagreed. "Okay, good. Parker found this note-" I glanced at the boy, who had been silent the whole time- "and it's got a nice note from The Psycho. Our one lead so far is 'future'. That mean anything to any of you?"

We sat in silence for a few seconds before Parker spoke up. "I think that 'fly' is the 'F' in 'future'."

Shocked that we'd actually figured something out, I cracked a smile. Not a full smile, though. Just a little bit. "That actually makes sense."

Delilah scoffed.

I ignored her. "Let's go ahead and mark that down, for whatever reason we need it for." Dakota took another writing utensil from the pencil holder, a normal pencil this time, and wrote 'LY' below the 'F'.

"I guess we have four letters left," Delilah said with a shrug. When she noticed our confused looks, she added hastily, "or... something like that."

Dakota rolled his eyes. "We still need five letters," he told her. "So start looking. Parker can go with Delilah since Delilah seems to have a lot of... interest in him. I'll go with Carson. Meet back here once you have a clue."

Delilah rejoiced, and I groaned inwardly. It wasn't like Dakota liked me, and I hated it when people I... disliked... got off better than me. I guess I would have hated being paired up with anyone at this point.

With a pang, I remembered Amelia back home. Even though we argued a lot, she was still my best friend. I wished that we didn't leave it on such bad terms.

I was examining the seams of the couch for another hidden word when I heard a yelp.

Behind me, Delilah was kissing Parker, holding him against the wall.

Enraged at her incompetence, I stomped over and wrenched the two apart. "You idiots! We could die in an hour if we don't get this figured out, but you two don't even care! The only thing you're worried about is making out with each other!" I beckoned to Dakota. "I'm taking Parker this time. I really can't handle Delilah."

"You just want him for yourself!" She yelled at me, throwing a pencil.

It hit me in the arm, point first.

This obviously did nothing to soothe my rage, and I took a menacing step forward. "I swear to god, you step one more foot out of line..."

"What will you do?" She taunted, feigning an innocent tone.

Dakota stopped me from responding. "Delilah, shut your mouth. This time, keep it closed." He turned to me. "You need to keep yourself calm."

"You're one to talk," I shot back, balling up my fists.

Surprisingly, he shrugged. "Yeah, that's fair. I guess I need to know when to calm down, too."

Uncertain at his sudden demeanor, I stayed quiet.

Dakota turned away and gestured to Delilah, who was wiping away a tear and bawling on Parker's shoulder. "Back away, babycakes. Time to do some clue-hunting."

Was he bipolar or something?

I decided to follow his lead, despite my suspicions. "Let's go, ParkerMason."

As we searched, he hissed to me, "That wasn't my fault, you know. I was practically getting raped."

"If you were being raped, you wouldn't enjoy it," I informed him.

"Wha-" The teen blushed. "How could I enjoy that?"

I shrugged, turning to inspect the gap between the speaker and the wall. "You tell me."

He was saved from answering by a loud shout from the opposite wall. "I found something!" We raced over, Parker vaulting over the couch and me simply taking the normal way. Weirdo.

Dakota pointed to the seams of a burgundy armchair and I leaned in closer, trying to make out the clue. There was a small black string in the seams that seemed to lead into the cushion, and I unzipped it and followed it to a tag.

"Extraordinary senses."