"Seriously?! Are you freaking kidding me? Did April Fools come sooner than I expected? Is this some prank? Am I on Punk'd? Are you all like ganging up on me because I reminded Mr. Wilson about the Organic Chemistry test where nobody was prepared for it and ended up getting bad results. Because if that is the reason, then please punish me in some other form, not in this way. This is preposterous."

Dylan rolls his eyes at Jonah's exaggeration. "No dude, none of the above. And for your information, it was you who chose the chit. Nobody planned it."

"No freaking way!" Jonah stands his ground. "Tell me it was a set up because all the couples are in my team! I would rather be cut into half by a chainsaw or make myself listen to the torturous sounds of the scratching of iron nails on a black board. That is much more better than fifth wheeling these couples."

"This isn't some setup, Jo! Although it looks like one," Natasha eyes the couples of our gangs suspiciously. "It is just luck waltzing on their sides."

"I demand for a redraw! I don't care if I am breaking the rules. I don't trust them being on my team because I am damn sure that these two couples will snog each other's faces half of the time, while I run my ass and work like a slave to win the game." Jonah whines all the way.

"I will request for a redraw," Jay rolls his eyes and goes off somewhere to meet the incharge of our team and play his way around it.

I follow my eyes along the direction that Jay left, and turn back once I loose my sight of him. I take in the scene in front of me: all the ten of us, dressed in comfortable clothes and comfortable shoes, some of them standing in different positions like placing their hands on their hips or crossing their arms across their chest or maybe leaning onto the shoulder of the person standing next to them and some of them even sitting on the grass with their legs stretched out. Like Mason and I.

"Did you see this? Are you seeing it? This is exactly what I am talking about. It is like I am invisible for the four of them. They all need to be separated so that in a way they will come to their senses that they are participating in a serious competition and not something stupid like 'The Most Sappy Couple'," Jonah turns deaf to our protests to quit his tantrums. "But then again, I might be wrong because given to the fact how Zach and Dylan are irretrievably whipped for their girlfriends, these gentlemen are going to let their m'ladies win."

"Hey!" Dylan and Zach both protest but then look at each other in realisation. "Yeah...you are right!"

Jonah's jaw hits the ground. "See! This is what I am talking about! They don't even bother lying for my sake, they don't even sugarcoat it." Jonah complains, offended at their behaviour. "Sap! Mush! Whipped! Soft! Okay, I am running out of words."

"Finally!" I throw my hands up in the air. "For a second, I was afraid that you were going to take out your dictionary out of nowhere and continue with your meaningless rambling."

To be honest, I think I have to side with Jonah on this one because even I hate it that the couples are on the same team. That just means that my best friends are in the opposite team. Especially Dawn and with her new boyfriend.

"Hey, you don't get to say that, alright?! You have no idea how much painful it is...wait a minute. Actually, I can take out my phone and google the synonyms and some more insults to throw at them." In all seriousness, he takes out his phone and begins hitting the keys. "For once, you proved yourself that you are a genius, Adams! It's a shame that you use your brain only once in a blue moon."

"Watch it!" Mason meekly warns Jonah.

I place my hand on Mason's shoulder and shake my head at him, taking no offence for his shameless insult at me. I still have to warm up to Jonah; the other two accepted that they were wrong about their judgments and that they were only being hard on me because of their blinded love to their best friend Jay. I know that Jonah wasn't that serious while insulting me, at least not like before. Although, he is still angry at himself for being plastered with all the alcohol he consumed on Natasha's party and hitting on me constantly. He is obviously mad for being in a team with the only couples in our newly formed group— Dylan and Natasha, and of course the most senior and experienced one— Zach and Sophia.

I perk my head up and look through my sunglasses at Natasha. "Is he always like this?"

She smiles and nods her head. "Especially, when he is stressed—which is right now. He thinks that the whole world is revolving around him and his childish problems. He rambles on and on like the apocalypse is coming soon."

I nod and hug myself to shield from the harsh November cool breeze, mentally cursing myself for not dressing up in some other warm sweater but smile in delight as my sweater colour matches with Jay's long sleeved sweater. I look down at my outfit: it is the blue sweater that my last year Secret Santa aka Dawn gifted me as my Christmas present, paired with my favourite black jeans along with my black vans.

It's been two weeks since I met Jay's sister in the library and me grounded for another extra week. My mom was not at all delighted when she learnt that I did it 'my way' and didn't speak to me that night. It took a lot of persuading with hugs and kisses and a thousand apologies before she broke her vow of silence with me and expressed how I was becoming reckless day by day. I promised that I will start being accountable for all my actions and she told me that me being grounded for another week teaches me to be 'accountable for my mistakes'.

After my punishment and a few tests, all the ten of us planned to do something fun being sober. After a lot of mind cracking sessions which actually lasted from Pictionary to Rock Climbing and Bowling to Laser Tag, we settled to try something different: Scavenger Hunt.

The game is being conducted in the park- the same park where Jay and I first met for the assignment and the same park that Kevin and I go for jog sometimes. It is being conducted by some sponsors(we didn't pay much attention to the speech they were giving). Rules are that the teams will be given a list which consists of clues to find ten, small objects in the park in ninety minutes, but has a twist. Whoever finds all of the ten things first, wins the competition.

Jay comes into view along with one of the volunteers in tow and I glare lasers at his best friend. He had to ruin this for me. I really wish I could just wipe him out of this existence. If it weren't for his stupid tantrums which later leading to change the teams, Jay and I would've been on the same team! Mason had to hold me by my shoulders so that I won't jump up and down on the clouds. I was in my own dreamland where Jay and I were using our sharp laser like senses to find out the last thing from our list and kicking in our ninja skills to grab it which lead to the victory of our team and Jay lifts me up in the air and kisses me.

Yeah... I have a pretty vivid and colourful imagination.

Until Jonah freaking Conner had to fuss up like a seven year-old evil girl with his own stupid, silly problems.

Oh, how I wish I could commit a homicide and escaping from serving years in prison!

"I never do this for anybody, god knows why I am doing this for the second time," the volunteer, according the name read on his name tag- Bob, complains as he allows us to draw the chits once again.

Of course Jay is on the other team!

I hear a sharp shriek that rattles the whole ground beneath us. "This is atrocious! I take it back. I take it back! I want Dylan, Zach, Sophia and Dawn to be on my team. It is better to be invisible than be visible and risk my life with this crackhead on my team. I think Karma is having fun playing with me today. I would rather feed myself to death in the African forests or maybe deserted in the wilderness of the Sahara than being on the same team with this devil in disguise. I demand for a redraw again!"

My eyes widen as I realise what he is saying. Jonah and I on the same team?! This is much more worse than Jay not being on my team!

After the redraw, Team 1 consists of Dawn, Zach, Jonah, Mason and me and Team 2 consists of Jay, Natasha, Sophia, Kevin and Dylan.

"Okay, guys!" Bob claps his hands to get our attention, "this is the final groups and I am not going to change it anymore—"

"Please don't say that, pleeeeeeeease!" Jonah falls onto his knees in front of Bob. "I will help with the volunteering and cleaning after the Scavenger Hunt is done if it takes for another redraw, I beg you."

"I'm sorry, but I am not responsible for your personal problems." Bob shakes his head. "I hope that you will put your differences aside and choose a representative for your team because we are going to proceed the game in another five minutes," he concludes and walks away.

I turn around to face my group as I try to ignore Jonah's presence. "So, will Zach lead our team?"

"I'm up for it," he shrugs his shoulder.

"So what is our plan?" Dawn questions.

"Simple. Take down the other team by using our Einstein like brain and win," I joke with my team.

Jonah scoffs. "That actually sucks. Then again, it is going to be hard since you don't have one."

I ignore him as I keep my patience in check.

"Jonah, it was just a joke. And you don't want to mess with her, my man! She will get feisty when she wants to," Zach warns him.

"No, dude, I don't care because her plan actually sucks. Can't she be serious for once?! I very well know that Jay is going to lead his team and very well know how his brain works. I live inside it. So all I want to say is that Emma's plan is trash."

"Now is it too much to ask for you to put you Russia sized ego aside for sixty goddamn minutes?! And let me remind you that I am determined to win this game like you, so with you sulking over me all the time is not going to let us win. I don't want to loose." I huff in irritation. "Do you hear me?!" I shout in despair.

There is a limit for everyone. Even I have a limit when I have to put up with someone else's shit. This guy over hear is giving me a headache with his whining since the past half an hour which puts a 5 year-old to shame. I know that he hates me to the core and I am not too delighted that this guy who hates my presence in a room is now standing barely three feet apart. I just got to suck it up.

Jonah looks at me wide-eyed and blinks. And blinks again. "Whoa!" But he still doesn't look convinced.

Zach leans towards him, failing to whisper miserably again. "See, dude, this was exactly I was warning you about."

"You know what?" I start as I think over the risks once again that I am willing to take, "let's talk numbers," Jonah's eyes snap back at me. "If we win, I will let you taunt me for a week."

"I'm listening."

I roll my eyes internally and take a daring step forward. "I will let you know that there are no boundaries. You can jut out your anger, your hatred, all your pent up frustration which has been consuming you, eating you day by day, torturing those last of your few cells present in your body—"

"I don't have last of my remaining cells—"

"Hush! Don't interrupt," I slap his hand and continue. "Think of all the times where you pulled the roots of your hair, when you already know that you are having a major hair fall problems—"

"I don't have hair fall problems."

"—whenever you heard my name. The fury blazing into your nerves whenever you saw me walk down those halls or the rage slowly building up inside you like a tornado whenever I was talking to your brother Jay. Think about it."

I can see the fire sparking with the change of the colour in his cobalt eyes, slowly turning to grey, resembling the grey clouds above us. The twitch of his nose, unsettled breathing, narrowed eyes and looking straight ahead into nowhere, the wheels in his brain running faster than Usain Bolt in the olympics.

I whisper to Dawn beside me. "Is my lame plan actually working on this guy?"

His eyes snap back at me as he decides for an answer. "And you won't break the bet?"

A small smirk creeps up my lips as I see that I bought him through my plan. "I won't."

"Then get ready to come up with a brand new ones, bro," Mason looks at me and winks, "'cause we are definitely going to win."

"All the teams please assemble here," the head manager calls out to us and we shuffle our way towards the makeshift stage in the centre. The five teams consists of ours, Jay's team, a group of middle school boys, and two other groups with four boys and four girls around our age.

The head manager clears his throat. "Now, I will just wrap up the instructions quickly: the colour the respective team picks from this bowl has to follow that colour throughout the entire game for them to find their respective clues to win this game. Like we've already mentioned, Scavenger Hunt is being proceeded by the same rules followed around the globe but we are indulging our little twist here— you will soon come to know about it. Follow your colour only, and DO NOT CHEAT. You are under continuous supervision by the volunteers from our team and will be disbanded immediately if seen practicing such acts."

We all nod our heads in affirmative after he finishes letting us through one last quick go-through the rules and regulations.

"Now I request one of the members from each team to select the colour of their choice and go back to their teams but not open it."

Zach steps ahead from our team while— just like Jonah predicted— Jay steps from their team. One of the head members lays out the bowl in front of the five group leaders and each of them pick out a coloured roll tied securely with a silver ribbon and they clamber down to go back to their teams after being warned again to not open it until they are told and to follow the same colour until the end of the game.

Zach comes back to our team with a green coloured scroll while Jay comes back with a blue coloured one.

I look over their team and see the excitement coursing through them as they see their own roll and eager to open it.

"All the best, guys!" I shout out to them and give them a smile.

"You too!" Jay winks at us. "May the best one win!"

"Which is obviously us, duh!" Mason scoffs, jokingly.

"We'll see about that," Dylan smirks from their team.

"You better play fairly, Zach. Don't try to be the perfect boyfriend and think about yourself for once, please!" Sophia warns and begs him at the same time.

"If you insist, sweetheart!" Zach winks at her.

Sophia glares and opens her mouth to throw some warning at him but is cut off by the booming voice coming from the head manager. "Are you all ready?"

Numerous enthusiastic yes-es come from the participants.

"And in 3......2......let the hunt begin!"

Zach pulls the ribbon immediately and opens the roll as we gang up around him to read the first clue for our team.

Zach reads it out loud for us:
"The place where the sun wakes up in glory,
And where the animals are allowed to party."

We all stare at each other for a few seconds as the words slowly sink in, slowly muttering the words over and over again, and looking around the park to guess something.

Dawn looks up at the sun. "So the sun is in the sky....so our clue is in the sky?"

"But waking up?" Mason pipes in, his eyebrows deeply frowned in thinking but shoot up immediately. "Waking up..."

"East?" I pipe in. "The sun rises in the east!"

"Maybe it is talking about the direction?" Jonah looks at me.

"So should we head in the eastern direction?" I ask.

"But we don't know the second part of the clue!" Dawn points out.

"Maybe we will figure it out if we head in the eastern direction?" I suggest. "What say?"

"Not a bad idea!" Zach agrees and looks up in the sky. "So it is fifteen minutes past eleven..." he turns slightly to his right as he looks at the sun through his Ray-bans, "so we will be heading in this direction."

I nod my head as I look at my phone, "Even the compass is showing the same direction."

Jonah scoffs. "This was a no-brainer and you still chose to use your phone?"

"In my defence, Zach was taking his sweet time and I wanted to be sure, okay!"

"It's like using a calculator in your math exam even though you know that two threes equals six," he mocks me.

"Now's not the time! Can we please run now?" Dawn scolds us and the five of us sprint towards the east direction before I turn my head to glance at my other friends if they are still there, but I see no sign of them which only means that they are already on the run.

While we run in the eastern direction, we look around and observe every single thing, trying to crack the second half of the clue. We try to think of anything that is remotely connected to animals and partying. We split into another two teams- Mason and I being one while Jonah, Zach and Dawn being the other one. Mason and I also go to the dog park along the way- which was in the direction that we were heading thinking maybe 'dogs party here'. But we don't find our clue, but instead catch a glimpse of a red coloured roll.

"We found it!"

Mason and I follow the sharp shriek of Jonah's, who is only a few meters ahead of us.

"Did you find the clue?" Mason asks as he looks at the three of them searching around the Monkey Bars.

"Not exactly, but we are certain that it is here somewhere," Jonah informs us. "'The place where animals are allowed to party' means these Monkey Bars. You see, animal here is a 'monkey' and partying because it is a freaking 'bar'!"

"Wow, that is impressive!" Mason says and I nod my head in agreement. "Now you think that the clue is somewhere here?"

"Yes! So stop wasting our time and get to work!" Zach commands and we all search for clues. I round around the Monkey Bars to find a clue but come up empty. I look at the rods and touch each of them, trying to feel something but nothing comes up. I look at the ends of it, searching in the grass as well but it is the same result.

With a huff, I put my hands on my hip as I look at my friends doing the same thing- trying to search for the second hint in the surroundings of the Monkey Bars.

"Is that a key to the branch?"

I snap my head as I hear the words coming out of Dawn's. I try to run towards her to check if it is true, but I accidentally hit my right foot with a stone and loose my balance. As I slowly fall on the ground, I quickly see it coming and turn my face to the side and put my palms out in the open as a shield and turn my head to the sideways, trying to lessen the pain as I finally come in contact with the ground.

A sharp pain eases through my body and I stay still for a few seconds, before I quickly get up on my feet, pretending like the last few seconds did not happen. My eyes tear up at the pain that is coursing in the right side, but I swiftly brush the tears away.

I turn around and see that all the four of them are looking at me.

"I know I am beautiful, so quit the staring," I laugh nervously.

"We saw you fall," Zach deadpans but I sense the worry in his tone.

"Nope! I didn't fall, I was just hugging the ground." I justify.

"We saw you wipe away the tears!" Dawn raises her brow.

"It was an emotional moment!" I snap at her. "So what about the key that you said?"

Dawn stares at me for a few beating seconds. "Yup! I saw this key hanging to the branch, so I pulled it. And it was tied with a green string, so I guess we are in the right track."

"So what next?" Jonah asks, "Is this one of the ten things we have to find? How can we find the others?"

I tune out as Mason comes beside me in concern. "You alright there?"

"Yeah....just a mild pain in the sides and the right foot."

He crouches down and instructs me to take out my shoe. I put my right hand on his shoulder as I use him as a support to take out my shoe and put my leg back on the grass. He tries to look for the signs of blood clots or swelling on my toes, but luckily no damage happens. He also asks me to twist my feet, checking for any sounds of pop or signs of pain, but I pass with flying colours.

"Thank god that there are no serious injuries. But it could've been a sprain if you didn't act out in time." Mason tells me.

"All thanks to your safety measures, Dr. Hunter," I smile at him.

"'Future' Dr. Hunter," Mason corrects me. "Where is that stone anyways?"

I put my foot back into my shoe as I show him the place where I hit myself with and he searches for the stone but he doesn't see any.

"You sure it was stone?" Mason questions.

"Of course!" I walk back to the place, trying to explain how I fell, but Mason stops me.

"Is that...." he crawls and takes out a small, rectangular box and we both look at each other in realisation.

"We found the lock to the key!"

The three of them snap their heads at us as they hear our words. As they march towards us, Mason and I inspect the box.

"This box was hid in the grass and camouflaged in green colour!" Mason explains. "Dawn, pass me the key that you found."

"Here," she gives the key to Mason as he inserts the key into the small lock. He twists it to the right and the lock opens with a small click. We shout in delight as he removes the lock and opens the box. Inside it, we find another similar green coloured scroll and take it out.

Mason unties the string and reads the letter for us:
"Congratulations! Now you are officially going to begin the hunt. Below are the hints of the locations which are required for you to find the objects. But here is the twist that we have been telling you about- there are only 'five' hints i.e. only five locations to find only five objects. The other five objects are related/ paired with the ones that you find in these locations listed below. You need to guess them with the clues attached to the object that you find in the location to the volunteer assigned in a place nearby. Once you guess it correct, you will be given this green coloured roll with the clue of the place that it is hidden at. Hope this was clear! Below are the clues:

1) Castles are something that I'm used to,
The only 'x' that you want to go back to.

2) I will pull you back,
But I also let you touch the sky.

3) I always run but never walk,
I often murmur, but never talk,
I have a bed but never sleep,
I have a mouth but never eat.

4) I see shots fired each day,
Both your defense and reward on each end.

5) Man walks over, man walks under,
In times of war, he asunder,
By the way, I am between clinton and obama.

Hope you will find them soon.

Let the hunting games begin!"

"Sooo......" Dawn starts, "Can somebody sum it up quickly once again?"

I look at her incredulously. "It was that simple and you couldn't understand?!"

She looks at me, puzzled. "Did you really understand?"

"What, you think that I am that dumb?" I challenge her.

"I didn't say that!"

"But that's what you meant it!"

"Girls girls girls!" Jonah steps in the middle. "Can we save the girl drama for later periods? We will be bored some time and I promise that I bring it up and you can argue your hearts out. But right now....SCAVENGER HUNT!"

I roll my eyes and exhale in annoyance. "In this scroll, we have five clues for the places that we need to search."

"Where we will only find five objects," Dawn completes my answer. "But we need to find five other."

"And we will find them once we find the object," Mason explains. "The object that we find is connected with the second object."

"We will also be given a clue, attached to the one that we find," Zach continues. "Once we guess it correct to the volunteer nearby, he will give us the clue of the place where it is hidden."

"Okay!" Dawn nods her head as she slowly takes in the information once again. "Totally not confusing."

"Okay, guys, listen up!" Zach starts, "We only got 65 minutes more on the clock now, so we have to split. I've already taken a picture of this scroll and Whatsapped you so that it is easier for us. I am also going to put all of us in a conference call to be updated with each other, making it easier for all of us. You agree?"

"YES!" All of us agree.

"Also," Jonah stops before we split. "Cheat Code: Just remember that if you are searching in a place and you see a volunteer nearby, then you are in the right place. If not....you know what to do."

We all nod at his advice, wish each other luck and split in different directions after deciding on who has to follow which clue for another two minutes. I read the one assigned for me over and over again.

"Castles are something that I'm used to, the only 'x' you want to go back to."

I walk around, looking for signs which indicates castles. I come across various places, the dog park once again, the skating ring, the water fountain, the ball pit, but nothing that I can think of as castles. And the 'x' thing is even out of the question.

As I pass by the ball pit, I catch a glimpse of Jay which strikes up the rate of my heartbeat immediately. He is standing in the middle, looking lost as he stares into nowhere. His pink lips pulled into a slight pout, his brown hair resembling an adorable mess on his head, the sleeves of his blue sweater raised up until his elbows is the sight that leaves every girl to stop in her tracks and admire the raw beauty in front of her. He looks like he demands attention from every female and makes sure that they don't turn their heads back without appreciating the almighty for carving him into perfection. It is one of the moments that makes me open my camera on my phone and freeze the moment to eternity.

I mute my voice over my phone and leave the conference call between the five of us in speaker as I walk towards him and speak up once I am in the distance where he can hear. "You look lost there!"

He snaps out of his trance once he registers the words in his brain and looks at me, pulling his pouty lips into one of his gorgeous smiles. "I think I am in the right place," he winks.

I shake my head. "How's the game coming for ya?"

"Pretty bad actually. We have 55 minutes on the clock and we only found four things off the list."

I raise my brows. "You should see ours. We didn't find even one!"

"Really?" He stares at me in shock but them looks at me smugly. "I think I have an idea on who is going to win between the both of us."

I roll my eyes. "Whatever!" I start walking away. "I will leave you now."

"Wait wait!" He pulls me by my lower arm to stop me. "Is it okay if one team helps the another out if sympathy?"

"Sympathy?!" I scoff. "Are you going to help me out of sympathy?"

"Yeah....I feel bad for you guys because you didn't even find one," Jay doesn't sugarcoat it, but I can hear the humour in his words.

Just then, I hear Mason's enthusiastic voice over the speaker. "I found one! I found one!"

I play along. "No thanks, we will do this on our own!"

"I found a small, green coloured car, so right now I am going to one of those men and guess it right, which I am thinking is a video game controller since this car also has a small antenna attached and also the clue attached to it say so," Mason concludes.

Having overheard Mason's answer over the phone, he stares at me with fake pity. "Your wish," he shrugs and moves to the side to let me walk away. "But make sure that you look at the place that we met here!"

I stop dead in my tracks and spin on my heel. "What?"

Jay smirks. "You owe me!" Saying that, he jogs away as I swiftly search in my memory for the place that I first met Jay here and my mind for once obeys as it plays the scenes virtually in front of me in HD quality. We walked around the children's area for a while and settled near the palm trees which was right opposite to the sand pit where the children were playing with their sand toys, building.....

Oh flip!

I bolt in lightening speed towards the children's area, with my phone tightly clutched in my hand. Once I am in the children's area, my eyes scan for the sand pit and I run towards it. As I reach there, I look around the place, trying to crack the second part. I go over to the sand pit and search for any possible 'x' sign carved on the sand, but nothing.

I scan the area and see a volunteer right outside the children's area and he is subtly looking at me.

So I am in the right place.

I turn to the left and glance at the palm trees where Jay and I sat over a month ago. As I scan at the place from top to bottom, there are two palm trees that are bending slightly towards each other and overlapping them. As I look closer into it, the overlapping of the trees look in the shape of the letter 'x' and before I know it, I am sprinting towards the trees and inspecting the trunk of one of the palm trees. When I see nothing, I run over to the other tree and do the same. I look at the ground near the trunk and I spot an object tied in a green ribbon.

"I FOUND ONE!"

I scream into the phone as I bend down and pick it up. It is a small, pink coloured lip gloss with a clue attached to it. I immediately unwrap it and read the words.

"I usually belong on a wall,
And everybody is obsessed with me,
But no matter how evil she is, I will say that the Queen is beautiful."

"Guys, I found a lipgloss and the clue says that we are all obsessed with it and something that this certain evil queen is beautiful."

But still, I get no response.

I look at my phone if the con call got disconnected accidentally, but I see that I did not take mine out of mute.

Cue the face palm!

So then I take out mine out of mute and repeat the words once again for them. Of course Jonah roasts me saying that I fell down a river and died due to the radio silence from my side.

"Is it what I think it is?" Dawn asks.

"It's a mirror!" The boys answer in unison.

I read the clue and realise that the queen was none other than the evil queen from 'Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs.'

"You boys have a very good knowledge on Disney movies." I point it out.

"Wrong. We kind of knew it in the first two lines because everybody is obsessed with a mirror and you need to have it when you apply a lip gloss." Mason answers.

"Sure, sure!" I partly agree and take the lip gloss with me and run towards the volunteer who is standing outside the children's area. When I tell him my answer, he nods in affirmation and gives me a green envelope.

"Emma? Emma? You there?"

I recognise the voice on the phone. "Yes, Jonah, I can hear you."

"Are you still at the Children's area?"

"Yep! But I am almost leaving."

"Wait, I am almost there."

And after a few seconds, Jonah jogs over to me. "I already found the two things so I thought that I would help you."

Surprised, I reply, "Cool!" I oblige for his help. "What all did you find?"

He opens the zip of his bag that was given for us to keep the objects in and takes out a a ball and a small frisbee. I read the clue that was given for the frisbee, which read "I am boomerang's younger sister." These are the things that are related to the toys that a dog plays with.

I laugh at the clue and I open the envelope. Inside it is a map which has the directions that we have to head to in order to find the required object, which is a mirror. We both follow the directions in the map carefully and for a few minutes, we get lost. And of course Jonah and I get into a fight until Zach comes over to us when he hears our bickering over the phone to calm us down. So the three of us walk back to the place where we lost track of our direction and start again. We reach the assumed place where we think that the mirror is hidden in and find that it is plastered below the water fountain.

"So now we have four objects with us?" Zach asks.

"Isn't it six?" I correct him. "Because Mason found a car and said that he is looking for the controller about twenty minutes ago, so I am guessing he found it?"

When we ask Mason over the phone, he says that he still did not find it and that Dawn is helping him.

"So that still leaves us with five!" Jonah groans. "Wait, what about you, Zach?! Didn't you find anything?"

"Almost!" He answers sheepishly and explains. "You see, my clue says that it pulls us back, but it also makes sure that we touch the sky. So that means a swing, a see-saw and also a trampoline. I am running around the park and apparently there are hundreds of swings and see-saw in this park. There's only one trampoline and I've searched it as well, but it's not there. Now the only place that is left to search is the children's area."

"Argh!" I groan out loud. "You could've said something over the phone, right! I spent half of  the time there," I shout at him and the three of us sprint towards the children's area, the place that I've now got used to.

We check the clock and see that we have exactly 30 minutes to find another five things off the list. We split, where Zach and I look near the see-saws while Jonah looks at the swings. Almost five minutes later, we hear Jonah yelling that he found something.

We jog over to him while he rips the green coloured pouch under the swing and takes out a black coloured earphones.

"This clue is going to be interesting!" Jonah says as he opens the clue and reads it out for us: "Welcome to your tape!"

Our eyes widen in realisation. "13 Reasons Why!" We scream in unison.

We run towards the volunteer and literally scare him off with our ear deafening screams from meters away. "It's a cassette! It's a cassette!"

He gives us the clue which reads "The couples are quite familiar with this place ;)"

Jonah and I, with our eyebrows raised, look at a flustered Zach who is squirming in his place, knowingly. "I got it from here," he grabs the clue from Jonah's hands and runs away in a direction that god knows where.

We ask Mason and Dawn on their whereabouts and they say that they found the controller and are now trying to figure out Dawn's assigned clue which, in their words, is quite hard.

"How hard is it to find?" I complain as I read the second clue from the scroll. "The clue obviously says that it is a bridge seeing that we walk over and under the bridge, and it is hidden in the bushes because George 'Bush' was the President between Clinton and Obama."

"Even you were clueless until I cracked the hint and told you, Emma," Jonah reminds me.

"Just, shut up!" I snap at him.

"You really are adamant on winning this game," he mutters under his breath.

If he only knew!

We reach the small bridge barely fifteen feet and see Mason and Dawn who are searching through the bushes and soon we join them in searching.

"Maybe it is misplaced? Maybe someone stole it?" Dawn wonders as she searches near the bridge.

I scoff. "Can't you be an optimist for once?!"

"No, Dawn, it is not misplaced," Mason assures her. "The volunteers are keeping an eye on everyone, so I am sure that it is not misplaced."

"And it's difficult since our colour is green and surprisingly, the grass is also green!" Jonah comments sarcastically.

"Ahh!! I found it! I found it!" Dawn screams in delight.

"'Bout time!" I mutter under my breath as she opens the green box and takes out the clue and a plastic made dagger.

That means.....

Dawn's eyes meet mine and we immediately know what it is.

"IT'S A ROSE!" We both yell in unison.

"Girls, do not rush into this!" Jonah argues. "Dagger could also mean something else, can't we just read the clue and then come to a conclusion?!"

"Rose and dagger! It is always rose and dagger, you idiot!" Mason scolds him, as he runs with us to the volunteer to get the clue.

But no! Jonah opens the clue and reads it out loud:
"I may be pretty, but I prick,
I may be lovely, but I wither."

After reading it, he stares at it for a minute and sighs. "Yup, it is a rose."

The kid who is volunteering almost looks like he's going to faint looking at our aggressive expressions when we demand him to give us the clue as we shout our answer at him. Honestly, I feel for the kid.

He gives us the clue and we hurry to read the final clue, which is the only obstacle in snatching the trophy that we deserve. 

It's actually five gold medals bought from the dollar store, but whatever.

We open the envelope and find a small piece of paper along with 7, single lettered pieces that are found in a scrambled game. On the paper, it reads: "First word- 4 letters, second word- 3 letters."

We empty the letters on the ground and look at the letters, which consists of two 'l's, one 'b' one 'p', an 'a', one 't' and one 'i'.

Zach runs over to is once he finds the cassette in the 'secret' place and helps us in solving the small anagram. After five minutes, the place is crystal clear for us and we scurry of from the grass as we run in the western direction to search for the pretty, red rose.

"Let's hurry our pretty asses, people! I don't wanna loose to our friends who I am sure are going to make it as their life ambition to rub it off on our faces," Jonah 'motivates' us as he speaks over his shoulders.

We reach the ball pit with the last fifteen minutes to spare on our watches. We take of our shoes and jump into the ball pit and dive right inside in search for the rose. We swim below and above the balls, dig the balls to the side and trying to feel anything in our hands. The colourful balls come and come in our way as we try to dig them away and away.

Finally, as I drag myself to a corner  and dig my hands inside, I feel something hard hit my fingers and it stays there, instead of slipping away like the ball. My heart skips for a millisecond as I dig further and take the box out. My heart rummaging inside my ribs, I slowly open the box and there it is.

As I slowly recover from the sudden adrenaline, I snap out of my trance and call out for my friends. "Guys!"

The clinking of the plastic balls suddenly stops and I slowly turn towards them, showing them the box and I can see that this box almost knocked off the wind in them. They take in the box and the rose inside of it with wide eyes. After what feels like an hour, they get out of the trance and come back to reality.

"What are we waiting for?! LET'S GO!!!!" Zach shouts and as if we are waiting for his permission, we then hurry out of the ball pit and put on our shoes after we shove the box of rose into the bag.

"How much time is left?" Dawn asks.

"Seven minutes!" Zach informs as he hurries into his shoes.

"Faster, Zach, faster!" Jonah screams, impatiently.

"I'm trying, but the sole is coming out of my shoe!" He reasons.

I exhale in frustration and turn around and freeze in my spot. I think the other four have also seen them because I hear no insults from Jonah and Mason thrown at Zach. The other five also stop in their tracks as they spot us. All the ten of us look at each other intently like a stare-off competition.

"Hey, guys! Where are you heading off to?" Kevin asks us.

"To the main stage," Jonah answers. "And may I ask you the same question?"

"And coincidentally, you get the same answer as well!" Dylan speaks.

"Sooooo...." I stare at them.

"Meet you on the other side?" Jay comments.

We then stare at each other for a few seconds before Zach breaks the tension.

"Screw this shoe, let's go!"

And in one swift moment, all the ten of us sprint towards the makeshift stage, running faster and faster that I am afraid our lower legs are going to come off of our knees and split open. We see the stage come in our sight and we push ourselves even faster to reach first.

As we run, we see the stage coming to us with every skip on the ground. And as we finally reach the stage, all the ten of us stumble on the stage and we try to shove the bag into their hands.

"First!"

"No, we reached first!"

"But we are the one who gave the bag to them!"

"Unless you call throwing a bag on someone's face is 'giving', we are first!"

"Guys, guys! Let me stop you right there!" The head breaks our argument. "I am afraid that we already have a winner!"

"What?!" All of us shout in unison.

"Yeah," he looks at us apologetically. "These kids here were the first ones to come here, where they had last 20 minutes to spare. In fact, the other two teams are also here. If anything, you both are the last ones to finish the game!"

With our mouths agape, we all stare at him after the earth shattering revealation. This was the least expected answers that we'd thought we'll receive.

"But the important thing is that you've finished the game. Hope you all enjoyed this as much as we've enjoyed planning it. Until next time then!" He wishes and walks off the stage.

We look at each other, dumbfounded, not knowing what to say.

"Soooo..." I start, "Who do you think won between us?"

And that ladies and gentlemen is how you start a fight!

Finally!!!!

There's no A/N. I am sure that you are tired of this very very very long chapter! I was tired myself. I promise that from next chapter, it won't be this fucking long.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I worked really hard on this one!!!

Vote and comment, peeps!