The Unexpected Everything

“May the best team win,” Clark said, and then pulled me in close to him, dipping me into a Hollywood-style kiss. I giggled, but my laughter soon faded as I started kissing him back for real.

“Hey!” I broke away and looked over to see Toby standing in front of me, waving the paper in my face. “Come on. We’re wasting time. And you’re fraternizing with the enemy!”

“But the enemy’s so cute,” I said as Clark pulled me back up to my feet and gave me one more quick kiss before running off to join Tom, glancing back once and waving to me.

“That might have been part of their strategy,” Toby said as she snapped her fingers in front of my face. “Get you all distracted and then they get to sweep in and take the win. Well, not on my watch. I’m not losing my chance to start using actual words again.”

“What do we have?” I looked at the list Palmer had typed up.

COTTON BALLS 1 POINT

THIS LIST, NOTARIZED 20 POINTS

BLUE GUM BALL 4 POINTS

ARTICLE OF FORMAL WEAR (MEN’S OR WOMEN’S) 10 POINTS

FIREFLY 12 POINTS

BURNT SIENNA CRAYON 5 POINTS

HAT THAT’S NOT A BASEBALL CAP 7 POINTS

BELL 1 POINT

BOOK 1 POINT

CANDLE 1 POINT

A SQUARE YOU EAT 5 POINTS

SOMETHING IN A JAR 5 POINTS

SOMETHING ALIVE 7 POINTS

SOMETHING WITH A BOAT ON IT 5 POINTS

AN ACTUAL BOAT 10 POINTS

SOMETHING HOT 3 POINTS

SOMETHING COLD 3 POINTS

DICTIONARY 3 POINTS

PICTIONARY 6 POINTS

SOMETHING THAT LIGHTS UP 7 POINTS

ITEM THAT STARTS WITH Z 9 POINTS

COIN FROM BEFORE 1980 5 POINTS

DINER MENU 10 POINTS

BUSINESS SLOGAN WITH A PUN 5 POINTS

PIZZA WITH THREE TOPPINGS 5 POINTS

NAPKINS 2 POINTS

BOTTLE OF SODA 2 POINTS

ICE CREAM SAMPLE SPOON 3 POINTS

THRILLER DANCE, FROM BEGINNING TO END 12 POINTS

I stared down at the items on the list, thinking about the strategy I’d been refining. I wouldn’t make the same mistake I did last time by going for the big-ticket items. This wasn’t about getting everything on the list. This was about getting the most points and winning Toby her texting freedom back—not to mention freeing me up from trying to figure out what three dancing girls, a cat, and a frowny face meant.

“Okay,” I said, reading the list once, then once again. I watched Bri and Wyatt take off toward his truck and Tom and Clark start to run for Clark’s SUV.

“What’s our plan?” Toby asked, running her hands through her hair.

“I think we go with home-court advantage,” I said. Toby just looked at me blankly. “My house is down the street,” I clarified, and she started nodding. “I say we go there, get what we can, and we’re already ahead of the game. . . .” I reached into my pocket for my keys, but it was empty. I frowned, starting to get a bad feeling as I reached into my other pocket. “Oh, no.”

“What?”

I turned in the direction Clark had run, but of course, he and Tom were long gone. “Clark took my keys,” I said, suddenly understanding the dip kiss. I was trying to stay mad at him, but I was actually just impressed with his technique. I hadn’t seen it coming. “We need to take your car.”

“Bri drove me,” Toby said, her eyes getting wide. We both turned to Palmer, who was sitting on top of the picnic table. “Palmer, we need your car,” Toby said, running up to her. She grabbed Palmer’s purse, then started shaking the contents of it out onto the table.

“Tom drove me,” Palmer said, frowning at the pile of her possessions Toby was currently rifling through. “Looks like you guys will have to figure out something else.” Palmer held up her phone so that we could see the timer counting down. “One hour and fifty minutes, guys. Tick-tock.”

Toby and I looked at each other, and I realized there was just one thing to do. I pulled off my flip-flops and nodded down the road. “My house,” I said, taking a breath. “Ready to run for it?”

? ? ?

“DAD!” I screamed as I barreled into the house, Toby at my heels. A second later, I realized how that sounded. “Everything is fine!” I yelled a moment later. There was no need to give my father a heart attack.

“No, it’s not!” Toby yelled, though a little less loudly than me. “We need help!”

“What’s going on?” my dad called. A moment later he hustled into the foyer, where we were trying to catch our breath. The run we’d done to get to the house had been enough to remind me that walking large dogs, while nicely toning my biceps, had not actually done much to improve my running ability. He took in the sight of us, and his expression grew more alarmed. “You two okay? Hi there, Toby.”

“Hi, Mr. Walker,” Toby said, still breathing hard, her face pretty much the same color as her hair.

“We’re doing a scavenger hunt,” I said, handing my dad the paper, which had gotten more than a little wrinkled during our dash to my house. “Were you doing something?” I asked, suddenly noticing that my dad’s reading glasses were sticking out of his shirt pocket.

“No, just looking at something for a friend,” my dad said as he glanced down at the paper, absently smoothing it out. His eyebrows raised. “This is a pretty challenging scavenger hunt.”