Summer Site 2019

Escape!

A Novella I Wrote

Chapter One: Arrested For... What?

“Oh wonderful!” Kassidy yelled at me. “Hurry Miri, run as fast as you can!” I couldn’t run. My stamina was always terrible.

Kassidy, who was right in front of me, was a tall girl with dark brown glasses and short hair. She always wore a jacket or two, no matter how hot it would be sometimes. She had a shirt with her favorite band on it, and was wearing a pin that said “Let’s get something straight, I’m not!” Before you make any assumptions, Kassidy liked girls, boys and everything in between. If we had to classify her as a stereotype, we would easily choose emo.

“You’re one to talk,” Brody called from the front. “They’re catching up to us!” Brody was my friend, and the boyfriend of one of my friends. He had rather fluffy brown hair and was wearing a black drawstring bag. It probably contained the blue and gray jacket he always wore. My knees were going to give out. “Can we please stop soon?” I asked.

“If you want to get stuck in prison, be our guest!” Alisa yelled. I kept running. Alisa was what we called a love devil. She loved nothing more than making fun of us about the guys and girls we liked and dated. Unfortunately for us, revenge was almost impossible, since she never had a boyfriend or told us who she liked. Unlike Kassidy, she was straight, probably the straightest of all of our friends.

“They’re getting awfully close!” Seiko, who was right behind Brody, called. Seiko was an Asian girl, whose real name was unknown to us. Seiko was simply the name of her favorite anime character. Unlike her, though, the character was always bright and cheerful. Seiko was anything but that. She liked to laugh at the misfortune of others, which is also known as schadenfreude, and she was nonchalant. There was nobody more pessimistic than Seiko. Unfortunately for us, Seiko was right. They were awfully close, and by they, I mean the police. They were chasing after us.

You have met almost every one of my friends here. The only one you haven’t met yet is Johnson. Guess how he got his name! His dad’s name is John! His parents were about as creative as me: the least creative being on this earth. He, like the others, had a hoodie, but ditched it for obvious reasons. He was wearing a black t-shirt and had his dark brown hair gelled and spiky.

Then there’s me. Miriam, better known as Miri, the slow, logical, random nerd. I have always loved books, school and the spelling bee. I was more than a little weird and crazy, but I always made sure to have fun. I always had some kind of weird quality to me, whether it be my weird obsession with trolls, or my desire to remember the spelling of the longest word in the English language: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which was a lung disease cause by a volcanic eruption. Call me a nerd all you like, but don’t complain if a doctor diagnoses you with it and you don’t have a clue what’s wrong with you. That reminds me, another thing about myself. I want to be some kind of a medical professional in the future. I just want to be there to help others. In fact, the two jobs I’d like most are a surgeon or a psychologist. In my opinion, mental health is just as important as physical health.

“You guys, my legs are giving out!” I yelled. My legs have had a history of collapsing while I needed them, probably because they were double-jointed and therefore buckled often. I was constantly tripping or falling either because of my legs or just for the fact that I am clumsy, and we all knew that couldn’t happen now.

“Get up,” Brody told me, letting me climb onto his back. I climbed on, which relieved my legs of so much pain. As you already know, I couldn’t run for my life.

I know Brody’s girlfriend would have hated me, but I have to admit, it was quite a pleasant experience. I got to rest my legs and my breath, but I still felt the thrill of the run. Besides, it was better than me tripping and landing us all some spot in prison or whatever.

“Can you at least navigate for us, Miri? I know you’re good at that,” Johnson asked, imploringly. “Totally!” I was happy to at least be able to help somehow. I pulled my phone from my pocket and opened a map app. “Turn right here!”

Ten minutes later, Alisa called out to us. “Please, I need help too. My legs aren’t great and I don’t think I can run much longer.”

Kassidy picked her up and kept running. We rounded a corner and passed a bank. I could hear Brody panting underneath me and everyone looked so tired, it was hard for me to watch while sitting on someone’s back. Honestly, though, if I were running, I’d just slow us all down more.

“I’m getting really tired here!” Kassidy yelled.

“Sorry,” Alisa replied. “I can get off of you want.”

“No, it’s okay. You need it anyway.”

“Hey look, you guys!” I yelled from Brody’s back. “There’s a turn up ahead there! We can try turning in there!”

“What does the map say?” Johnson asked.

“It’s not there, meaning it’s highly likely that it’s a dead end.” I glanced at my phone again. “That’s scary, to say the least.”

“They could catch us,” Brody replied.

“But they might not,” Johnson said. Normally he was the voice of reason, now, he just wasn’t making sense. Maybe he was just too tired from running.

“I’m tired,” Kassidy repeated. “I’m in for turning!”

“I vote to turn,” was Johnson’s reply.

“Yeah, agreed.” Seiko nodded while panting.

“Well, majority rules, I exclaimed. At the end of this street, make a left turn!” We turned the corner to catch our breath and hoped it wasn’t a dead end so we could make it out.

It was a dead end. Just great! We heard sirens approaching and two cars pulled us in. There was one policeman and a policewoman. The policeman pulled me into his car first. Kassidy and Seiko got pulled in right after me, and the other three were shoved into the other car, with the policewoman. My eyelids slowly closed and blackened my vision. All that running had made me really tired, and I wasn’t even the one running most of the time. I tried to resist the temptation of falling asleep, but of course I failed.

I hate the sense of premonition. I walked through an empty jail cell aimlessly, looking for some source of human life. Maybe a friend.

“Miri, please help me!” A meek voice came from behind me. I turned around to see Brody, withering weakly on the cold, hard ground. He had a sad smile on his face and held a book in his hand.

“Brody?” I clarified, “What’s wrong?”

“Don’t you remember, Miri?” His sad smile turned into a frown. “All of our friends are gone. They all died from the epidemic.”

“What epidemic?” This was beyond my imagination. Nothing, and I mean nothing, ever happened to my friends, as far as I could remember.

“Miri! Miri!” I was woken up 45 minutes later by Kassidy, who was tapping on my shoulder, and Seiko, who was trying to pry open my eyelid.

“Come on, Miri,” Kassidy said, “Do you seriously want to stay in the car?”

“Seriously, Miri. Hurry!” Seiko was now trying to pull me out of the car.

“Fine.” I dragged my feet out of the car. I looked up and saw the same policeman who drove our car and the lady from the other car. They pulled us into a really ugly and cheap looking building. It was, honestly, pretty small as well. It was pretty sad looking and was not appealing, even to the slightest extent. I hate to say it, but the interior of the building was worse than the exterior. Then it hit me. This was a kind of prison. It was unusual, though, as most prisoners in my area were all in one big prison.

The two police led us into a room with a table in it. Behind the table sat a lady wearing a police uniform and a blue hat. Her dark brown hair was in a bun seated at the base of the hat. She had bright pink lipstick, which matched her complexion surprisingly well. She seemed in her 30s or around there, and she had a big smile plastered on her face, as if she really didn’t want us around but was forced to act nice. Actually, that scenario seems rather likely.

“Hello there, my name is Ally. I am the head of the police here. We have found you all guilty of shoplifting, as well as crossing the street when the sign clearly said to wait.”

“I can explain,” Brody started. “We were in a hurry to get to-”

“I don’t need your lousy excuses!” Ally said, calmly. Here, let me show you where to go. You can keep your things with you for now, they’ll be confiscated from you when you move to the other prison in about an hour.”

“What other prison?” Kassidy asked.

“You know, the one where all the long-time criminals go.” Ally smiled politely.

“But we only didn’t heed to a street sign! We never shoplifted! And we only ran through the sign because the police were after us. You can’t exactly blame us for that.” Brody raised his voice, which was a common thing for him to do. His big mouth got him in trouble often, which didn’t come as too big of a surprise. “Why would you keep us in the big time prison? How long do we have to stay there?”

“Ten years,” Ally responded coolly, “And you deserve to be there.”

“Arrested for...what? We honestly didn’t shoplift! How do we deserve it?” Johnson was normally quiet and more cowardly, but when it came to helping his friends, he was always willing to do whatever it took, even if it was out of his comfort zone.

“There were commercials on TV about the street signs and why you should heed them. There were also ads in the newspaper, so everyone should have seen it, and if not, it really should have been common sense. Both advertisements mentioned the fact that crossing without reading the signs or not crossing on the crosswalk would have punishments, one of which was jail time, so you all should have seen it coming.”

“What is wrong with this lady?!” Seiko whispered to me. I just turned to her and shrugged. Ally was really odd. A crazy, over the top policewoman was precisely what we didn’t need right now.

“Well, if you’ll all just follow me,” Ally said. She led us down a hallway, to our great disliking. It’s not like we had the option of not following her, though. We made it to the end of the hall and she opened up a door.

Chapter Two: Let's Go For a Breakout!

“Oh, just wonderful! This is horrible!”

It was a bit unusual for a prison, but of course it was something Brody would freak out about. It was small, especially for a claustrophobic person like him, and it was really hot. Thank goodness for that, though, since we all ditched our jackets when running from the police.

Another horrible thing: the music in the room will forever haunt me. There was this jazzy music playing in the room. It seemed oddly familiar, but I just couldn’t tack down when I heard it and why I know it. It may seem odd, but that rarely ever happened to me, since my memory was normally pretty sharp.

There were two cells in one room. Outside of the cells were another area, which seemed like a place only used when people were allowed out of the cell for “recreation.” I don’t know how much fun you can have stuck in a room with only a chessboard and chalk.

Kassidy, Seiko and I all bolted for the same cell, leaving the other three together in the other cell. The cell I was in had a desk with a locked box on it, a drawer(which was closed with a lock), a bookshelf covered with books, a bed(no surprise there) with ugly gray sheets, a cuckoo clock, and a picture of animals in a safari.

I described this to the other side, who seemed to have a similar room. Their sheets, however, were black, and they had no box on their desk. Instead of the animal picture, too, they had this odd painting of a ballet dancer and another painting with a clown.

“We need to get out of here in less than an hour. It seems risky, but let’s go for a breakout,” Alisa suggested.

“I don’t know about that. We may get hurt!” Johnson, of course, was against this idea. “It’s okay, Johnson! Would you rather try to get out and have a chance at a normal life again, or surely be stuck in here forever? At least we have a chance!” I tried. Of course, my persuasion skills weren’t the best.

“Would you rather be stuck here or have a chance of dying?” Johnson, while being a bit dramatic, did have a point there. If Ally caught us trying to escape, I’m 99.9% sure she’d order for us to be executed. That would make an interesting headline, though: SIX TEENS EXECUTED FOR JAYWALKING. Weird, but hey, it makes enough sense, I guess.

“Well, let’s get started. I think majority votes to try to get out of here, and if we are going to do that, let’s not waste our time.” Kassidy, of course, was being real, as she always was. I started my phone timer for an hour. In the worst case scenario, they would have taken my phone and could easily turn off the timer anyway. Besides, knowing how much time you have always helps. “I found this note,” Alisa said. “I think this may help you get out.” She read it out loud. “What can be found all over the world, in a spider’s home and in Africa?”

“What the heck is that?” Seiko asked. “It makes no sense! A spider’s web has nothing to do with Africa!” “Why don’t we check our cells for cobwebs?” Alisa suggested.

“Okay, it’s worth a shot,” Kassidy agreed quickly. “Trying and failing is better than not trying at all.”

“Are you saying my idea is going to fail?” Alisa accused.

“Not in the slightest!” Kassidy was always prepared to back herself up when she needed to.

“Let’s just start looking, okay?” I could tell Brody was tired of listening to them bicker so I had to speak up.

Kassidy checked our bookshelf, and I checked around the desk. Seiko, being the lazy potato she was, checked under the bed, since she didn’t really need to move much. On the other side, Brody and Alisa were frantically searching the room, while Johnson, who thought it was something more, was standing in the corner, with many different logical solutions whizzing through his brain.

“I hate to break this to you all, but I don’t think this is really working,” Brody explained. He had good reasoning as to why, and we could all clearly see it.

“Wait a second…” Johnson smiled. “I get it. What if by web, it means the online web?”

“So it would be…” Kassidy started.

“Safari!” We all were excited to get something.

“Look!” Kassidy exclaimed. She was pointing to the painting on the wall. Animals in a safari! That has got to be it! Everyone congratulated Johnson and Kassidy for their sharp thinking while I ran to the painting. I gripped the top and lifted the painting from the wall, where it was held up by a nail. I turned the canvas around, to see a key, and a lock in the wall.

Chapter Three: Nothing is as Simple as it Seems

“You guys! There’s a lock in the wall and a key!” I was so enthusiastic. Maybe this was our way out. That was fast and easy.

“Put the key in the lock!” Alisa yelled with excitement.

“Gee thanks, Captain Obvious,” Seiko muttered. Her sarcasm was consistent and constant. Classic Seiko. You could say she spoke fluent sarcasm better than she spoke English.

“Finally, we can get out of here and escape from this terrible music!” Kassidy sighed. “This isn’t anything slightly like what I like to listen to.” That was definitely true. Kassidy liked what Brody called “depression music,” which was basically music with really sad and tragic lyrics. She wasn’t easily disturbed and for some odd reason, liked to be sad. This jazz music was definitely not her style.

“Then again, I don’t think they would make it that easy to get out. Nothing is as simple as it seems,” Johnson thought out loud. “This place shouldn’t be an exception.”

“Please think positively,” I begged of my friends. I was always the most positive out of all of us, and I had to keep everyone happy, despite the terrible circumstances. I’ll admit, this wasn’t how I wanted to spend my time, or maybe even my life, but I couldn’t think like that. “Freaking out won’t do anything for you. If you at least calm down, you may think better.”

I held the key and lowered it down to the keyhole. It wouldn’t go in. I turned the key over…and it still didn’t go in. Johnson was right, which wasn’t that big of a surprise.

“Just wonderful!” Kassidy shouted, sarcastically. “Absolutely great! This music is killing me!”

“Same,” Seiko said.

“Too bad, guys,” Johnson was always the one to break the truth, despite how shy he sometimes was, “We just have to deal with it.”

“Well, that’s just going to motivate us to get out even more!” My optimism was coming in again, and of course, it was irritating everyone else.

“Well, that kind of makes sense, come to think of it,” Brody said. “Let’s just get out of here.”

“Well, when I got the key, it also came with a note. It says to look for the word that is incorrect.”

“Where the heck would we find an incorrect word?” Seiko asked. “Besides, Miri, shouldn’t you have already seen that word and started complaining about it, since it must be wrong in some way?” Seiko had a point, and a good one at that. Whenever I saw a word that’s wrong in any way, whether it be spelling, use, or basically anything, I always have to point it out and complain about it. It’s just how much of a nerd I am.

“Yeah, she’s right. If she was within 15 feet of a wrong word in her vision, she would have said something.” Alisa, of course, had to agree.

“That would mean that it’s in our cell,” Brody decided.

“Or it could mean that you have to think outside of the box, like Johnson did last time,” Kassidy said.

Everyone nodded in agreement. Kassidy had the best point so far. I never thought I’d see the day when I’d praise Kassidy’s wisdom. I guess pressure does bring out the best in some people.

“Thinking out of the box will get out of the box,” Johnson said, nodding. We just had to really think about it.

“How long do we have next?” Seiko asked me.

“Fifty-two minutes,” I replied, “Plenty of time to get out. I think we can do it.” Ugh, obnoxious positivity.

“Can you repeat the clue again?” Brody asked. “I think I’m onto something here.”

“Sure! The clue says: Look for the word that is incorrect.”

Brody repeated the clue to himself. “I got it!” He yelled. “Do you have that key, Miri?”

“I got it!” Kassidy exclaimed, happy to be part of the solution so far.

“I found a book named correct, so I was going to look for a word in correct,” Brody explained, “but the book was locked, confirming my theory that it was, indeed, important, assuming that it’s not a red heron.”

“Herring,” I corrected. “The term is ‘Red Herring.’” However, knowing the right vocabulary wouldn’t help anything.

Perfect. This is totally going to work! I just had to hope what I thought was true. Of course, it could be a red herring, a clue that seems important but is really just a pile of nonsense. As a riddle lover and a mystery book fanatic, I’ve seen all too many red herrings, or herons, as Brody says, in my life, and can’t identify them for the world. They’re really fascinating, if I do say so myself.

I passed my key through the bars. Brody opened up the book and slid the key into the keyhole. A perfect fit. He turned the lock and the book opened with another clue.

“Yes!” Alisa high-fived Brody. Then, her face turned blank. “What do we do next?”

“Well, the clue said to find the incorrect word, so could we still be looking for a word in that book?” Seiko, luckily, was so lazy lying on the bed, her mind wasn’t making any connections and she could remember the details from earlier.

“Yeah!” Kassidy exclaimed, “Look in the book!”

Brody listened, and opened the book up to a random page. It was a normal page of a book, however, it looked like a textbook, similar to the one in our geography class. None of us wanted to be reminded about geography, as we all weren’t doing very well in the class. However, with the large amount of pop quizzes we got, it wasn’t really a surprise.

“Open it to the title page,” I suggested, “Maybe there’ll be something there. That’s normally where you open to when you read anyway.” Brody opened the book again. The title was: THE MESOPOTAMIAN MEDIC: A GUIDE TO HEALTH IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA.

The word MEDIC was circled in black permanent marker. It was the word in correct!

“Hey, Miri, look!” Kassidy exclaimed. There’s a letter lock on the drawer! I’m going to put in the word MEDIC.”

True to her word, Kassidy entered the word MEDIC and opened the lock. We pulled open the drawer.

Chapter Four: Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

“Puzzle pieces!” Seiko said, exasperated. “They gave us puzzle pieces.”

“Ooooh, let’s put it together!” I was so excited about this part. I have always loved puzzles. I did them with my family. I’ve seen all kinds of weird pieces, but these were different. There were black markings on the back, almost like the time I was taping a letter someone ripped up.

Kassidy and I started putting pieces together while Seiko directed us from the bed.

“Stupid! It goes over there!” Seiko was getting madder by the second.

“If you’re so smart, why don’t you come down and help us?” Kassidy demanded.

“Fine!” Seiko yelled.

That was kind of a good thing, though, even though the fighting was horrible. With Seiko’s help, the puzzle was done in five minutes, leaving us with a solid 37 minutes to get out.

“Let’s flip it over to see what the other side says, since there were markings there,” Kassidy suggested. I agreed, so the three of us carefully lifted the completed puzzle and flipped it. A few pieces fell out, but it was easy to fit it back together. The messy black lines actually formed words, which were also written in permanent marker.

ONE WORD, ONE NUMBER, AND THE NAME OF A CANDY BAR. WHAT IS IT?

“That’s so easy! I love those!” Alisa was jumping up and down. “It’s clearly 100 Grand!”

“Ooooh, who wants to be a millionaire?” Brody joked, trying to lighten the dark mood in the cell.

“100 grand is only one hundred thousand dollars,” Johnson informed Brody, causing us all to laugh.

“Well, regardless, there should be 100,000 dollars hidden around here somewhere.” Kassidy reminded us. “All we need to do is to find it.”

“Do we get to keep the money?” Kassidy asked.

“That’s beside the point,” I reminded her. “What matters more, our lives or money?”

“Money,” Johnson replied. “The world will go on without us. I mean, we’ll all die someday. The world as a whole cares more about money than six random teens.”

“You didn’t have to be so literal,” I told Johnson, exasperated. “Let me rephrase my question. What is more important to you, our lives or money?”

“Okay, you have a point,” Kassidy admitted, “and a good one at that.”

“Come on guys, stop fighting and come help us look!” Brody was already upset we were stuck here and wanted to get out as soon as possible.

“Right,” Seiko said.

“Let’s start by deciding who looks where,” I suggested. I liked being the leader of the pack and I always worked to support the rest of the team.

“I call under the bed!” Seiko yelled. Clearly, we couldn’t expect anything else from her. It wasn’t that much of a surprise.

“I’ll take the drawers!” Kassidy rushed to get her claim in. That left me to explore the cell.

The other cell figured out who was going to look where: Alisa would look in the drawers, Brody would look around the room, and Johnson would look under the bed. It was all settled. All of a sudden, though, I thought of something. The song playing was more than oddly familiar to me. It had to mean something. I realized that this song was the song my uncle played while we ate dinner when we ate together every Tuesday. My aunt and I would have to try to guess the name of the song, based on only a few clues that he would allow us, but we could never remember it.

What was it again?

Chapter Five: Route Fifteen

Route Fifteen. It had to be Route Fifteen, but it wasn’t.

“Are you sure it’s one word and one number?” I asked my uncle. He had played a song for us on his phone and wanted us to guess its name.

“Yes, it is.”

“How many letters is the word?” My aunt asked.

“Why should I tell you?” My uncle rebutted.

“Because we need to figure this out before the song ends! Only 3 minutes left!” I was insistent on getting this hint.

“Fine, four letters.” There went my Route Fifteen. Maybe the number was still 15.

“Okay...and what letter does this word start with?” I needed another hint so I could start brainstorming four letter words.

“T,” Uncle told us. That was all I needed to start my list.

“Talk, trip, tank, took, take, tape, that, tart, tent, tilt, tarp, tint, thin, time…” I listed to my aunt.

“It was in there somewhere,” Uncle told me. I listed the words again to no prevail. It was almost impossible to come up with anything that made even the slightest bit of sense to me. Like seriously, Talk 15? Trip 15? Tank 15? Took 15? If none of it even made sense to me, how would it be the title of a song? It had to be something...

“How many digits is the number?” I asked, since we were down to a minute and a half.

“One.” Time was running out, and my uncle finally understood our desperate need of hints. There went my fifteen! Now I was back at square one.

One? Was the number one? Talk one, trip one, tank one, took one, take one, tape one...no. It couldn’t have been one. Well, take one made sense, like take one cookie but don’t take two… but it didn’t seem right. How would that even be connected to the song?

Thoughts raced through my head. What could it be? My mind had whizzed a ton in these last five minutes of the song, from letters to digits to even cookies, but the answer was still unknown to me. Wait...five minutes?

“Tape 7?” My aunt asked, interrupting my thoughts.

“No, that’s completely incorrect,” my uncle replied. At least I knew it couldn’t be tape 5.

But Take 5 would work. Take 5 was also a term meaning wait 5 minutes, or take a five minute break. The song was about five minutes long, giving reason to the name.

“Is it Take 5?” I asked.

“Correct! And for that, you get dessert.”

“You would’ve given me dessert anyway, wouldn’t you?”

“Guilty. But at least with this, you get dessert, bragging rights, and excitement about both.” Uncle always did have a way of making everything seem more positive and better than it really was. I don’t know if it was because of his personality as it was, or because of his many years spent as a waiter, but he was one of the most positive and funny people I know.

“There’s also a candy bar called Take 5,” my aunt said. “I would eat it a lot as a kid. Next time, we’ll remember: Take 5 like the candy bar.”

“Right,” I repeated, “Take 5 like the candy bar.”

In all of my 13 years of living, I’ve had one Take 5 bar, from last Halloween, when I had to take my little cousins trick or treating, thinking, Hey, it’s free candy, and dressed up as a creepy doll to scare the kids. I know, you’re never too old to go trick or treating, as everyone of almost any age likes at least some kind of candy. I completely enjoyed it as a whole, though. Many people I know weren’t able to go because nobody could go with them.

It was a good candy bar, not my favorite, but a good one. It was something I would definitely remember, so I would never forget that song or its title.

“Take 5!” I shouted, catching the attention of everyone in the 2 cells.

“What?” Alisa asked.

“Take 5!” I ran to the clock on the wall. It was an old antique cuckoo clock, set at 11:55. Just 5 minutes away from 12:00. Seiko was still rummaging under the bed and Kassidy was still searching the drawers when I called for their help.

“Hey Seiko, Kassidy, can one of you give me a lift? I need to reach the cuckoo clock.”

“Of course!” Kassidy, being my friend from the time we were just 2, was always willing to lend a hand. She picked me up and I was able to reach the minute hand. I moved it to 12. As expected, the cuckoo popped out, and a little piece of paper fell from its beak to Kassidy’s feet.

The music stopped.

Chapter Six: What is this Place?

“Hey, look, guys.” From the weird position Kassidy was in while carrying me, she noticed something. In the corner, there was a little white thing in the shape of a half-sphere. I’m no artist, so I don’t know if a half-sphere is a real thing, but that’s okay. What I mean, in simpler terms, is a 3 dimensional semicircle. The flat end was black. A camera.

“Oh. My. Goodness.” Seiko was truly in shock. “It can’t be.”

“We have one in here too!” Johnson almost-shouted. He didn’t want anyone hearing us and locking us back up.

“What is this place?” Alisa asked. “If they were watching us, wouldn’t they have kept us inside?” Right then, my phone buzzed. It was Nate, my boyfriend.

“Hello? Nate?”

“Miri! Okay, I’m here to help. Turn me on speaker.”

“Okay.” I pressed the speaker button on my phone. “Everyone, listen up, Nate needs to say something.”

“Hey everyone,” Nate started. “Okay, so I’m gonna need you all to ignore the camera for a minute and focus on the clue sitting at Kassidy’s feet.”

“This one?” Kassidy asked, picking it up and showing the camera.

“Yeah, that one,” Nate said.

“I caught you!” Kassidy shouted. “You’re watching us! But why?”

“Why not?” Nate joked.

“No, seriously, why?” Brody asked.

“Well, it’s kind of a test.” This was a surprisingly detailed answer, as Nate was really good at keeping secrets. Did I tell him too much? I genuinely was worried about all the secrets I told him, since I trusted him more than almost anyone else. I’d say he was on par with Kassidy, and since she was my friend since before I could remember, I would trust her with my life.

“Shhhh, Nate!” It was a girl’s voice whispering in the background.

“Oh my gosh, Millie!” Brody’s girlfriend, of course.

“Hi Brody!” Millie was excited that Brody had heard her, even though she wasn’t supposed to be heard.

“Millie, we let Nate make that phone call under the condition that we would be quiet!” It was another girl, who I realized was Millie’s best friend, Abby.

“So did you! And besides, it’s not like I told him to call and agreed to all that!”

“Well, we should go now, talk to you all later!” Nate was eager to end the call. “Bye, everyone!”

“Bye!” We all chorused. It was nice being able to talk to people in the outside world, even if they were spying on us. That just goes to show how crazy you get after being in captivity.

“Well, we should probably listen to Nate. We figured out what the cameras are for, and we have about twenty five minutes left.” I was determined to get out of this place for good. I hated being here, and with good reason. All we needed to do was figure out puzzles, which would be heaven for me if our lives didn’t depend on it. Did our lives depend on it, actually? Considering it was Nate, Millie and Abby who locked us in, I’d bet not. Really, though, who knows?

“Well, you heard it folks, let’s get started!” Alisa was also getting excited, as she was the type to get everyone into spirit.

Kassidy picked up the next clue, a piece of folded paper at her feet. She unfolded it to reveal a letter with a pink flower border. How fancy, I thought to myself. I wonder why? It was odd, but that’s beside the point, really. I took the paper from Kassidy and read it out loud.

“Febbruary fourrth,” I started, cringing at the horrible misspelling of the words. I hate bad spelling. I always have and I always will. “Deer Martha, I hope this letter finds you well! I, unfortunately, can’t say that I’m doing well. I’d reelly appreciate it if you could help me. There a safe under my bed with money in it. Its black and hass my name in pink lettering. Get it for me, and use it too bail me from this hell hole of a prison! You just need to know what my name is.” I showed the note to Seiko.

“Wow, that’s some bad spelling and grammar,” Seiko said cooly.

“You can say that again,” Kassidy laughed. I was still cringing at how badly the letter was written.

“Okay… so there’s an extra b in February, and another r in fourth. I think that ought to count for something, first of all.” I couldn’t pay attention to how bad it was right now. Not, at least, when my life depended on it. Kassidy wrote BR on a piece of paper.

“The e in deer is incorrect as well,” Seiko continued, “As well as another incorrect e in really, and a s in has.”

“Got it,” Kassidy said, holding up a paper saying BREES.

“We have a typing padlock on a box,” Johnson informed us. “What’s the code?”

“BREES,” Seiko replied.

“Okay…” Brody typed it in and hit enter. The lock buzzed. Incorrect.

“Let me try!” Alisa pushed Brody out of the way, “You probably mistyped.” She entered the passcode in, and the lock buzzed again. “Dang it!” She yelled.

“It couldn’t possibly be wrong,” Seiko complained, “I even double checked!”

“Try it again,” Kassidy demanded. Another buzz came from the lock.

I did doubt this answer. It had to be at least a little more complicated than what Seiko thought. Then it hit me right in the face. It should have been clearer sooner. I knew just what we were missing.

Chapter Seven: Letters and Lies

“Wait!” I stopped everyone. “You’re missing something. The word it’s needs an apostrophe. In some cases, it’s not needed, but in this case we definitely need the apostrophe. It comes right before the s.”

“Bree’s!” Kassidy shouted. “The safe is Bree’s!”

“BREE is the passcode!” Seiko shouted over the wall. Brody entered the code in. The lock clicked open. I guess there are some cases, besides English class, in which being an annoying grammar and spelling nerd is actually helpful.

“There are three notes from the box we just opened,” Alisa informed us, then proceeded to read them aloud.

“February 13, 1982: Today I went to my school and failed my history test. My teacher is Mary Lawrence.

September 17, 1898: I met with Mr. Theodore Roosevelt today. His presidency is going well.

May 29, 1997: I finally got into a concert!! I saw Beyoncé today!”

We put the letters into order for when they were written.

“How about 82 for 1982, and 978 for 1997 and 1898?” Alisa asked. It was a good answer, and it made sense. Brody entered it into the lock on his drawer. This lock was weird. It had a variety of numbers and letters, in a seemingly random order. He twisted the digits to make the answer Alisa had thought of. 82978.

Brody tugged on the lock. It didn’t even budge.

“That was wrong,” he informed everyone.

“They all have names,” Seiko pointed out, “And they all have dates.”

“How about the first two letters of each?” Kassidy asked.

“Nope,” That idea had already gone through my head too. “There’s only 5 spaces, and it would come out to 6 letters.”

“Think guys,” Johnson was, again, cool and calm. “What does one letter only have one of, while the others have two each?”

Names. The answer was names. Mary Lawrence was technically two names used for one person. Same with Theodore Roosevelt. Beyoncé was only one name. It all made sense.

“The names!” Johnson shouted, shocking everyone. “TRMLB!” He twisted the lock so those letters would align, then pulled on the top. It opened.

“Yes!” Brody yelled from his side. “There’s a clue in here!”

“What is it?” I almost shouted, “and hurry, there’s only twenty minutes left!”

“Open the box with the letter that lies. Get the wrong one and security will be alerted.” Brody seemed freaked out, and with good reason. This lock was actually scary.

“I assume that by ‘the box,’ you mean the box on our shelf, right?” I asked.

“I suppose so,” Alisa responded. “I don’t see any boxes in here.”

“Well, let’s figure out which one is lying, then!” I wanted nothing more than to be out of here.

“But how should we know this?” Seiko asked. “They all seem like personal issues.”

“Could the person have passed that test?” Alisa asked.

“Or the name of the teacher may be wrong,” I added.

“What if the person never saw the president?” Brody reasoned.

“Maybe they never saw Beyoncé?” Seiko wondered.

“There are too many possibilities, so we need to get this correct right away,” Kassidy told us. She had a point. Who knows what was right? Everything was so personal, it wouldn’t make sense that we should know what’s lying.

“Any ideas, Johnson?” Alisa looked over to the boy standing in the corner, holding the three letters and staring into space.

“Wait a minute…” Johnson muttered.

“What’s going on in that kid’s mind?” Seiko wondered out loud.

“I got it!” Johnson turned around with a smile on his face. “It’s 1898.” Johnson was pretty smart, and good at basically anything. The big thing here, though, was his memory. It really came in handy often. “It said Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency was going well.” Johnson started.

“But he was a president!” Kassidy interrupted.

“Yes, that may be true,” Johnson continued, “But he was certainly not one in 1898. That was Grover Cleveland.”

“This better be right, kid,” Brody demanded.

“Well, technically we have a one in three chance of getting it right. That’s a 3.33333 chance. And those decimal threes go on forever.” I knew I had to make a good argument. Not only was I a spelling and grammar nerd, I was also obsessed with figuring out odds. I wasn’t always great at math, but odds were entertaining, fun and easy.

“Can you please be quiet, Miri?” Johnson demanded. “The odds really aren’t in our favor, but my presidential knowledge is.” I nodded and didn’t say a word as Kassidy entered 1898 and opened up the box.

“Yes!” Alisa jumped up and down.

“I told you,” Johnson said, mockingly. He was normally really nice to everyone, but did tend to be competitive with almost anything.

“A deck of cards,” Kassidy muttered.

“Really? All this and we get a deck of cards? Wonderful!” It was one of those stressful times where Alisa actually became sarcastic.

“Wait, look,” Kassidy whispered. “There’s more.”

Chapter Eight: What's Missing Matters

When Kassidy first grabbed the deck of cards, it seemed like just a normal deck. Then we flipped it over and saw that the ace of diamonds, left at the bottom of the deck, had something written on it.

“It’s what missing that matters.” Kassidy read aloud. “Does that mean one card is missing?” Kassidy passed me the deck, which I counted through.

“We’re missing a card.” I handed Kassidy a third of the deck, Seiko the next third, and I took the last of the three. “Can you guys sort these by suits?”

Five piles later(if you count the joker sitting alone), we checked our piles.

“Spades are all here,” Kassidy reported.

“Same for the diamonds,” Seiko added.

“I got all the clubs and hearts,” I told them.

“Then what could be missing?” Seiko asked. “We clearly have everything. Are you sure you didn’t count incorrectly?”

“I’m absolutely sure. I even double checked.” I was beyond absolutely sure, to be honest. I was so certain of it, you could consider me weird, but that was just how determined I always was.

“Let’s try each other’s piles, then.” Seiko advised.

“Good idea! I see all of the spades,” I chimed in.

Seiko smiled. “Your hearts and clubs are correct.”

“I see all the diamonds,” Kassidy added. Nothing had changed. Absolutely nothing.

“How is this possible?” Seiko asked. “We have everything of every suit, but we’re still missing a card.”

“I know!” I complained. “We checked every single pile, and there’s nothing.”

“That’s it!” Kassidy’s voice was barely over a whisper. “I had a thought. We didn’t check every pile like Miri said. There’s the joker.”

“Normally isn’t it jokers?” Seiko asked.

“That’s it!” I exclaimed. “You guys, what’s missing is the 2nd joker!”

On our drawer was a lock with space for 5 letters. Perfect! Kassidy entered JOKER into the lock. It turned, and opened, revealing a piece of paper.

“Enter the password to get out of the cell.” Kassidy’s clue made no sense at all, but we’d have to figure it out somehow.

“What in the world is the passcode?” Alisa asked. “They didn’t say anything earlier, did they?”

“No, I don’t believe so,” Johnson replied. “I think this may have to be a password we figure out ourselves.”

“So, what does this lock look like?” Brody asked.

“It has 12 spaces and has a variety of numbers, letters, punctuation, and even some spaces.” I replied, holding the brown lock in my hands.

“Well, I think this will be way harder than we think.” Brody, of course, had as little of an idea as I did on how to get out of here.

“What have we seen earlier that may be correct?” I asked, hoping to have a group brainstorming project. I love group brainstorming!

“Maybe something about Bree?” Seiko asked. Yes, that name still was a mystery to us, but how would it relate to 12 places? It just didn’t add up.

“Could it be in the letters?” Alisa asked. Sure, it could be, but Brody started this argument that “That clue is over and done.”

Nobody had any idea as far as what it could be.

“Maybe we should give up. It seems hopeless and is clearly impossible,” Brody said. I guess it was time to paint the picture of the consequences of not getting out.

“Okay, Brody,” I stated, “Imagine for a minute that you don’t have any art supplies anymore. You can’t draw anymore.”

“That’s not too bad, I can find something to draw with and on,” Brody replied. He did have a point. “Well, imagine you can’t go to school anymore…”

“That doesn’t actually sound too bad! Hey, we should stay here forever!” Right, Brody was one of those people who didn’t like school. I had to remember that not everyone was crazy like me. That didn’t matter in the moment, though. I wasn’t about to let Brody give up.

How can I convince him? I thought. There’s not a lot he’d want so badly as to get out for it. Then a lightbulb flashed on in my head.

“We are not giving up. Just think of how your life would be without Millie. If we don’t get out of here, you won’t see her for a really long time and by then, she may already have another boyfriend.” A stricken look filled Brody’s face. “Do you really mean it, Miri?”

“Absolutely,” I assured him. “There were times when I wanted to give up, not just in this prison, but also in life. Nate keeps me going, though. He makes me stronger and better every day.” That actually was true and still is to this day. Nate was, and still is the most important person to me and I truly wouldn’t be able to function without him. The thought of finally getting out of prison and seeing him with another girl sickened me.

“Awww, that’s cute,” Brody smiled. “I guess I can do this for Millie.”

“Yes, let’s do this!” Although I may not be the smartest person, I made up for it in enthusiasm. I just loved being in spirit and helping others. We were going to get out, not just for ourselves, but for Nate, Millie and all the other people who we love. I know it sounds cheesy, but that truly is what motivated us to keep working hard to get out.

“Oh my goodness, that’s so cute!” Alisa, being the love devil she was was the wrong person to eavesdrop, but that’s okay. She was always like that anyway. “Miri, I’m sure Nate loves you that much too! Brody, Millie is so lucky to have someone who loves you as much as you do, and I’m sure she’s extremely thankful.”

“Can you guys just stop?” Seiko hated anything cheesy, love related, or in any aspect, cute. “Anyway, is there any other ideas to get out?” Johnson changed the subject. I can’t say I blame him, it always gets annoying when we fight.

“Do you think it has to do with all the clues put together?” Kassidy asked.

“Or could it be that you’re overthinking it?” Seiko shot back.

“Why, do you have a better idea?” Kassidy retorted.

“Actually, I do, as a matter of fact,” Seiko smiled. “What if the password is simply the password?”

“Of course the password is the password!” Kassidy was on the verge of yelling.

“No, I mean the password would literally be the words ‘the password,’” Seiko explained. It made enough sense to all of us and met 12 letters, if you counted the space.

Seiko ran to the lock and entered “the password,” then turned the lock.

Chapter Nine: And Then There Were Three..."

The lock opened. Who knew it would be that simple?

“You’re brilliant, Seiko!” Johnson jumped up and down in excitement.

“I think someone has a little crush,” Alisa teased, being her usual self. That was, actually, expected from her. She was just that crazy about that kind of stuff. She always was, and I think it’s safe to bet that she always will be.

“I don’t exactly think that was brilliant,” Kassidy remarked. “It’s really not that hard to come up with that answer.”

“Well, you didn’t,” Johnson replied.

“Aww, look at someone defending his girl!” Alisa sweetly smiled. Goodness, why did she look so innocent while saying these things?

“Shut up, Alisa!” Brody and Seiko both yelled at once.

“Aww, look how connected you are!” Alisa was almost on cloud 9 now and I know she was as happy as any prisoner has ever been.

“Seriously, Alisa, stop!” Johnson yelled.

“You guys, stop arguing and get out of here!” I shouted. I opened the door of the cell and led Kassidy and Seiko out. Boy, did it feel nice to have some freedom!

“And then there were three,” Brody muttered. “I hate this cell.”

“Quit complaining,” Johnson told him. “We’re gonna get out soon. Then you can see Millie.”

“Why are you making this about Millie?” Brody asked.

“Isn’t she all you’re thinking about at this point?” Johnson retorted, causing Alisa to smile and jump up and down.

“Of course!” Alisa was so excited. “Please join my army of people tormenting Brody about Millie!”

“Sure,” Johnson replied, nonchalantly.

“Well, she isn’t all I’m thinking about,” Brody stated. “I’m also thinking about… umm… well,”

“Oh my gosh, I found something!” Seiko was happy to be the next person to actually do something.

“What is it?” I asked.

“A piece of paper. It says to look in the hall, but do not fall.”

There was a pile of hay, which we all expected might be a trap. It did say not to fall, after all.

“Well, there’s not exactly a hall here,” Kassidy peered around again, looking for even the slightest possibility of there being a hall. Maybe a door or something.

“Ten minutes, guys!” I shouted. Time was almost up and we all needed to get out.

“Seiko, Miri, look in this pocket!” I heard Kassidy call me from across the room. We carefully walked around the pile of hay and to where Kassidy was standing. She pointed to a bag of lemon drops in the pocket of a tan coat. What did these lemon drops have to do with anything?

Hall. The coat had the name Richard Hall on it. Look inside the hall, but do not fall. That had to be it. In the bag of lemon drops was another note. This note, after being unfolded had the numbers 1, 0, 2, 4 on it.

“Hey you guys! We got something!” Seiko handed the note through the bars of the cell, where Johnson received the note.

“We have a four letter lock on our door, and I’m pretty sure it’s the only lock left. What does this have to do with anything?”

“Well,” Brody suggested, “I know that there’s this code where every number corresponds with a letter, but 0 would be impossible to change.”

“Zero actually is an interesting number,” Johnson started ranting. “It’s between positive and negative, it is practically pointless in problems…”

“That’s really not necessary, you know.” Brody looked at Johnson with a face that said, seriously?

“Try ZERO,” Kassidy suggested. “It’s the only number that didn’t work for Brody’s code, and it has four letters.”

“Nice,” Johnson smiled as he entered in the code. “Z, E, R, O.” Johnson tugged on the lock.

“What happened?” Kassidy asked, eager to see if her solution was right.

“Yeah, don’t keep us in suspense,” I added.

“Nothing.” Johnson looked defeated.

“Let’s find another solution to this problem,” I suggested.

“Well, what else could this password be?” Johnson asked.

“I’ve heard of this other code. May I see the sheet?” Alisa had a thought.

“Okay.” Brody passed the sheet over.

“Try IOLA.”

“Iola?” Brody asked, while putting the letters in. “How did you get that?”

“Well, as I know it, 1 looks pretty similar to I, and can be written like that. 0 looks a lot like the letter O, and is sometimes said that way. L looks like 2, and if you extend some lines, A looks a lot like 4.”

“That’s absolutely genius!” Seiko called out, while searching the area for other clues.

“Agreed,” I added. It was true, Alisa and her code were absolutely brilliant and just in time. Time was almost up and we really had to hurry.

“This better work,” Kassidy muttered. “It’s the best idea we’ve got.”

Seiko nodded as she entered in the code. She pulled the lock, and the door opened. We were free!

Chapter Ten: Ditched in a Ditch?

“Yes!” Seiko yelled.

"There's a key on this table!" Kassidy yelled.

I grabbed the key and ran to the cell my friends were stuck in. It opened effortlessly.

“Okay everyone, come out here, but watch your step, there’s a hole somewhere,” I instructed.

Alisa leaped out. “It feels so good to dance again! There wasn’t enough space in the cell, especially since there were others in there with me.”

“We’re freeee!!!” Johnson ran out in big strides.

Brody kept very calm as he walked out of the cell. “Geez, am I the only clam one-I mean calm one he-” and he stepped right into the hole.

“Wait, so the pile of hay was a red herring?” I asked.

Seiko dug up the pile to reveal regular ground. “It seems like it.”

“Are you okay, Brody?” Kassidy yelled into the hole.

“Yep, I’m good! There’s something down here. Anyone got a light?”

Alisa grabbed a flashlight she found on the table and dropped it down the hole. “Is this good?”

“Ouch! It hit my head!” Brody yelled, causing Alisa to laugh like the devil she was. She had a lot of schadenfreude, and she could always be found laughing at other people getting hurt. Very Alisa, honestly.

“Okay. There’s a clue here. It says that you need to find the name meaning ‘one left in a ditch’ in order to get out.”

“Would that mean they were ditched in a ditch?” Kassidy asked. Nate would be proud. That’s the kind of thing he’d find funny.

“That’s one weird command,” Johnson muttered.

“Yeah, who would ever name their kid that?” Brody questioned from the bottom of the hole.

“Alisa would,” Kassidy said, “and I bet you would too.”

“Have you ever heard of a rhetorical question?” I asked, sarcastically.

“Yeah, but-” Kassidy started.

“That just was one!” Seiko, thankfully, was backing me up.

“Hey, did you know that there was this guy named go eff yourself?” Kassidy asked, trying to change the subject. Whenever she tried, it never really worked and normally ended in an awkward silence.

There was an awkward silence.

“Well, no, can’t say I did,” I said, trying to ease the silence a bit.

“Same here,” Seiko added.

“Yeah, that’s weird,” Alisa agreed.

“Worst. Name. Ever!” Brody yelled from the bottom of the hole, channeling his inner drama queen, which made us all laugh.

“Yeah, I feel bad for that person,” Johnson smiled. “Their parents must have been horrible.”

“Yeah, I bet,” Kassidy agreed.

“Well, whoever would name their kid ‘left in a ditch’ must be almost equally horrible,” Johnson said, causing us all to nod in agreement.

“Anyway, what could that name be?” Alisa asked. I pulled out my phone and went to the most popular baby name website. ‘One left in a ditch,’ I typed. 0 results, just as I expected.

“Try another.” Johnson was peering over my shoulder. I opened the next popular baby name website. Nothing there, either.

“Look at that keypad!” Seiko pointed to the wall, where a black letter keypad sat.

“I think if we type the right name, a door will open and they’ll let us out!” Alisa was bouncing up and down with excitement.

“But what about Brody?” I asked. “We can’t leave without him, can we?”

“You gotta admit, he’s kind of a lost cause at this point,” Johnson said, his voice lowered quite a bit.

“I heard that!” Brody’s voice rose from the hole. “And I am not a lost cause.”

“He is,” Johnson mouthed to me.

“How are we going to get out now?” Seiko asked.

“It’s not like that matters now. We just gotta get this clue done.” I was in a rush to get out of here, for obvious reasons.

“How about Bree?” Alisa suggested. “We heard that name before.”

Bree, I typed. A red light flashed. Nope.

“Bree didn’t work!” I called.

“Just try something else!” Johnson called. “Anything else will be okay.”

“I’ll just try out random names. Let me know if you need me!” I was gone.

Chris? No. Bill? No. Max? No. Zoey? No. Ann? No. Nicole? No. George? No. Amanda? No. Meg? No. Jack? No. It’s not going to happen. All of a sudden, I had a thought.

“Hey, Brody, are there any commas in the clue?” I asked down the hole.

“Yeah, I think so.” The light at the bottom flashed on. “Yeah, there’s one! It says, look for the name that means one left in, a ditch.”

“Could that mean the name simply means ditch, then?” I asked.

“Yeah, it could!” Johnson nodded his head and smiled.

“Hey, I got it!” I heard Brody yell from the bottom of the hole.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Look up ditch in those baby name websites!”

“I’m on it!” I quickly typed the word ditch into the baby name website.

“Brody,” I said, looking up. “The answer is Brody.”

Kassidy looked up. “But how would they know who fell in? It can’t be that. Check the website!”

“That’s what it says. It says the name Brody means ditch.” Johnson read over my shoulder.

A look of pure shock came over Alisa’s face. “No way, that’s so ironic!” She walked over to the keypad and entered ‘Brody’ into the system. A drawer opened, which had a ladder inside. Perfect to get Brody out.

“Ha! Who was the one asking whose parents would be dumb enough to name their kid that?” Seiko was living her best life, laughing her head off. Typical Seiko. She did have a point though. Brody’s parents were really smart, so to name their son that was kind of a disgrace to their brains.

“Whatever,” Brody shrugged.

“Okay, Brody, make sure to grab the light as you come out. We’re sending down a ladder now.” I called.

“Okay, I’m ready.” Brody climbed up the ladder.

“Look at the sides of the ladder,” Alisa said, once Brody got up. “There’s another clue.”

Chapter Eleven: Love, Alexandra

Alisa was right. On the side of the green ladder were a few odd sentences, written in black sharpie.

“Hats eluding lousy lemon orchards. Thanks hearing end. Doom orbiting on repeat, in soup? Wicked heating eroded running endangered? Thinking hot error. Figs in rusted soup tins! Catering logs under elderly. Water and scissors!” Brody read.

“That’s odd,” Kassidy squinted her eyes at the ladder and went up to get a closer view.

“Yeah,” Alisa agreed. “It really doesn’t make sense.”

“Honestly, when has anything ever made sense in here?” Johnson asked. He had a point, and a good one at that.

“Why does this seem familiar?” I asked. Based on the Take 5 episode, I knew I should tell people if I find anything here familiar.

“It’s concluded with ‘Love, Alexandra,’” Kassidy suggested, “if that helps at all.”

“Hurry, we need to figure this out!” I checked the time to find only 5 minutes remaining.

“Hey, look!” Johnson was pointing at a little trap door on the side of the ladder. It had a small piece of metal holding it closed.

“It’s yet another clue!” Alisa jumped.

“Let’s see,” I pried the piece of metal from the little piece of the door it was sitting in. I opened the door to find a silver key. It had a heart on the top, with a little turquoise diamond on it.

“It’s my birthstone!” I was excited to find yet another familiar thing here. Could it be that this clue was literally made for me? Maybe I made it in a past life. Oh, poor past Miri, living in a prison, bored enough to make clues. How unfortunate.

Come to think of it, this whole ladder was familiar. It closely resembled the green ladder my grandpa would use to pick fruit from his trees every summer. The handwriting on the ladder was also oddly recognizable. Alexandra was a familiar name, too.

“The name Alexandra sounds familiar…” I thought out loud. “I just can’t seem to pinpoint who she was, though.”

“Maybe an old friend?” Alisa asked, desperate to find another clue of some kind, no matter how small it was.

“Maybe she was in your gym class when you were 4?” Kassidy suggested.

“Maybe in our game club?” Brody thought.

“Could Alexandra be from your book club?” Johnson added.

“Swim team?”

“Speech team?”

“One of your classes?”

“Cousin?”

“Mom’s friend?”

“Didn’t you have a neighbor named Alexandra?” Kassidy asked me.

“That’s it!” I yelled. I had a neighbor named Michael. People like Alisa thought we were a couple, and after we became really close friends, it was really hard on us. Because of that, I made up the name Alexandra for him and made the name Kirra for myself. His contact changed from Michael to Alexandra. Sometimes, during breaks, I’d write him notes and leave them in secret places around the school. They were always addressed to Alexandra and sent from Kirra. Nobody knew it was me writing the letters, and nobody knew it was Michael receiving them.

When he wrote to me, he was able to get away from people, and wrote to Kirra from Alexandra. It was more confidential that way. However, for even more security, we wrote in a code I made up.

Chapter Twelve: Lindsay Lennon's Sauna

“I, Loaned over Vinny’s excellent, trombone rules of Lindsay Lennon’s sauna!”

“Can you write it down for me?” Michael asked.

“Sure.” I reached my hand into my backpack and pulled out a piece of folder paper and a pencil with unicorns on it. I rewrote the coded sentences. “Do you get it?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Okay, it’s pretty simple, pay attention to what the words look like. Is the grammar weird to you at all?”

“Kind of, yeah.”

“Think, Michael. Think!”

“I don’t get it.”

”Do you want a hint?” I asked him, as he was extremely desperate.

“Let me rewrite it.”

Michael passed back my folder paper and I took out my unicorn pencil. I capitalized certain letters in each word, making the grammar even worse, but that’s okay.

I, Loaned Over Vinny’s Excellent, Trombone Rules Of Lindsay Lennon’s Sauna!

“I think I get it!” Michael was excited to finally understand. “Is it I love trolls?”

“Correct, but how did you get it?”

“The first letter of every word! It makes sense!”

“Correct!”

“And does the punctuation mean anything?”

“Yes.”

“But what could it be?” He should know this! It wasn’t hard!

“Oh, I see! It’s to separate every word!” Michael exclaimed. It’s easy, actually.

A week later, I received a text from Michael saying, “cats on mango evening, on voyaging enrage raining. Toys on/map yonder. Hotdogs on uranus soup enter.”

I went over to his house, as the letter told me to. He had 2 shoeboxes set on a table, along with markers, paper, and paint.

“Let’s make mailboxes!” Michael was super excited, for some odd reason having to do with...mailboxes.

“Mailboxes?” I had to question what he just said.

“Yeah, mailboxes! To leave the coded messages in!”

We painted shoeboxes and wrote our code names on the top. Of course, I did Michael’s, as he wanted it to look like girls’ writing.

“Geez, no need to be so stereotypical!” I laughed.

“But you are a girl!”

“Have you ever heard of a joke?”

Almost every single day after that, we’d check our mailboxes and find a message. It was fun, and something I’d always look forward to.

Just a year ago, though, Michael moved away. Although we were still at the same school, I was really going to miss hanging around at his house, playing board games all weekend. Tears rushed down my face as the moving truck rolled out of his driveway.

Chapter Thirteen: Finally!

A tear rolled down my cheek thinking about Michael, but I knew that was really not what I should be focusing on. “I got it!” I yelled.

“What is it?” Kassidy asked. “Did you get the ladder clue?”

“Actually, yes! I think so!”

“Oooh okay! Brody, bring the ladder over!” Alisa called. Brody came over with the ladder.

“Can I have they key too?” I asked. Johnson carefully walked over, holding the key in his hand.

“Thanks,” I told Brody and Johnson. “Now we just have to decode,” I explained.

“Yep, got it!” Seiko called from a coffee table in the room.

“Okay, ready, Seiko?” I asked.

“Ready!” Seiko was excited to help and I knew I could count on her.

“Alisa, Johnson, you guys okay?” I asked them, as they were holding up the ladder.

“Yep, we’re great!” Alisa replied.

“Ditto,” Johnson smiled. Perfect!

“Okay, here we go,” I started. “Every time I say stop, it’s the end of a word. H, E, L, L, O. Stop. T, H, E. Stop.”

“She sounds like a telegraph,” I heard Brody whisper to Kassidy, which made me laugh.

“Shut up, Heron boy,” I fired back. “D, O, O, R. Stop. I, S. Stop.”

“Oh my goodness, she does!” Kassidy laughed. “We need to invent a Miri brand telegraph machine with her voice in it!”

“That’s not how telegraphs work,” Brody laughed. “It could be a high-tech telegraph machine, though. That would be cool.”

“But who would use a high-tech telegraph machine?” Kassidy asked, making a good point. “Nobody even uses telegraph machines anymore. What’s the point?”

“Nate would use it,” Brody suggested. “He’d use it to hear her voice all the time.” Maybe we should have left him in the ditch. It’s not like he did anything monumental to help us so far.

Alisa smiled. Maybe Brody was becoming a lot like her. He seemed to be on his way there. “Good job, Brody,” she whispered.

“I heard that!” I yelled. Of course, I couldn’t do anything about it. Alisa was just Alisa, and if she turned Brody into another Alisa, it would be a tough and long ride through life.

“Hurry up, Miri! Let’s finish!” Seiko yelled.

“Okay. W, H, E, R, E. Stop. T, H, E. Stop. F, I, R, S, T. Stop. C, L, U, E. Stop.”

I heard Brody and Kassidy snickering at how much I sounded like a telegraph, and Alisa snickering at the idea of Nate buying something like that. It truly was stupidity at its finest.

No. I need to finish this, I thought. We’re almost done. Don’t let them distract you. “W, A, S. Stop.”

“The door is where the first clue was,” Seiko read.

“What was the first clue?” Kassidy asked.

“Yeah, I can’t exactly say I remember,” Brody informed us. Once again, nothing monumental.

“Same here,” I added.

“It may have just been an hour ago, but it seems like it was forever!” Alisa thought out loud.

“Yeah, that’s true,” Kassidy agreed.

“Could we google it?” Seiko asked, jokingly.

“That’s it!” Johnson yelled. “It’s the safari!”

“What?” I asked. It made no sense to me. “What safari?”

“The painting!” Brody yelled, catching on. “Who’s got the key?”

“I have it!” Alisa called. “Let’s go!” Alisa ran into our cell. “Where was the painting, originally?” She paced the room, looking for a place where the door may be.

“Right here,” Kassidy pointed. There was a little button-ish thing on the wall. Kassidy pressed the button, which brought out a lock and Alisa inserted the key. The wall made a crumbling noise and opened up. We had made it out.

“Finally!” We all hugged and high fived each other.

“Yes, team!” Alisa yelled, jumping up and down.

Kassidy bolted for the opening.

“Not so fast!” I heard Ally walk into the room from another locked door.

Geez, why hadn’t I thought to pick that lock? I thought. It would have worked and got us out way faster. At least this was a good mental challenge.

“Come seize them!” Ally, the 2 police officers, Nate, Millie, and Abby stormed into the room. I felt arms wrap around me and drag me. It was Millie. I looked to the left of me to see Brody being pulled by Nate and Alisa being pulled by Ally. The male police officer had Johnson in his grasp and the female officer held Seiko. That left Kassidy.

Kassidy ran through the wall and off as fast as she could. There was no way Abby was going to catch up to her at this point, and she knew that.

“You were right about these guys,” Ally told Nate, Millie and Abby, who were now pulling us down the hallway. “They’re smart.”

“Yeah, more of a threat than we know,” the male police officer said. I looked at his name tag, which read ‘Danny.’

“Well, this should hopefully be the end of it,” the female police officer smiled. Her name tag said ‘Jillian.’

We were all shoved into police cars. Who knew where we were going?