Down End Road

"A scavenger hunt?" I asked Harris, the games had been decided and were apparently going to be a scavenger hunt. But by the plain horror and anger displayed on Harris' face I could tell that there was some sort of twist. "Whats wrong with that...?" I asked meekly, Genevieve snorted obnoxiously and I glared in her direction.

"They will have home-court advantage, duh." Genevieve sneered, her voice dripping with condescension. I grounded my jaw.

"Well that's a little obvious, they were always going to have that advantage." I exclaimed, my nails embedded angry red crescent moons into my soft fleshy palms.

I heard her quiet shocked gasp not at all phased as I focused back on Harris. He nodded absentmindedly along with my statement and I felt pride bloom in my stomach. He stroked his tufts of white fluffy facial hair as he stared at the ground. I could practically hear the squeaking of gears turning in his head.

Cassandra and Ben looked to him, helplessness and concern written like a poem on their faces.

"We knew they were always going to have the upper hand but this scavenger hunt is different. The rules state that the person with the highest ability score has to be blind folded, but here's the catch, they are also the only ones who can touch the flag." Harris explained solemnly. Thanks for the confidence in me Harris, I thought.

"So, Alex will be blind folded, we find the treasure and go back to the manor." Jason says, confusion written all over his features. "Easy as." He stated

"One problem there Jason, he's not the one with the highest score." Maverick said. I felt a coil of dread knot in my stomach as Jason and Tom look around confusedly.

"Well then who does, I mean no one here has a 49.5, well not that we know of, I know everyones test scores here, everyone except..." Jason trailed off as his curious gaze settled on me. i shuffled uncomfortable

"Myra, freakin' Myra!" Genevieve exclaimed, eyes alight with a new found hatred for me. I swallowed hard and mustered up a weak smile, I really did not want everyone finding out about my score, I didn't want to be treated differently. Now everyone will know, and I had a feeling that Denise had something to do with it.

"Thanks for the confidence guys." I joked. "Why is it so bad anyway, it's not like I'm completely stupid or anything." I muttered.

"It's not that Myra, it's just, we didn't necessarily want this much attention on you." Cassandra tried to reconcile. "Plus it gives us a disadvantage because you haven't been trained for as long as the rest of the pupils have." I mumbled a begrudging agreement. Her explanation was logical.

It was like sending a cadet into war with a blindfold on. "That's not our only problem, turns out that teams are aloud to intercept treasures. So if one team has multiple treasure whilst the team to first arrive only has their allocated treasure then they win by default, however, if the team to arrive first has their treasure plus someone else's, then they win, no matter how many treasures the second team has."

I groaned. "Great, so basically we gotta' fight a team, be the fastest and find our treasure to win. Not to mention I'm the only one who can hold it and I have to be blindfolded?" I groaned, putting emphasis on the and. "Great, no pressure." I mumbled.

"All of this while my sister is probably raiding my closet and eating my momma's peach ice cream." Ally whined, she leaned her head on my shoulder and whimpered, "to think I thought it was going to just be a relaxing weekend away in Colorado and a forced participation in a jigsaw puzzle."

I chuckled along with everyone else, excluding Genevieve who was glaring daggers at Heidi whilst she laughed. I felt bad for the other twin, Heidi was a follower not a leader, and Genevieve took advantage of that.

Heidi instantly shut her mouth and looked down at the elaborate red rug, sheepishly. I felt Alex's gaze more than saw it, my attention still focused on the twins. It had become a quirk that I had picked up over the past couple days.

After some more strategising we were all dismissed to either go back to the party or to our rooms. I was walking to the latter when I felt a small tug on my hand. I whirled around and almost crashed into a very close, Alex.

He gave me a sheepish grin but made no move to step back. "What do you say to some training, hey?" I gave him a funny look and he challenged me with his gaze. "Oh come on." He whined, "Washington has the best facilities plus you have to learn how to fight with a blindfold."

I debated in my head whether or not to take his outstretched hand and eventually took it. He smiled as he dragged me through the elaborately furnished corridors. A small smile eventually crept onto my face as he continued to drag me around like a rag doll.