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8

Sam

I had barely started eating my third dog when I heard her voice. It was impossible not to moan.

“Looks like we have to find stuff around the forest,” Riley announced behind me.

I turned midbite and then decided to dump the rest of my hot dog.

Her nose wrinkled as she rattled off the list for the scavenger hunt. Jeez, did she ever relax? “Pinecones, bark, berries and...stuff.”

“Yeah,” I said again, although I hadn’t really studied the list. I mean, how hard could it be to find stuff that littered every foot of the forest?

“Even petroglyphs,” Riley added.

I squinted at her. Okay. That could pose a challenge.

“How do we take a petroglyph from a rock?” She paused from reading her list, which, I noted, was already highlighted pink in places, along with some intricate curlicue doodling and fancy arrows around the margins.

I shrugged. “I suppose we have to figure that out. You got a camera?”

She nodded. “Don’t you?”

I didn’t answer her question. “Then we’ll use your phone to snap a picture. Problem solved.”

From the way that Riley’s anxious expression softened, I’d like to think that she was impressed with my solution. But then she had to be a brat and add, “Let’s just get this over with, okay?”

“Absolutely. The sooner the better.”

Behind us, Mr. Romero started barking out more instructions. “Okay, people! Find your partners and spread out. Be back here in ninety minutes! Remember the days are still short. It’ll be dark before you know it, and we’ve got lots more to do before dinner. No messing around out there.”

Like that would be possible.

I started walking toward the entrance to Woods Canyon in silence. Riley didn’t budge.

“Do you think that’s the right direction?” she called after me. “Cassidy, Jay and Matt are headed to the lake. Maybe we should follow them?”

“You can, if you want,” I said with a shoulder shrug. “But I think this way’s better.” Seriously, I didn’t think it mattered where we started but there was no way in hell I would follow Jay Hawkins anywhere, at least not on purpose.

“Wait!”

I kept walking.

A second later I heard her footsteps behind me and I couldn’t help but smile a little inside. “Okay, okay!” she said. “If you say so. But you better be right.”