The Great Scavenger Hunt (18 page)

Patrice looked startled…and so did Katani. “Huh?” they both gasped.

“There are five adorable baby kitties that need our help and you would rather worry about a
seventh-grade scavenger hunt
than save them?”

For the first time all weekend, Patrice was speechless. “Uh, um, well, I just thought—”

“What? This—this scavenger hunt,” she stuttered. “It's only a game. These kittens…they're
real
,” Charlotte said with conviction. “And I am not moving until I know they're okay.”

You could have knocked Katani over with a feather. Easygoing, quiet Charlotte had the heart of a lion. Katani was proud of her friend. It took a lot of courage to stand up to Patrice—she should know. “Me neither,” stated Katani.

“And me,” Nick agreed.

“Ditto me, brother,” added Dillon.

There. They had Patrice outnumbered four to one. Patrice let out a huge sigh and murmured, “I'm sorry, guys. I got a little carried away. Here. You can use my cell.” She handed her phone over to Charlotte. “Walkie-talkie Mr. Moore first and let him know about the situation.” Then Patrice walked away by herself and perched on a rock. Katani felt torn. Should she go to her sister?

“Hi, Mr. Moore. It's Charlotte Ramsey.” She began to explain their predicament. Mr. Moore was very understanding. He said he was proud of the Salty Cods for taking the “moral high ground” as he called it. “And you won the treat for making it to the lighthouse first!” he applauded them. “Since you'll be waiting with those kittens, I'll just take your bonus treat to the finish line at Drummer's Cove.
The path you're on is actually a shortcut to the next clue, so you should be able to make up your time.”

The Salty Cods waited for the Animal Rescue League to show up, and passed the time by cuddling with the cute little kitties. Nick and Katani were looking at their old friend with new admiration. “That was the awesomest part of the whole trip,” Nick confided to her and squeezed her hand gently.

Blushing, Charlotte stuck her face into a little ball of fluff that was mewing for attention.

W
e did it! We did it! We—HOO HA—we did it!” Avery jumped up and down and slapped the air. Chelsea and Yurt joined in Avery's crazy victory dance, as Ben and Kiki looked on, laughing. Here they were at the lighthouse—home of clue number four, as confirmed by the telltale Abigail Adams Junior High red flag.

“Hey, it's you guys!” The tall, freckled boy from the beach the day before ran over and greeted the Beach Barnacles with a friendly wave. “So you're doing the scavenger hunt after all?”

Avery scratched her head. Even though yesterday was a bit of a blur, she was pretty sure she hadn't said anything about the scavenger hunt.

“Oh, I'm not psychic or anything,” the boy quickly
explained. “We ran into your friends from Brookline. They were just here. They told us all about it.”

Chelsea gulped. “And what…exactly…did you tell them?”

The kids shrugged. “Not much,” said Tracy. “Just that we saw you at the beach yesterday…and that's about it. You did
not
look like you were doing a scavenger hunt yesterday. We told them that, too…. They took off down the road like they were on some kind of important mission,” she added snidely.

Avery glanced at Chelsea who stared at Ben who suddenly looked very sorry for himself. “I have a feeling the cat's out of the bag,” he mumbled.

“You think they know?” asked Chelsea.

Avery kicked a pebble and stared at Tracy. From the moment she'd laid eyes on her at the beach yesterday, she knew she was trouble. “Oh yeah, they know all right,” Avery grumbled.

Chelsea felt a gnawing in the pit of her stomach. “What team do you think it was?”

“It could be either,” Avery said, “But if I had to make a bet, I'd say four-to-one odds it's the Cods. You heard Patrice last night. They were on fire.”

Chelsea gulped. That would be Charlotte and Nick's team—her fellow scavenger-hunt organizers.

“Ben, what are we going to do?” she asked her brother. “Nick and Charlotte are going to be so disappointed with me.”

Ben put his hand on his sister's shoulder, but Chelsea
cried out, “I feel awful!” Whenever a situation in Chelsea's life got too crazy, it was her first instinct to enlist the aid of her big brother. Having Ben's support tended to be enough to get her through anything. But Ben looked as miserable as she felt, and feeling bad for themselves wasn't going to fix anything.

“Let's just forget this whole thing,” Kiki whined. “If the Cods know already then what's the point? Let's just go back to the beach…and have fun.”

Yurt looked temped by this idea—Avery could practically see the visions of beach balls dancing in his head. So she leaned in and warned him, “Don't even think about it.”

Then she confronted Kiki. “What
don't
you get about this, Kiki?” Avery demanded. “Yesterday was play beach. Today is attack scavenger hunt.”

She turned to Chelsea and added under her breath, “It's the only prayer we have of Charlotte forgiving us.” She laughed.

Chelsea couldn't believe Avery was so cool about this. Maybe it was because the BSG were like best friends and Avery was sure she would be forgiven. But she, Chelsea, was just a school friend, so the BSG and Nick might never speak to her again. She felt her knees begin to shake and went to sit down.

But Avery's determination seemed to be all Ben needed to rally. “Come on, Chels,” he ordered. “Short stuff here is right. Let's solve another clue. It's not over…until it's over!” Ben pulled an envelope out of his bag and ceremoniously
handed it to Avery, who decided not to be annoyed by the short joke, and read:

The normally enthusiastic Henry Yurt drooped in despair. “That clue's impossible. Nature is on display everywhere…. Hello, it's Cape Cod.” He waved his hands in the air like the sky was falling.

“President Yurt, where's your scavenger-hunt spirit? Where there's a clue there's a way,” Avery cheered. “We just have to put our heads together and think.”

“Hey!” The freckled boy interrupted his Frisbee game with his friends to run over to the Beach Barnacles. “I'm a huge fan of scavenger hunts, and birds as it turns out. Did you know that birds are descended from dinosaurs? Ahhh, anyway…,” he continued, seeing their disinterested faces, “I think I have an idea of what that clue's talking about.”

Suddenly the Beach Barnacles were all ears. There was no rule that said you couldn't use whatever means necessary to solve the puzzle…including seeking the sage wisdom of other kids who happened to be on Cape Cod. “Well, spill it!” Avery urged.

“I think it means the Wellfleet Wildlife Sanctuary…. It's the only place I can think of where tons of birds and other animals can just be free and also protected. I was there once a couple of years ago.”

“It makes sense,” Chelsea agreed. “Now how do we get there?”

The freckled boy wrinkled his nose. “That's the thing,” he said, hesitantly. “We took a boat. I think there's some kind of bike path to get there…but I don't know….” His voice trailed off.

“Is there a ferry or something?” asked Ben.

The boy shrugged. “My friend's dad took their boat…. I think it's just up the coast that way a couple of miles.”

“Hey!” Kiki suddenly perked up. “I used to go up there with my family too…. It's not that far, only about ten minutes away from my house. I know how to get there by boat.”

“You have a boat?” Avery gaped.

“Well, yeah!” Kiki looked at her like she was crazy. “It's the Cape, dude. People have boats here!”

Yurt's eyes glowed. “I'm down for some boat action. Let's go!”

“Is that okay? The teachers never mentioned anything about finding the clues using other forms of transportation,” Chelsea pointed out.

“We're running low on time!” Ben argued. “All's fair in love and war…as long as we're scavenger hunting, and it's safe—oh yeah—Kiki,
is
it safe? I'm Captain Safety, here,” Ben said in his big grizzly bear voice.

Chelsea smiled.
Big Ben is back!

Kiki shrugged and said casually, “Duh! I took boating safety class. I've had my boating certificate since forever.”
Her smile got a little bigger and she said softly, “I
love
boating!”

Avery had to admit—she was impressed. She couldn't wait to tell the BSG that there was more to Kiki Underwood than sparkly lip gloss and her evil entourage. But then she felt funny. Thinking of the BSG made her feel bad, like she had let her friends down. She vowed she would do her best to make it up to them today.

“Barnacles unite!” cheered Ben, and with that the team got back on their bikes, and, pedaling furiously, arrived back at Kiki's house in twenty minutes. Kiki's mother was so excited to see them she brought out a tray of lemonade and popsicles. Talk about a bonus item!

“Thank you, Mom!” Kiki kissed her mother on the cheek.
Surprise number two,
Avery ticked off in her head. Kiki and her mother really got along well with each other. “We can't stay and visit. I'm taking the crew up to Wellfleet Wildlife Sanctuary on the boat.”

Kiki's mother pressed her hands over her heart. “How lovely, dear! I do love to see people enjoying the boat.” She graciously led the kids into the garage and showed them where to leave their bikes so they'd be safe and out of the way. Then she and Kiki bumped their fists and kissed each other on each cheek while they said, “Safety First.”

“It's just this thing we do,” Kiki explained nonchalantly to her stunned classmates.

Avery almost couldn't believe her eyes. Seeing Kiki pal around with her parents at her Cape house brought out a whole new side of the Empress. If Avery didn't know
any better, she would have said that Kiki Underwood was actually sort of…nice.

One thing was for sure: When it came to her boat—a fancy Boston Whaler with a serious motor—Kiki took her responsibilities as captain
very seriously
. She showed everyone her boating safety certificate. “Required by law to operate a boat if you're between the ages of twelve and fifteen,” she shared. “I wanted you all to see so you'll feel safe. Obviously that's an important Underwood concern,” she joked.

“Now, everybody grab a life jacket,” Kiki ordered, pointing to a wooden bin inside the boathouse. “I mean it, if you're not fastened properly, you don't board this boat.” Kiki went around and double-checked everyone's straps and one by one allowed them into the boat, giving them each a seating assignment.

“Arms and legs inside the boat at all times,” Kiki instructed. “There will be no standing, no rocking, and no shouting, which doesn't really matter because…” Kiki turned the key and the motor started up at a disturbingly loud volume as she yelled over it, “I WON'T BE ABLE TO HEAR YOU ANYWAY!” And with that they were off!

Avery and Chelsea were thrilled by how beautiful the Cape looked from this new vantage point. They had ridden their bikes so intently, it was really fun to chill out on the boat. Inspired, Chelsea was snapping pictures madly while Avery turned her face to the wind which whipped her ponytail back and forth.

“
Holy bologna
!” Yurt suddenly cried. He pointed, while
trying his hardest not to rock the boat. “Ahoy, mateys! There's a pirate ship washed up on the shore!”

Everyone on the boat turned to look. Henry wasn't lying. There, in a little deserted patch of sand and forest, rested an enormous old-fashioned–looking boat, and on its mast waved a large black flag with a skull and crossbones right smack in the middle.

“Let's check it out,” Kiki said decidedly.

“Wait! Are you really sure that's such a good idea?” Chelsea asked. “There really are modern-day pirates. I read all about them.”

“There aren't any pirates on Cape Cod,
duh
!” shouted Kiki as she drove the boat closer.

“I hope you're right, Captain Kiki, 'cause I'd hate to have to take a whole ship of pirates down,” joked Ben.

As the boat journeyed closer to the shore, a man carrying a large camera caught Avery's attention “You fruit loop!” She gave Yurt a gentle shove. “That's not a
real
pirate ship. Did you forget about that movie Ms. O'Reilly was telling us about last night?” Avery slapped her knee in hysterical laughter.

Yurt feigned indignance. “I beg your pardon. I certainly did not!”

“Yo, you did!” Avery teased as Kiki steered the boat away from the set and back on their course, “You said, and I quote, ‘Holy bologna, there's a pirate ship washed up on the shore!'”

“I'll have to check my notes to confirm that,” retorted Yurt.

Suddenly Chelsea exclaimed, “That looks like Maeve!”

The members of the boat squinted and indeed noticed there was a girl with curly red hair dancing around in the middle of the crowd. “Weird,” Avery commented. “Too bad for Maeve
it's not
. Wait till she hears there was a girl who looked just like her who got to be in a movie on the Cape this weekend.”

Chelsea's eyes widened as she pulled out her camera and quickly snapped a photo. “You guys!” she shouted. “That's the last bonus item—something pirate-themed! We have all ten!”

The Beach Barnacles cheered as the pirate ship disappeared from their sight. Then they whizzed on up the bay toward the Wellfleet Wilderness Sanctuary, led by Captain Kiki.