The Race

017 | Cami

The woman was gone by the time I got back. What day would she be back? Thursday? If she didn't have the clue I didn't know who did.

I opened the door to the bed and breakfast. I said a quick hello to a lady that was dusting the clock and walked to the second floor. I was the only one there.

Half an hour later, Maybelle and Lark came in together. Asia arrived soon after. Aralee after that. Harper was last today.

"Okay!" Maybelle said. "Everyone is here, so let's get this show on the road."

"Did you find something?" Aralee asked.

"Nope," Maybelle said.

"I did," I said. Everyone turned their heads to look at me. I smiled. "I think I know the women with the clue, but we'll have to wait until Thursday to get it."

"What? Why?" Maybelle asked.

I explained what happened. Maybelle had rolled her eyes three times by the end of it.

"I'm sorry, okay? It seemed really weird at first," I said.

"That is weird," Harper said, "but you should have known-"

Harper was cut off by a crash from outside. Aralee leaped to the door and opened it to find the cleaning lady having fallen on the ground.

"Are you okay?" Aralee asked.

"I'm fine... I just slipped..."

"Were you listening to us?" I asked.

"Cami," Harper hissed. "Be nice."

"Yeah, okay, but look at her. She was clearly leaning up against our door," I said, gesturing to the lady. It was pretty obvious.

"You're right," Harper said with a frown. "Why were you-?"

The lady cut her off. "Dusting!" she exclaimed with fake cheerfulness.

"Yeah... okay, sure," Harper said with an eyebrow raised.

"Well... bye!" The lady stood up and zipped down the hallway. Harper shut the door.

"That was weird," I muttered.

The next day went by in a blur. We still looked around, in case I was wrong about the cart women, but we found nothing.

On Thursday, we woke up like the days beforehand. We went down for breakfast. This is where my jaw went slack.

Taking up half of the table was a group of boys, all looking our age. One of them had long blonde hair and stupid blue eyes.

"Oh gosh no," I said, my eyes widened.

The boys heard me, and turned around.

"Hello," a boy with short white hair said sweetly. "Do you need extra seats?"

"Archie," a dark-skinned boy hissed. "That's the other team! The female team."

The boy, Archie, looked at us in shock. "Kaikara, we can't attack them."

"We won't," the dark-skinned boy, Kaikara, said.

"Really? That's great!" Aralee said, sitting down beside Archie. Everyone else cautiously followed.

"Finally decided to play the rules, uh... what's your name? Kiki?" Maybelle asked.

"It's Kaikara. And the rules say we can kill if we want, and Blex didn't mind at all, so it's fair game."

"Okay, Kiki," Maybelle said, taking a bite out of her pancake. "It's too bad we're about to win. So much work... so little profit."

"Ha, not if we get to the cart woman first," Kaikara said.

I dropped my fork. "How did you know?"

Kaikara along with some other boys laughed. "So it's true! The cleaning lady was right," Kaikara said. "I got my money's worth on that one."

"That little rat," I hissed. She listened to our conversation and sold our secrets to the enemy! I curled up my fists in anger.

"There is nothing you can do," Kaikara said with a smirk. He and the other boys got up and ran out.

"Go!" I shouted. "We need to get to the market as fast as we can!"

We rushed out, following the boys. Aralee was ready with her blow gun. She shot at the boys' heads, trying to knock them out. Soon she hit a boy. While the boys stopped to help their fallen teammate, we rushed ahead.

"Wow, The Race is turning into an actual race!" Harper said. I chuckled and pressed forward.

Now it was the boys' turn to shoot at us. Blex didn't hesitate to take out his pistol and aim it at our heads. He did it so calmly, like life didn't matter at all.

Maybelle tossed a knife at him, knocking the gun out of his hand, but causing Maybelle to slow down. Luckily, Blex also stopped to grab his fallen gun.

We raced forward, heading at full speed to the market square. When we got there, it was chaos. Many people had heard the gunshots and were fleeing, or at least trying to. There were people packing their stands, arguing with one another, trying to sell their items at a greatly reduced price, and more.

"Spilt up!" I shouted over the noise. "Find the women and get the clue!"

The girls nodded and rushed away. The boys split up as well.

This was the moment. We could win or lose it all. It all depended on luck and speed. Two things I rarely seemed to have.

And yet, as the chilli cart came into sight, hope swelled in my body.

A stabbing pain suddenly stopped me.

I fell down quickly, hitting the pavement as gracefully as a dying elephant. I grabbed my leg tightly. Blood poured from the open wound. A throwing knife had been wedged into my leg. I quickly took it out, groaning from the pain. A boy with black curly hair rushed forward.

With my last bit of strength, I stood up and grabbed my single knife. I lunged forward, aiming carelessly at the boy's back.

Miraculously, it hits its mark. The boy fell with a blood-choked groan. I stumbled forward, practically crawling toward the chilli stand.

"Give me the clue," I groaned. The cart women smiled and handed me the slip of paper.

I had won The Race.