A Family Affair (Hunter Street)

Chapter Twenty One -- A Stop in the Case

THE PLAN WAS nearly in motion. Tess glanced across the street, taking in the metallic grey building. It was short and stumpy, like there weren't any other floors besides the main one, but it was the object of their desire. She wasn't sure why all the clues led to this building in particular, but if they followed the note correctly, the girls would be another step ahead of the boys. 

Anxiety rolled through Tess's body as she focused on the ground team standing in front of her. Tess and Evie were going to watch over the fetch team, which was made up of Anika and Jasmyn. The home team got to watch the security cameras at the gym, just in case the boys or police showed up -- or random scary people, which made Tess even more anxious. But she was the leader of the whole operation (though, Anika would beg to differ) since she got the idea from her silly brothers when they were on a multi-person call. 

"We will defeat the boys tonight," Anika said quietly, looking at Tess, Jasmyn, and Evie. On all the Hunter girls' phones was a four-way call with Sophie and Jennie, the home team. She heard her sister echoing on her call, so she pulled her headphone out. "Everything will go according to plan. Evie and Tess will watch over the front of the gym while Jas and I get the treasure! Sophie and Jennie will watch over us in the gym, protecting us from anything."

"There's a good feeling in my bones," Evie said, grinning widely. Tess looked at her youngest sister, feeling quite the opposite. There was a massive bad feeling settling in the pit of her stomach, but she didn't want to speak up. "We can do this!"

"Go, Hunters!" Anika, Jasmyn, and Evie said as they lifted their hands up toward the sky together. Tess didn't join in the speech, though she did lift her hand toward the sky, too. She didn't like the thought of sending Jasmyn and Anika into the gym by themselves. 

"We'll be back soon, so stop worrying," Anika told Tess with a roll of her eyes and a small smile on her face. She had noticed that Tess hadn't joined in with the speech. Anika lifted her headphones and dangled them in front of Tess's face. "You'll be listening to us the whole time. And Jennie and Sophie are watching our every move, aren't you, guys?" Before anyone could answer her, she shook her head and said, "Besides, I have to get home and feed Tammy. I forgot to do that earlier. That's why we are going to do this quickly."

"Yes, we are going to be watching," Jennie said from Anika's phone that was currently still on speaker phone. Still, Tess's anxiety didn't go down at all. Her heart kept thudding against her chest in quick succession, though she didn't know why. "I finally tapped into the street cameras, so Soph and I will be able to make sure everyone stays safe."

"We'll be in and out, Tess," Jasmyn told her with a nod. "It won't take us a long time. If we don't see anything in there, we'll say the signal word and get out of there. Okay?"

"And what's the signal word again?" Tess asked her, making sure they knew everything about this plan.

"Pumpernickel," Anika answered. Her and Evie glanced at each other and started to giggle again. 

"Good," Tess said, though she didn't feel all that good. 

"We're watching every move they make, Tess," Sophie said from Anika's phone. "Everything will be okay."

"Okay."

"Let's get this started," Jasmyn said, rubbing her hands together. Her and Anika grinned at each other, and Anika plugged her headphones into her phone. "Okay, we're heading toward the gym now."

Tess remained standing where she was in the shadows directly in front of the gym while Evie ran to the opposite side of the street, where she was supposed to be waiting by the side door just in case something bad happened. She didn't like that Evie was alone on the other end of the street, waiting and watching for Anika and Jasmyn as they began their trek toward the gym. She wished Sophie had got the hint earlier when they were all choosing their jobs for this task. Evie kept insisting that she could be one of the ones on guard outside the gym, but Tess kept suggesting that Sophie could do it since she was older than everyone else and would be safer out in the dark than Evie. But Sophie just remained firm in staying at the Hunter House because she was tired from her barista job. No one else seemed worried that Evie was going to be alone like Tess.