Suite Life With the McDonoughs

Chapter 6

Haley's POV:

"Okay, let's go over the rules one more time. The teams are Boys vs Girls, that is, Linds and I against you boys. We will be playing in the West side of the hotel because the East side has all the bedrooms and we don't want them to be yelling at us to quiet down. The West side is already in a hustle all the time because of the kitchens and quarters of the workers, so we'll be good there. We have allocated three floors to the game, so no one will hide anywhere other than on these three floors.

"Now, these beepers that I've given you are in synced to Lindsey's and mine. When we'll finish counting, we press the beeper to tell you that we're coming to seek you. Also, if Linds and I find anyone of you, we press the beeper to inform each other. To make sure that you guys don't coordinate your hiding or tell the other if he's been caught, I haven't synced your beepers amoungst each other. When we've seemed you boys out, we'll meet here and switch beepers and then we'll hide and you boys can seek. Any questions?" I stated. Lindsey, Connor, Riley and Toby looked at each other, then back at me and shook their heads. I nodded and we all placed our beepers around our necks.

"Okay then. See you boys on the other side. You ready, Hal?" I smirked at Lindsey and nodded. She turned to face the McDonoughs and smiled mischievously.

"Well boys, you better hide. And hide good cuz we're coming to getcha!"

Lindsey's POV:

"Ready or not, here we come," Haley muttered as we grinned at each other and pressed the beepers. The buttons turned red as we pressed them, sending signals to the boys. We were in the middle of the three floors we had chosen, meaning we had one floor above us and one below us.

"Lets divide and conquer," I stated and Haley nodded in agreement. Giving each other a high five, we went opposite ways, me taking the left side of the current floor and the one below us, while Haley went right and took the floor above us. Moving deathly slow, I scanned the floor with open eyes and ears, searching for anything off. And soon, something off I found.

As I entered the kitchen area, I was greeted by thousands of chefs and waiters running around, preparing for dinner at the Four Seasons. The chefs were moving swiftly along their working station but as I moved closer to them, I found one particular "chef" frozen to his working station. At first, I didn't find anything odd about it but then as I placed more focus on the said chef, I noticed something different about his uniform. While all the other chefs wore all white, the said chef had something black showing from under his white overcoat slash jacket. Hmm... Lets see what's hiding behind door number one.

I walked over to the "chef", dodging all the passing workers and tapped him on his shoulder.

"Hey chef, seems like someone's glued you to your station," I said casually and heard a yelp out of the chef... Or should I say Toby. I grinned victoriously as Toby huffed and turned around. He took off the chef's hat and handed it to a chef... A REAL chef on his left. The chef let out a laugh and took the cap, while Toby took off the coat and handed it to him.

"You kids playing Hide and Seek?" the chef asked. Toby and I looked at each other and grinned in embarrassment.

"Yes we are. We got bored so we decided to have a bit of fun," I replied.

"It was all her idea," Toby said quickly, thinking that the chef would scold us or something but he just laughed.

"Well, play it all you want. I dont see a lot of kids your age playing Hide and Seek these days. Now run along," he said, shooing us away. We let out laughs and Toby thanked the chef for his uniform. Then, we were on our way. As we stepped out of the kitchen, I pressed my beeper to send a signal to Haley. One down, two to go.

"I have to say, that was really clever what you did. I'd never have thought of such a good camouflage," I said, smiling at Toby, who smiled back and looked down, rubbing his neck.

"Aww! Is wittle Toby blushing?" I teased, pinching his cheeks. An ongoing couple hear me and they sent a grin our way. Toby's eyes widened as he slapped away my hands.

"Lindsey!! Shut it!" he whispered, highly embarrassed. I let out a loud laugh and grabbed his hand, pulling him with me.

"Come on, you big baby. Lets go find your brothers."

Haley's POV:

I got a beep from Lindsey. She's already found one of them? Man, she's fast! I raised my eyebrows, impressed as I made my way through the corridors of the floor above the floor we'd started from. This floor had all the dining halls and big rooms for parties and gatherings. Some of them had workers cleaning them, while the others were empty.

As I passed a large, empty ballroom, I suddenly stopped and crouched in my place. There was a shadow on the wall outside the ballroom, looming through its open door. I got on all fours and crouched my way to the doors. Judging from the shadows, the person behind them was at the entrance of the ballroom and I could easily catch them by surprise. I held my breath as the shadow shifted a bit and grew snapped in height. I furrowed my brows, then grinned. Whoever was in the ballroom had sat down next to the doors. I sat down next to the doors as well and took my shoes off, just in case they made noise against the ballroom floor. Then, I crawled to the entrance and stopped, my heart beating fast. I risked a peak through the doors and found Riley sitting against the wall, just as I had thought. I got up on my feet but stayed low so my shadow wouldn't show and ran up to Riley in my socks. He seemed deep in thought and didn't notice me as I jumped into a sitting position next to him.

"HI, RILEY!" I shouted, making him yell out in surprise. He spun his head in my direction and placed a hand on his heart.

"Damn, woman! You sure know how to give a guy a heart attack!" he almost squealed before clearing his throat and saying it again. I let out a laugh and grinned widely at Riley before shifting into a cross-legged position next to Riley.

"Where are your shoes?" he asked, furrowing his brows. My eyes widened.

"Outside... Wait a sec!" I mumbled as I sprung up, almost falling against the slippery floor and half ran, half slid across it to the entrance to get my shoes. I grabbed them and slid (this time on purpose) across the ballroom floor to where Riley sat, him watching me in amusement. I slid into the sitting position next to him and laughed. He grinned in return.

"That was actually so much fun," I said, laughing. Riley said nothing, just kept grinning at me as I put my shoes back on.

"Hal?"

"Hmm?" I looked up to find Riley staring at me with raw emotion in his eyes. My heart skipped a beat as I struggled to hold his gaze.

"I want to talk to you about something."

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Another chapter!! Woohoo!! :P An eventful one, this chapter, wasnt it? Onto Connor's left. Where do you think he's hiding? ;) Anyways, enjoy this chapter till the next one! :D