First

6. Pedro

Jesse and I had handed over the paper clue from the elevator to those that had laptops. They were hunched over it, typing in rapid, short spurts as they tried to decipher it.

The jigsaw puzzle that Butt-Face had mentioned was also in the process of being put together. The puzzle pieces were made out of ordinary printer paper, glued together so each piece was three layers thick.

Most of the pieces had already been solved and lay flat on a table. It looked to be some sort of map, but there were key pieces missing.

"That's all there is," said Ryan.

He held the bag upside down to show there were no more pieces.

"You're sure you didn't drop any?" Jake asked Amit rudely.

"Yes," Amit replied.

"They must have the other ones hidden somewhere else," Scott suggested.

"Or another team stole them," Ryan said darkly.

The kids that sat huddled around their laptops suddenly sat up straight.

"Go to McDonalds!" the smallest one called.

"Oooh, yeah!" Greg chimed in. "I'm starving!"

"I'm thinking pizza," Ryan said.

"No, go to McDonalds!" the table of laptop kids chorused.

Jake went to their table as they pointed urgently at a laptop screen.

"Go to McDonalds," Jake read. "That's what the clue said?"

"Yes!"

Greg threw his hand up. "Oh, I'm so down for this one."

"Can I go too?" David asked.

With no other leads to follow, Jake agreed that anyone who was hungry could make the trek to McDonalds and check out this clue in the process. Most of the group filed up the stairs.

Frodo looked around at the meager team members remaining.

"Maybe we should have ordered pizza," he told Jake.

"Hi, Butt-Face!" we heard Jesse say in the stairwell above us. "We're going to Mickey Dee's, want anything?"

"What, now?"

"Yeah."

"But I just got a clue!" Butt-Face replied.

"Dammit!" Jesse lamented.

The other boys seemed to weigh their curiosity against their hunger for a moment, but the allure of McDonalds was too strong.

"We're checking out a clue too," someone pointed out.

"True."

"We'll see yours when we get back!" Jesse called.

We could hear Butt-Face clomping down the stairs as the others fled.

I was instantly aware of how uselessly my hands were hanging by my sides. I tried to shove them into my pockets, realized these pants didn't have pockets, and ended up clasping my hands in front of me like a ten-year-old schoolgirl at the exact moment he spotted me.

Did they offer lessons here for how to not look like a complete dork?

Jake took a slip of paper from Butt-Face and everyone remaining tried to read it over his shoulder.

"It's an address."

"Yup."

"Where's it from?"