No Ordinary Girl

Chapter Thirty

Leo eyed me with a confused look. "The mysterious redhead?"

Ace and Brianna both looked confused as hell. They had no clue what we were going on about.

"Yes!" I said. "There was a redhead in his baseball photo," I explained. "One of the photos on the shelves at the Hendersons."

"You've got something," Brianna asked, hopeful. Although Brianna was not my favorite person, we all really cared about finding Haley. "Something about the redhead?"

"You'll have to see the photo because you know what she looks like," I said to Leo. "I don't."

He nodded, but didn't say a word. His hands were in his pockets. He was still broken-hearted and it completely ruined me, but I couldn't focus on that -- I had a case to solve.

"Let's go," I said. "We need to tell Simone right away."

Ace picked up our sheet and bag from the floor, and handed them to me. "What about the scavenger hunt?"

I looked down at the sheet.

Lullabies, soft blankets, and big bouncing balls.

Obviously, the movie was Rosemary's Baby, but I couldn't have cared less. I darted out of the studio, not wasting another second. "Let's go."

As I ran down the halls, I spotted a few people wearing sleep masks on their heads. They'd obviously solved the Nightmare on Elm Street clue. Good for them, but I had better things to do.

Following what seemed like an endless trek down the class halls, across the quad, and past the main offices, the four of us finally got back to the ballroom. There were just a few people there -- most were still out scavenging. A cluster of kids were at the prize table, barking at the volunteers. There was pushing and shoving, a jumble of tangled costume-clad limbs. The poor volunteers seemed flustered.

Simone was chatting on her mobile not far away. Interesting, I thought, must be nice to have phone privileges. I guess that's what you get when you run the place. I shook the thought out of my head, and sprinted toward her, Leo, Ace and Brianna right behind me.

"Well, for sure. Wouldn't miss it for the world," she was saying. I had no desire to spy on her, or interrupt her seemingly pleasant conversation, but time was of the essence.

She noticed us eagerly standing there.

"I'm sorry, Felicity. I need to let you go. We'll catch up soon." She ended her call, and turned to us. "What's going on, kids?"

"I remembered," I said, slightly out of breath. "The redhead was in a picture at the Hendersons. It was one of the pictures on the bookcase," I explained. There had been so many pictures and knick-knacks, and the picture was quite small, and the people in it even more so -- it would have been very easy to miss. "She was on Mason's baseball team."

Simone nodded, and a smile curved her lips. She was pleasantly surprised, and very pleased. "Well, we'll have to go see about that, won't we?" She brought a long manicured finger to her mouth. "Let me make a call or two, and I'll get back to you. Do not leave. Any of you."

Kids started pouring in, orange bags in hand. I looked up at the giant old-styled clock on the wall. It was ten fifty-six -- four minutes left until the eleven o'clock deadline. There was no time to go look for those missing objects. I turned to Ace, and took the sheet and bag from him. I scribbled Rosemary's Baby on the blank line. "I guess we'll just have to hand this in, and hope we did well enough."

"I'm sorry," he said.

I couldn't quite look at him. I was so angry with him. "I'm sure you don't give a rat's rear. I'm sure you can afford a hundred iPads."