Treasure Hunting 101

Chapter III

Luke

Music: The Lost Luma from Super Mario Galaxy 2

I'm sure many people would agree with me when I say one of the best parts of any school day is lunchtime. It's a nice break from classes and one of the very few times where you can actually socialize with your friends, assuming you're lucky enough to have the same shift as them and not have assigned seats (yes, they sometimes still do that in middle school). I got pretty lucky this year; I have the same lunch shift as five of my other friends and we don't have assigned seats. I guess they trust eighth graders more or something.

Not to mention, you get food out of it. And that's always good.

Today's lunch shift has gone just about as expected. I'm sitting next to my best friend, Heath, and we've been busy sharing memes with each other since we both sat down. Across from us, our friend Sam has just started drinking a Capri-Sun Pacific Cooler, and next to him is his girlfriend, Elle, who's also started eating... and is also leaning her head on Sam's shoulder.

Yeah, they tend to go somewhat overboard with public displays of affection. They're totally aware that it annoys everybody, and yet they still do it. It's stupid, and most of the time, really fucking weird.

I glance up from Heath's phone to look at the two of them, raise an eyebrow at them, and ask, "Why can't you two just do this when nobody else can see you?"

Elle finishes sipping her water long enough to look at me and fire back with, "Why can't you just mind your own damn business?"

Realizing that I'm once again not going to win, I just roll my eyes and go back to scrolling through images on my phone. Then Sam randomly decides to blurt out, "Do you ever wonder how often girls in your class work out?" It's worth noting that he says this just a little bit too loud. It's a miracle we don't get a ton of heads turning our way.

Now both Heath and I are giving Sam odd looks. "Sam, I'm gonna give this to you the nicest way that I can," Heath says. "Who in the hell starts a conversation with that?!"

"Well, you two have been on your phones this entire time. I at least want to make an effort to chat," Sam grumbles, slumping in his seat.

"I'm gonna have to pass on that one, amigo," I mutter, looking back down at my phone.

"You guys are no fun," Sam mutters, putting on a fake pouty face.

"And you're a goddamn idiot," I snort in reply. Sam doesn't even regard my statement, but Elle does.

"Like you're any better, Luke," she smirks.

Music: Under Pressure from Pac-Man World

"She's right, y'know," a female voice snarkily says from behind me. I don't even need to turn around to know that voice came from Avery. She take a seat next to Elle at the table, and along with her is Skylar, who sits on the other side of Heath, completing our usual seating arrangement.

"Well, thanks. I definitely needed that from you today," I grumble.

"No problem!" Avery says gleefully. I give her a friendly middle finger salute. Then she turns to Heath and asks, "So, how're you feeling about that Spanish test today?" The two of them and Sam are in the same Spanish class, which is next hour.

"Did you look at Skylar's Quizlet?" Heath asks her. Skylar has the same Spanish teacher (but not the same period), and apparently she has a thinking for spending her time making study Quizlets for those who want them.

"Nope."

"Me neither, Avery," Sam laughs, holding out a hand for Avery to high-five.

Skylar clears her throat, then glares at Avery and mutters, "Um... don't we have something we need to talk to them about?"

Avery sits in thought for a moment. "Oh yeah, that's right," she says, her face lighting up in an "ah-ha" fashion.

I lean forward on the lunch table and smirk, "What, did you finally realize you've been in love with me this whole time?" I like seeing how easy it is for me to annoy Avery sometimes, so I like to jokingly hit on her often. She doesn't usually respond to it too well, usually giving me a harsh insult or an empty threat in response.

"Piss off."

"No, it's about something Avery and I learned about last night that we think you guys might be interested in," Skylar answers.

"I like learning about things that might interest me. Fill me in," Sam pipes up.

Skylar motions for us to lean in, which we all do. Then she lowers her voice to almost a whisper, and tells us, "So, yesterday, Avery and I met this girl named Brea. She said she's a really big fan of what we've done, and told us about this fabled Kaori's Treasure." Skylar reaches into her backpack and pulls out a few sheets of paper, labeled Documents A through D. One of them is a map, one is a list of items, and the other two just have some writing on them.

"Are you kidding me?" Heath sighs. "There's no way any of this is legit."

"We found all of these documents in a cemetery last night," Avery tells us. "Apparently, in order to actually get the treasure without being cursed, you need to perform this 'Ritual of Pude', or whatever, and we have to follow several steps and look for clues in order to get the items necessary for the ritual."

"Brea wants us to go on a treasure hunt for this with her, and it sounded interesting, so we thought we'd ask you guys about it," Skylar says.

I nod my approval. "Seems like it'd be fun to check out."

"I'm in," Sam says, raising his hand.

"Me too," Elle says, raising hers.

Heath throws his hands up and mutters, "Welp, looks like my decision was made for me."

"Tell Brea to meet us at the clubhouse after school today so we can chat with the rest of the group-" Mia, Mackenzie, Sean, and Shanna- "about this," Sam instructs Skylar. Skylar nods and gets out her phone to text Brea.