Handy Hiding Place (NaNoWriMo 2014)

Chapter 8

To Quinn, the game of solving the plastic’s hands clues was something fun to do; at least it had been for a while. Now, as they walked home from Lexis’s house, they wondered if maybe they had taken things too far. The clues were starting to scare Quinn’s friends, something Quinn found a little hard to take in. Solving the mystery of the hand was what had brought the four friends together in the first place. The thought of Zak and Lexis spending time with one another in person, as opposed to online, had remained in the back of Quinn’s mind until the day they actually did meet in person. Quinn was excited that the two of them had gotten to hang out for a while. Was the hand and its clues scaring Lexis and Zak?

Then there was Amelia, a person completely new to the friend group. She had been minding her own business on the beach, innocently crafting a sand castle, when she dug up the plastic hand that she hadn’t realized was plastic. Quinn remembered laughing at Amelia’s shock, now feeling slightly guilty about that. Amelia ended up being eager to solve the clues, even though she had initially doubted that the hand was anything more than a prank. Quinn smiled, glad to have met her. Amelia was a lot more open-minded than Quinn had expected, a very pleasant surprise. It was always a pleasant surprise to meet a person as open-minded as Amelia, because such people were easier to teach and trust. Amelia, Quinn decided, was a very special person.

Sunday, otherwise known as ‘oh, I have to do homework now’ day, came along, and Amelia, who did homework on Fridays, headed to the library. She used to worry about what other people would think of her reading habits. She wasn’t sure why. For Amelia, reading was a really fun pastime that provided new ways of thinking about the world. While Amelia was searching for a book, her eyes wandered over to a book lying on top of a cart of other books. It seemed familiar. When she walked over to it, she realized that she had seen it before. This was the book that the woman on the beach had been reading. Curious, Amelia lifted the book and turned it to read the description. She squinted at the text, wondering why it was dark yellow.

“While Summer is walking along the beach, she stumbles upon a peculiar object…”

Amelia jumped, looking around as if the woman from the beach was standing right behind her. She slowly continued to read the description.

“Little did she know that the bizarre object would not only introduce her to three others, but that it would start to leave them clues.”

Amelia turned the book over again and quickly flipped through the pages. Whatever they said, she wanted to read them. Quickly, she went to check out the book. As soon as she made it back home, she called Quinn.

Quinn answered right away. “Hey Amelia,” Quinn smiled. Lying on their bed, they listened to Amelia.

“Quinn! I went to the library to check out a book and then I saw the book that the one lady at the beach was reading so I picked it up except when I looked at--”

“Wait, what?” Quinn interrupted, sitting up. “Slow down.”

“Do you remember that book that the lady at the beach was reading?” Amelia asked, trying to contain herself as she gripped the phone.

“Uh, I remember her having a book, yeah. Why?”

“I found it at the library.”