The Rules

by Nancy Holder

  Kyle frowned, super pissed. He had studied his butt off for weeks. Ms. Amaya and a couple of the other teachers graded on a curve, and he couldn’t afford to get knocked down because people were cheating. It was so typical of August, who cut corners every chance he got just because he could. And typical of their friends to take the easy way out.

  It was not typical of Coach Brissett’s daughter, apparently. Beth and Thea were hopping up and down in utter ecstasy, but Robin looked as shocked as he felt, and he watched her arguing with them. He and Robin were the only two honest people in a den of thieves.

  “When I give the signal, you will rip open your clue envelopes and find your partners,” August said. “So tank up on food now. It’s going to be a long night.”

  Kyle wandered over to the overflowing refreshment table. As usual, August had put out an amazing amount of food. And not just cheap munchies, but cracked crab on sourdough bread, clam chowder, little Japanese bento lunch boxes packed with sushi, and a massive cake that looked like a bottle of Anchor Steam beer. The table was decorated with at least six different colors of miniature roses and two enormous ice sculptures of sea lions. Random.

  Robin came over. There was guacamole and chips, and she got a little skull-shaped plate and took some. He knew that even though she wasn’t looking at him, she was conscious of his presence, and he moved closer and snagged a chip off her plate.

  “So, this is your first August party,” he said. He loved her eyes. They were blue, like his, but a bit greener. She had a cute nose. And a great body. He liked girls with athletic builds. She didn’t do sports at school, but he knew she was a runner, like him. He wasn’t sure if she was more into speed or endurance. This hunt location was so spread out that he would probably get to find out.

  “And my last,” she said, munching on a chip. “The grand finale.”

  “Or the bitter end. Do you want a beer? Or something stronger?”

  She made a little face. “I think I’d better stick to soda. My teammates are out for blood, and I’m not a very good drinker. Plus we’re getting a penalty because we’re a team of three, so I need to maintain every advantage.”

  He handed her a can of Diet Coke and got himself a water bottle. “I don’t drink, either,” he said, unscrewing the cap. “August designs these hunts himself. Usually Beth helps. Why didn’t he just pair you with Thea? It’s not fair to clump you up and then penalize you for it.”

  She jerked her plate away playfully when he reached for another chip. “He didn’t know I was coming. Beth invited me and I guess she forgot to tell him. Which is weird, considering…” She trailed off. “Anyway, I’m glad I’m the odd girl out because there is no way I’d take the test answers, and Thea and Beth are over there dancing a jig at the very thought.”

  “So you’re not a rule-breaker,” he said.

  “Not usually, no. But I will help Beth and Thea win.” She looked dubious. “It’s not up to me which prize they pick.”

  “But you girls won’t win,” he said very seriously. “You know that.” She lifted her brows and he reminded himself not to underestimate her.

  “I already said I’d kick your ass.” She grinned at him.

  “Hah. I could beat you all without the penalty. Me and my partner,” he added. If it was Heather, she’d probably wander off somewhere and hook up. That would be fine with him. Give him room to maneuver. Otherwise she’d be a total boat anchor.

  “Wow, lacrosse captain, are you ever so competitive.”

  “You got that right.” He feinted to the left as if to steal a chip, and as she batted her hand at him, he snatched away the plate, and held it above her head. He scooped up the last of the chips. “I’m a winner.”

  She was all flushed as she huffed and lightly gave his shoulder a bat. He was stunned. She liked him. Liked liked him. He had never guessed.

  “Want to make it interesting?” she said.

  He halted, the chips halfway to his mouth. “Sure.”

  “Loser buys the winner coffee.”

  He smiled. Another surprise. She was pretty much asking him on a date.

  “You’re on.”

  He held the chips out to her. He always had an image of what these hunts would be like, and it hadn’t accounted for the presence of an innocent like Robin Brissett.

  I guess we all started out innocent, he thought, and figured he should warn her.

  “These people,” he said, then hesitated. He had to be careful. For years and years, he had kept his low opinions of these friends to himself. There was absolutely no point in dissing them now, when they were all so close to the end. “They feel entitled. They get bored easily, and if something’s too hard, they’ll cheat. Cage has been known to hire smart kids to do his homework. Larson just screws—”

  He broke off. Larson’s typical solution for raising his GPA was to hook up with some smart nerd, get her to do his homework, and then break it off with her.

  “Look at how much August has to bribe them to play his game,” he said. “They’ll never have to work a day in their lives, not really. They’ll just coast along and get everything while you and I will have to work our butts off just to make it.”

  Her eyes widened, and Kyle wondered if he had said too much. No one knew he was this bitter. He was suddenly nervous.

  “Anyway,” he began, and she smiled gently at him.

  “Actually, I agree with you,” she murmured. “Sometimes it pisses me off, too.”

  He blinked. “Whoa, Robin. I—”

  Then August jumped back on the stage with his arms wide. “Okay, scavengers, finish up. The countdown has begun.”

  “Ten!” Stacy cried, and everyone looked at her with amusement.

  “Hold on a sec there, Stacy,” August said amiably. He pointed at Robin. “For the newbies, even though they did not realize that we run in pairs, not threesomes, there is a penalty.”

  “Kill! Kill!” Cage bellowed with Larson and Heather joining in. Kyle whispered it, and Robin mock-glared at him. Pretty soon everyone was clapping and calling for the demise of the newbs.

  “Beth says we will die horribly,” Robin told Kyle.

  He exhaled soberly. The moment for confessions had passed. “There is always that chance at a party of August’s.”

  “Fifteen-minute penalty!” August said as the hooting died down.

  “What?” Beth shrieked. “That’s not fair!”

  “I have spoken,” August said grandly. “Ladies, keep your envelopes sealed until fifteen minutes has passed. The rest of you, begin!”

  “Well, good luck,” Robin said, moving away. Kyle had a crazy impulse to ask for a good-luck kiss, but that was all it was, an impulse, and he ripped open his envelope.

  Tonight’s the night!

  Do or die!

  In the fields of _ _ _ _ _ _ _

  You will never lie.

  Your prize: I know you got accepted at Cal State Long Beach. My family has connections with the athletic dept. and if you win, you will get a general athletic scholarship—full ride, my friend.

  Kyle’s heart sank. He read and reread the lines about the prize. Then he moved on, mentally and physically, going in search of Heather and her untouchable fields.

  Cage and Morgan were together—the jock and the cheerleader, a matching set of athletes. That left Larson and Praveen. Weird combo.

  He glanced over at Robin, who was standing with her two girlfriends. Beth must have told August he’d been accepted to Long Beach, the result being the scholarship prize. Beth was nearly as pale and sweaty as that girl singer in Maximum Volume. August had pretty much crushed her in front of all their friends. He wondered what had gone wrong between them. In the blink of an eye, your whole life could change.

  He was proof of that.

  The band ended their set just as he and Heather found each other, putting the pieces of their clue together:

  Nine o’clock from Lacrosse’s car,

  when it comes to real, Kyle raises the bar.
/>   Mirror, mirror on the wall,

  who stole away the curtain call?

  “What does that even mean?” Heather said nervously. “ ‘Stole away the curtain call’?”

  “Well, you do always get the leads in all the plays,” Kyle said bluntly. Maybe he would like her more if she didn’t try to be so ignorant.

  She gave her blond mane a shake. “Because I deserve them.”

  Kyle just shrugged. That was what these friends were all about—lying even to themselves to get what they wanted.

  “I do deserve them!” she cried.

  As she sputtered and protested, he walked over to where he’d left his stuff and picked up a flashlight. The others scattered to the wind, the band taking a break. Stacy waved and laughed and wished them all happy hunting as Hiro, the drummer, gave himself a solo. Mick, the one who had almost been electrocuted, played along. But Drew the bassist stomped off by himself, using the same silk hankie he’d dabbed Stacy’s forehead with to wipe the sweat off his own face.

  Kyle led the way along the seawall to the parking lot. Everyone on the hunt had parked there—he knew all the cars. Fog spilled over his ankles like freshly poured milk. It seemed to crawl up the building hand over hand, an excellent cover if you wanted to hide and then jump out and scare the hell out of someone. August had never mounted a hunt at such a sprawling, remote location.

  As they moved away from the warehouse, Kyle turned on the flashlight, trying to ignore Heather, who couldn’t seem to stop talking. She was driving him crazy.

  If he traced a straight line to the left from his car, it stopped at the wooden dock on the other side of the warehouse. The dock looked like it was sliding down into the ocean. In the center, the rusted remains of a twelve-foot-wide conveyer belt lay in chunks inside two large grooves in the dock. He supposed the fishing boats had tied up alongside it, and then the fish had been taken off the boat and loaded onto the conveyer belt. From there, they must have gone straight into the warehouse.

  “I’m cold,” Heather said. “Can’t we do this faster?”

  “We’ll try,” he replied.

  Toward the back of the warehouse, a spiral of weathered cement stairs was attached to the dock. They led down the side of a chalky cliff, then onto more gently sloping ground. The remains of a red-and-white parking barrier tilted at the head of a narrow, twisting road pointing like an arrow to the water’s edge. Moonlight spilled onto a pitted cement ramp, a boat landing, he assumed, that sloped down and disappeared into the ocean waves.

  “Do you see anything?”

  He turned around impatiently and glanced up at Heather, who had been trailing behind him.

  “Not yet. You can sit on the stairs and wait for me if you want to.”

  “Okay.” She said it without a jot of apology.

  So entitled.

  As he was heading away from the buildings down toward the beach, the silvery tide splashing into inlets and cubbyholes of rock, he thought he heard someone calling his name. He paused and cautiously turned about, examining his surroundings. It definitely wasn’t Heather, who was up on the stairs, busy examining her nails. Frowning, he stopped walking and listened.

  On second thought, he didn’t think it was his name after all.

  It sounded like someone whispering “Help.”

  CANNERY ROW

  ROBIN’S RULE #3: Always support your friends, new and old. You are a part of their safety net and they are a part of yours.

  Soap on a

  row your

  Robin blinked. That didn’t seem like much of a clue. Beth’s envelope contained a piece of paper with the first line and Thea’s envelope had the second.

  “That’s it?” Thea shrieked as she took the envelope from Beth and looked inside, tipping it upside down as she shook it. They had run out of the warehouse as soon as August told them their penalty was over, and now they were brought up short. “Are they all going to be this hard?”

  “We’re already behind,” Beth groaned. “I have no idea what this is supposed to mean.”

  “Row your boat,” Robin suggested. “Maybe we’re supposed to go down to the beach and find a boat or an oar or something like that.”

  “I think there’s a path over that way,” Beth said, gesturing ahead and to the right.

  They walked shoulder to shoulder, listening to other kids hooting and hollering. The ground was too uneven to risk moving any faster. Robin could hear the sound of glass breaking somewhere out in the darkness.

  “These people party pretty hard,” she said. She’d seen the rows of glittering wine and liquor bottles in the factory, the large tub of ice and bottles of beer. If Beth was to be believed, Cage was on a steroid diet and the bass player in Maximum Volume was a major addict.

  Kyle had stuck to water. That was pretty cool. Her dad had always called Kyle a straight shooter. He liked Kyle a lot. So did her mom. Whenever the team had come over for dinner, Kyle would help clean up. She imagined herself inviting him over next weekend for chicken enchiladas. Did he have a girlfriend? If he did, she wasn’t at the party.

  Beth was scanning everywhere, searching for clues, although Robin wasn’t sure exactly what she was looking for. Robin didn’t expect to find a boat up here. Beth was serious about winning this hunt, and Robin wondered what her prize would be should they win. She was a bit surprised at what Beth would win; apparently she wanted to get a letter of recommendation for Oberlin from August’s dad, which was the prize listed on her clue paper. Robin had had no idea that Beth had picked out a college.

  Thea was mostly studying her own feet, as if she was afraid she would step on a land mine or something. There was sufficient broken glass and debris on the ground to necessitate shuffling along with intense care. Tripping up here could mean a tetanus shot.

  They reached the edge of the cliff and aimed their flashlights downward. Watery light pierced through the swirling fog, revealing patches of ice plant and the outlines of a tile roof. Beyond that was forest; below, the Pacific rushed and retreated in a syncopated rhythm.

  “This path is practically vertical,” Thea muttered. “This must be a false lead. August wouldn’t make us go down there.”

  “Soap on a rope,” Robin said triumphantly.

  “Oh, yeah, duh, huh. You’re right,” Beth said happily. “So, we’re looking for rope or a boat or something they have in common.”

  Thea moved back from the edge of the cliff and shifted her weight. “They both have four letters and an O for the second letter.”

  “And when we’re playing Scrabble…,” Beth began.

  “Be nice.” Thea sounded hurt. She gave Robin her full attention. “What do you think?”

  “Well, you tie a boat to a dock using a rope, don’t you?” Robin said.

  Thea brightened while Beth seemed to ponder this.

  “So maybe we have to find a piece of rope that’s tying up a boat, or at least by a boat. And boats are by the water. And the water is at the bottom of this vertical drop.”

  “And there you have the fine mind of Robin Brissett!” Beth cried.

  “Which is down there in the depths of watery death,” Robin added. “Thea does have a point.”

  “Oh my God, are you channeling Edgar Allan Poe or what? It will be fine.” Beth took the first step off the cliff and down the path. “See, no slipping. No monsters. None at all.”

  Thea crossed her arms. “I’ll wait up here.”

  “We all have to go,” Beth insisted. “Or we’ll be disqualified.”

  “He never said that.” Thea hesitated. “He didn’t, right, Robin?”

  “He has spies,” Beth countered.

  “Who? What if we run into some stranger and we don’t know if they’re one of the spies or some child molester?”

  “Oh my God, Thea,” Beth said. “This is the real world, not some cheesy horror movie.”

  Thea frowned. “Or Jackson. What if Jackson shows?”

  “He has no idea where you are,” Beth said.
<
br />   “But—”

  “I have two words for you: test answers.” Beth turned to Robin with a devilish grin. “I mean, Thea dearest, your specific prize is a loaded credit card, and of course you and I will choose the limo for our team prize because the test answers are immoral. So, Mick Jagger’s butt on the same leather as your butt.”

  Robin smiled to herself. Her prize would be coffee with Kyle. Kyle au lait.

  “Your smile is freaky,” Beth said. “Is it because you’re fangirling on Mick Jagger?”

  Robin smiled some more.

  “Robin, stop it. You’re acting all weird,” Thea said.

  “Ladies, we’re wasting time,” Beth said. “Thea, no one is going to try to kill us.”

  “Okay, okay!” Thea cried. “But if we die, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “I’ll go first,” Robin volunteered. “We can put Thea in the middle so if someone attacks us from behind, they’ll get Beth.”

  Beth made kissy noises at Robin. “I love you, too.”

  The loud wail of an electric guitar bounced off the buildings and arced overhead like a comet as they formed a line. Robin heard the distant popa-popa-popa of the generators.

  This night is already pretty crazy, she thought. I wonder how far these people will go to win this game.

  And then she began her descent.

  CAGE’S RULE #1: Winning is good; working for it is bad.

  Morgan’s clue card read:

  Taking someone else’s measure

  Gives you such sadistic pleasure

  Cage’s page was a series of pictures:

  Cage took Morgan’s clue—the poem—and held it below his. He considered various possible solutions, none of which made any sense. Then he swapped the two halves.