5. Scavengers

The awkwardness Berry had initially felt was evaporated by Indigo’s reappearance. She had loaded her plate with more chicken nuggets as well as procured a cookie for each of them.

Her return brought a welcome distraction: Indigo launched into a story about the spooky little graveyard back home, which allowed Berry to feel comfortable enough to finally eat.

She found herself enjoying her company, and (several cookies later) dinner was over, and the lodgers were expected outside for ‘a fun activity’.

Everyone in the lunch cabin was herded outside, and they all stood and chatted or stared at one another in the pink light from the slowly setting sun.

Berry lingered by the lunch cabin’s doors and buried her hands in her pockets, hoping for some direction.

Indigo had made her way headfirst into the small crowd of people, and was now talking (or perhaps arguing?) with a boy with large glasses and a camera. And Berry had somehow lost sight of Finn, even though the total number of kids gathered was probably only around thirty.

It didn’t matter much; Berry was used to being left behind.

Kristee and another Highwater counselor with a nametag reading ‘Twain’ and muscles reading ‘Do Not Mess With Me’ made their way to the front of the pack.

“Hello, Lodgers! We have a super fun activity planned for today!” Kristee belted over the murmur of voices. “It’s a scavenger hunt so you need a team! That means more than one!” Kristee sent a sharp smile to a young boy off to Berry’s left, who glared back with crossed arms.

Berry curiously noted that another counselor, this one wearing a white polo, was watching the boy quite carefully.

“You can pick a team and tell Twain who’s in it, or come to me and I will help you find one!” Kristee ended the instruction with an enthusiastic arm-wave, signaling the lodgers to get group-making.

“You wanna be in a group?”

Berry was surprised to find Finn beside her. “Oh, yeah, sure,” Berry said, looking at the ground. She had thought she would probably end up in the glaring boy’s group, but this was certainly better.

“Maybe Indigo will be in our group too,” Finn said, starting forward.

In the end, their group was Berry, Finn, Indigo, and the camera boy that Indigo had been talking to. Kristee gave them a list of things to find and told them very firmly, but very cheerfully, to stick together, then sent them off.

They began to wander off into the trees, like the other groups.

“This is Peter,” Indigo said as they walked, gesturing vaguely at the fourth member of their group.

Peter looked older than Berry by a few years, and had big, sea-green eyes that were magnified by his round glasses. He would have appeared normal, but Berry still hadn’t seen him blink…which was pretty off-putting. The boy also clutched his small point-and-shoot camera so tightly in his right hand that his knuckles were white. He had still not taken any pictures.

Berry gave Peter a tight-lipped smile as a greeting. Luckily, it seemed that he was not going to try and shake her hand. “Hello,” Berry said after a silent moment. “I’m Berry.”

He looked to Berry briefly, then stared forward into the pines and said, “So nice to meet you,” in a surprisingly genuine tone.

“Guys,” said Finn suddenly, holding up the scavenger hunt list. “I think I found something!”

He informed them that one of the items was ‘a rock that looks like something else’ then bent down to pick up a rock. He held it for the rest of them to see.

It looked like a rock.

“That’s a very vague description… Are they all like this?” Berry asked, squinting at the rock. She couldn’t make out any special shape.

“Get used to it,” Indigo said, then grabbed Peter’s arm. “Hey! Take a picture of that!” She pointed him in the direction of the sunset, which was now a bright golden color.

Finn, with a glance to their two distracted teammates, shared the list with Berry.

Scavenger Hunt!

Find:

1. Something round

2. A rock that looks like something else

3. An item that represents each lodger in your group

DO NOT:

Try to carry items that are BIG or HEAVY.

Take other people’s things without permission.

Leave your group.

“Let’s find something round next,” said a voice from behind Berry, causing her to jump. Peter stood just behind her, reading over her shoulder.

Indigo had her arms crossed. “What’s the rock supposed to be, anyway?” she asked Finn.

He turned it over in his palm. “It looks like a flame to me.”

Indigo let out a single laugh. “Of course it does.” Then, she stepped forward and swiped the list from Finn’s hand. “We should look for the round thing next,” she decided, and marched forward.

Peter followed her closely, and Finn looked to Berry. “She could’ve asked,” he said with an amused smile.

Berry laughed, and then the two of them continued after Indigo.