“It’s okay,” Alex said, giving Cat a small smile. He tucked his chin down but kept talking. “Without your plans, we wouldn’t have gotten nearly as many Quest items done. I shouldn’t have gotten upset with you for taking charge, and I should have been more patient. I could have done a lot more and I just didn’t.”
“It probably would have helped if I’d listened to you guys, like, even one time,” Fi added. Rowan squeezed her hand and Fi smiled at her before continuing. “All I could think about was my camping trip and not what any of this meant to you both.”
“I literally just met all of you dudes like thirty seconds ago, but Fi’s really rad and I’m glad everyone seems to be getting along now,” Rowan added quickly.
Cat had to stifle a laugh. Rowan seemed way cool, actually.
“Yeah, well.” Cat tossed her ponytail back and forth. “We’re family.”
“Selfie!” Rowan said, holding up her camera to capture a picture of the four of them. They shoved together and she hit the shutter—and the flash went off. Sound and all.
The panelists stood up, and the volunteer guarding the door was on Cat and the crew in seconds. Laughing harder than she probably should have been, Cat let herself be ushered out of the room behind Rowan, Fi, and Alex.
Back out in the hallway, Cat stood next to the door and huddled up with her fam. Rowan showed the others the selfie on her phone (completely cute, thanks!), but the screen was interrupted by an alert.
“Oh My Academic Heroine!… ‘New Quest Item Added’?” Cat read off the screen. She felt her heart start pounding almost as hard as it had been when they’d gotten to this room in the first place. “Is that for real?!”
23
Alex
Alex snatched his phone out of his messenger bag and had the Quest app open before Cat could even finish asking her question. It wasn’t unheard of for the Quest to add random items over the course of the day; they were usually small challenges to keep people checking the app and on their toes. Really, Corwin Blake was kind of a prankster online. He did all this for charity, but it was widely speculated that he also did it because he had a really messed-up sense of humor and enjoyed watching people do ridiculous things in service of his goals.
But mostly the charity thing. Probably.
There it was: “New Quest Item Added!” Alex clicked on the notifications tab and checked the list.
“Look!” Alex said, flipping his phone around so everyone could see it. Sure enough, there at the bottom of the list, Corwin had added a special task just moments ago. All the item said was “Find this.” When Alex clicked the item, it took him to a blurry photo with absolutely no context around it.
Just … a blurry photo.
“Find that?!” Cat burst out. “How?!”
“What is it?” Fi asked, equally confused.
“Check the list again,” Rowan suggested. “Does it say anything else?”
Alex flipped the phone back around. He frowned as he scrolled up and down, hoping for any little hidden hint they might find. “Nothing.”
“Wait, here!” Rowan jabbed her finger at her own phone. “Look—the Rewards page!”
Alex quickly popped over to that section of the app. This was where it detailed
what you got if your team managed to get the most points in the Quest: spending a week with Corwin and his Paranormal costars doing charity work and the chance to qualify for a special mentorship. Cat cared about the celebs (and the charity work, if Alex was being fair). Alex cared about the mentorship. He really wanted to know how he could get to the next level with his art.
But there! Rowan was right. At the very bottom of the page, there was something new, in teeny-tiny font, that hadn’t been there before. Alex squinted at his screen and read the text out loud.
“The first Quest participants to successfully upload a photo of the Surprise Mystery Item will win a Surprise Mystery Prize to be presented at the Quest Masquerade Awards Banquet this evening. Good luck, Questers!”
“Cool,” Fi admitted, almost without realizing it. Rowan stuck her tongue out at her.
“It’s not just cool,” the purple-haired gal corrected. “It’s epic.”
“It’s just a blurry picture!” Cat wailed in despair. “How can we find this and find our way into Hall M?!”
“Fi’s right,” Rowan said, tucking her phone away. “The best way to get everything done—and to avoid that complete toolbag James M.—is to split up.”
Alex couldn’t help but agree. He didn’t like many people without getting to know them first, but Alex was starting to think Rowan might be someone he could like. Eventually. “Who wants to go where?”