I walk home after a weird day at school. Since it’s Halloween tomorrow my class was being extra superstitious. I hear a rustle in the bush that I’m walking by and I jump. Quickly I turn the corner onto my street, Chestnut Avenue. I find the spare key and let myself in. My best friend Liz and our other friends Sara and Ava are coming over for a sleepover tonight and I have to get everything set up.

A few hours later the basement is perfect. I pulled up a scary movie on the TV, snacks have been set out and a few Halloween decorations are set up.

“Marie! I’m home!” My mom calls.

“I’m in the basement!” I yell back up, adjusting a throw pillow. My mom comes down the stairs and takes in the basement.

“You should have the sleeping bags on the floor over there,” she points to a spot a little closer to the TV. “The snacks should go against the wall over there.” My mom is a interior designer and always helps me set up when I have sleepovers and parties.

“Okay.” I quickly move my sleeping bag and the snacks table.

We look around the basement. There are fake spiderwebs in the corners and a black fluffy rug takes up most of the floor. Mom helps me bring down all of the snacks, candy corn and other assorted candies, chips, pretzels and a caramel apple for each of us. As I’m setting up the snacks the doorbell rings. I check my watch, 5:00, they’re just on time. Running upstairs I smooth my top and run my fingers through my long black hair. Opening up the front door I see my three best friends. Sara is tall, has a red hair, pixie cut style, and loves sports. Ava is a total bookworm and has shoulder length brown hair and glasses for a cute nerdy look (she agrees too). Liz is a total fashionista and drama queen, her long blonde hair completing her feminine look. They each help me keep my temper in certain situations and that’s how we became best friends.

“Marie!” Sara exclaims.

“Come in!” I push the door open as wide as it’ll go as my friends pile into my house.

“Hello girls!” My mom calls in from the kitchen. She’s making her signature lasagna for dinner.

I lead my friends down to the basement. As they lay out their sleeping bags and set up their stuff I explain what’s going to happen. Just as we sit down on our sleeping bags the lights blink, then go out. Liz screams and we hear a thump.

“Mom!” I yell upstairs. “What’s with the lights?”

“I don’t know!” She calls back just as the lights flicker back on.

“Well, that was unusual,” Ava says.

“Let’s go see if dinner’s ready,” Sara suggests.

“Good idea,” I grab Liz from where she “fainted” and we run upstairs.

After a delicious dinner of lasagna, my mom leaves because she has something for work. We’re getting our pjs on when the doorbell rings. Sara, Ava, Liz and I run upstairs. I pull open the door. A pretty, white envelope is sitting on the steps. Liz grabs it. In a elegant  script it says Marie Flannigan. Liz hands the envelope to me and I rip open the envelope and read the paper aloud.

To get to the next milestone go to the place that most kids don’t like. This place is big and has lots of adults.  

Find all five milestones and get a reward.

“Lets find the next milestone!” Liz cries.

“Yeah! I wonder what the reward is!” Sara cheers.

“I don’t think we should do this, I mean it’s night and we’re all thirteen-year-old girls. And we don’t even know who’s doing this scavenger hunt for us!” Ava says, but Sara and Liz either don’t hear her or don’t care.

“Come on Ava. We’ll have some fun,” I pull on her arm.

“Lets go!” We run out of the house. “Wait!” I cry. “Lets first change out of our pajamas.”

They nod in agreement and we run back to the house. After we change, grab sweatshirts and shoes, I throw some money in my pocket just in case and we leave.

“So,” Sara starts. “What’s a place that most kids don’t like, it’s big and has lots of grownups.”

“School!” Liz shouts. We walk to our school on Oak Street.

“How do we know where the next milestone will be?” Ava asks, reluctantly, always ahead of us by one step.

“How about we split up?” I suggest. “Liz and I can check the north side door and east side door.

Sara and Ava can check the south side door and the west side door. If you find the next note yell ‘found it’ or something like that.”

They agree so we split. Liz and I make our way around the school.

“Who do you think is doing this?” Liz asks as we round the corner.

“I don’t know. It could be anybody. It could be a dare. We’ll find out once we find the next four milestones.”

“FOUND IT!” We hear from around the building. I look at Liz and we take off at a sprint. Running around the school and skidding a stop in front of Sara and Ava. Sara is holding another crisp, white envelope.

“It has my name on it,” Sara states. The envelope does in fact say Sara Faye.

“Duh! Open it!” Liz cries.

“Ok.” She rips open the envelope and reads the paper aloud. It says:

Congratulations on finding the first milestone. That one was easy and now it’s going to get harder. This place is big. You can gain knowledge and lose yourself. You can watch movies from this place and get music. You can borrow from this place or buy something you’ve had for too long. What is it?

“A store?” I ask.

“You can’t borrow from a store.” Sara objects, putting the note back into the envelope and carefully placing  it in her pocket.

“It can’t be school again, but it sounds like a school,” Liz says.

“Ava? Where do you think we’re going next?” I ask.

“Um… the library!” She exclaims. “We’re going to the library!”

“It can’t be the library. You don’t buy from the library,” Liz cuts her off.

“Yes you can. If your book is overdue you might have to buy it. You gain knowledge if you have to research something and you can lose yourself in a book. You can check out CDs or DVDs.

We’re going to the library!” Ava explains, finally getting into the scavenger hunt.

“The library is on Birch Street,” Sara tells us.

“Come on,” I say. We get up from the ground where we were sitting and start on our way to the library.

“It’s still open,” Liz tells us when we get there. I check the door and there is no envelope.

“Maybe there is something at the information desk for us,” Sara suggests. Since nobody objects we follow Sara inside.

“Are any of you girls named Ava Hawthorne?” The librarian asks.

“That’s me,” Ava skips up to the desk.

“I was told to give this to you.” He hands her another pristine envelope with Ava Hawthorne written on it.

“Who gave it to you?” Liz pipes up.

“I was told to not tell you. I’m sorry girls.” He turns away and keeps working.

“Come on!” Sara begs. “Open it!” Ava nods. We walk to the back of the library and collapse into the chairs. Ava sits on the edge of her chair and cautiously opens the envelope.

“Our God is an awesome God he reigns from Heaven above. With wisdom power and love our God is an awesome God!”

“What?” I grab the note from Ava and read it again.

“What does that mean?” Sara asks, confused.

“I’m confused,” Liz tells us.

“Uh, we all are,” Ava says back.

“Where should we go?” Sara asks.

“Is is a song?” Ava wonders.

“Let me YouTube it.” I pull out my iPhone and open up YouTube. The girls hover over my shoulder as I type in “Our God is an Awesome God” in the search engine. It takes forever to load and finally we get the hits. Liz reaches over my shoulder and click on one. We sit in the library listening to this song. Once it ends we all look at each other.

“Church?” Liz finally asks. ‘It’s on the corner of Maple and Pine.”

“I don’t know. Let’s see,” We get up, say bye to the librarian and walk to the church. Sure enough there is a white envelope taped on the door. We run up. It says Liz Winters on it. Liz grabs it, tears it open and reads it aloud.

Here you can get one of the basic things you need to live. It’s open most often and it costs money to get this thing. Once you get there go to the cold area.

“What is one thing we need to live?” Sara asks. Sara, Liz and I turn to look at Ava.

“Well we need water, food, shelter and clothes,” She explains.

“We don’t have to pay to get water or shelter,” I think out loud.

“Clothes don’t have a cold area,” Liz says.

“So… food.” I conclude.

“A grocery store!” We exclaim together. We make our way down to Main Street and to the local grocery store. It’s still open. We go inside and search the frozen food section for a envelope. We find the next one on the door of some ice cream. The envelope simply says 5. I grab it off the door and gently open it. I pull out our last clue and read it to Sara, Ava and Liz.

Meet me at your favorite place to receive your reward.

“I know where that is,” Liz says.

“Yup me too,” Sara agrees.

“We’re talking about the pool right?” Ava asks, confused.

“Lets go!” I break into a run with them following me. We run all the way to the pool on Poplar Road. As we approach I see a car with a person leaning against the hood. I would recognize that car anywhere. It’s a beat up pick up truck, with a rusty coat of red painted on.

“Matt!” I scream across the parking lot. He turns and waves at me. I sprint over to my brother and give him a giant hug.

“Did you set up the scavenger hunt?” I ask.

“Sure did. I have to do something for my little sis when I come to visit.” I give him another hug. Matt goes to college at Brown and can rarely come home. It’s a treat when he’s back.

“So what’s our reward?” Liz asks when they catch up with me.

“I was thinking ice cream at Inside Scoop,” Matt explains.

“I’m in!” Sara cheers.

“Us too!” Ava jumps up and down.

“Wait! One question,” Liz stops us. Matt raises an eyebrow, telling her to continue. “It would really freak me out if the handwriting on the clues is yours. So please tell me it’s not.” Liz explains with mock seriously.

“Oh that!” Matt laughs. “I had my girlfriend, Skye, write them out for me because Marie would recognize my handwriting anywhere.”

“It’s true,” I say.

“You have a girlfriend?” Ava asks as we get into the car.

“Yup,” Matt starts to tell Ava and the rest of us everything about Skye as we drive to Inside Scoop.

An hour later we’re all back at home, laying in our sleeping bags, stuffed with ice cream.

“That was really fun,” Ava says from across our circle.

“Yeah,” Liz agrees, drowsily.

“Thanks for inviting us,” Sara says for all of them.

“Any day,” I reply, turning over in my sleeping bag. “Good night,” I say to my friends. I hear mumbled replies as I drift asleep.