As much as Roy and the fact that his face was inching closer to mine were taking up my attention, I couldn't help but get distracted by what I saw behind him.

A blue plume of smoke was rising from Rutherford's roof, quickly growing into a multicolored cloud. Through the trees, I could see people filing out of the building from every exit, all heading towards the soccer field, the designated spot for fire drills and evacuations. But most people were bumping into each other or stopping in their tracks, eyes glued to the colorful veil that was looming over the school.

Roy stopped leaning in as the sounds of shocked voices and laughter grew loud enough for us to hear. He turned, abandoning whatever he'd been about to do. I couldn't decide if I was relieved or upset.

"Jeeeesus..." he breathed out, running a hand through his hair. "What are they doing, trying to get heaven evacuated too?"

It was hard to focus on the situation at hand when my mind was still reeling from the fact that Roy had been-- from what I could tell-- about to kiss me. I tried to pull my mind back to reality. "I thought we agreed it wasn't safe to go upstairs, let alone on the roof." 

"It's bad enough to go up there, but to give away their location like that?" Roy shook his head. "I don't get it."

As more students filed out of the building, it clicked. "I think I might. They started evacuating way quicker than we expected-- Ian and Maddie needed a distraction so no one would see them coming back here."

I heard rustling from somewhere in the woods, my head snapping towards the sound. I held my breath, waiting for the worst, expecting a teacher or security guard to emerge from the trees. It was over-- they had to have gotten caught, and now they were rounding up the rest of the group--

Between the branches, trunks, and yellow and orange leaves, I could make out a running figure-- medium height, medium build, messy brown hair. I breathed a sigh of relief as Ian jogged up to us, but the concerned look on his face made it hard for me to relax.

His eyes searched over me and Roy, then the car, the woods. "Where's Maddie?"

My stomach dropped. "I thought she'd be with you."

"We got separated-- Everyone got evacuated, we set the smoke bombs off on the roof as a distraction so we could get back here." His words were frantic and breathless, coming so quickly I almost couldn't understand them. "We almost ran into security on the way back down-- I went one way, she went the other."

Roy cursed as I scanned the treeline for any sign of her. Ian placed his hands on his knees, still out of breath. My phone vibrated in my pocket and I reached for it instantly, hoping it would be Madeline. Instead, it was The Seven.

"We got our points," I announced, hardly able to feel excited. It meant nothing if Maddie hadn't made it out. 

The sound of twigs snapping and distant footsteps tore my attention away from the screen. In seconds, Maddie was stumbling into view behind Ian. I couldn't stop myself from smiling, my nerves fading at the sight of her. 

"Thank God, we thought you got caught!" Roy placed a hand over his heart, letting out a breath.

"Almost." She shook her head and matched Ian's hunched over position, the two of them sharing a breathless laugh. "But we should get out of here before we all are."

Over the next few days, we watched the scoreboard change as other groups completed or failed their third challenges, some rising in points while others were removed from the list altogether. We were farther in first thanks to doing so well on the last task, but even so, The Five Capers were only a few points away.

Before I knew it, a whole week had passed without any contact from The Seven. I was getting antsy, to say the least. Most nights I had trouble sleeping, my thoughts caught between the competition and Roy. I kept replaying the things he said in the woods and wondering what would've happened if we hadn't gotten distracted.

That question nagged at me even as I sat at my desk, trying to finish an outline for my long-forgotten English paper. Focusing was impossible-- no matter what I tried, my mind kept drifting back to Roy. 

The door to my room flung open, interrupting my repetitive thoughts as Matthew practically ran inside, looking giddy and not the least bit guilty for bursting in without notice.

"Matt!" I snapped, reaching over to my phone to pause my music before scowling at him again. "What is your issue?"

He didn't answer, just shook his head and stared at me with a wide grin on his face. 

I arched an eyebrow at him, familiar enough with his less-than-normal behavior to not be too weirded out. "Quick reminder that I'm the one who got you the game you've been playing for the past week straight-- the least you could do is try knocking." 

Getting a copy of Doom had been easy thanks to Roy, who offered to take me to the video game store after our challenge. Despite the fact that we were alone, he didn't make another move like he did in the woods. Not even another kiss on the cheek after he drove me home. I had no idea if he realized it, but it made my head spin. I kept wondering if I had done something wrong, or if he didn't want to anymore, or if maybe the moment just wasn't right.

Even if the thought of him kissing me wracked my whole body with nerves of uncertainty, it didn't mean I hadn't spent the entire week since then wishing he would try again.

Matt walked further into my room, looking almost crazed with some sort of twisted glee, eyes wide with excitement. "You're winning."

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I barely even registered what he said, let alone understood what it meant. "I'm what?"

"That group, Four of Clubs- I know it's you and those people you had over here," he insisted, voice raised with exuberance. 

Before I could stop my face from giving the answer away, my eyes widened, mouth falling open. My obvious expression of guilt made his grin grow wider.

"That's what you were cooking, right? The smoke bombs?"

"You're crazy," I said, trying to redeem myself with a shake of my head.

"Oh come on, Jade," he coaxed, "I'm not gonna use this."

"You can't use it, because it's wrong. You've read my journal," I reasoned sourly, "I think you should know."

"Uh huh," he enunciated, unconvinced. "I have read your diary. I've also been following the competition, and the dates match up. That night you snuck out to go to a party, Four of Clubs got more points. The time you were working late on your 'group project' was the night the basketball court got tagged. And the day you had mom and dad all worried because you didn't get home until it was almost midnight? That was the first day of the game."

I shrugged, trying to ignore the way my stomach had sunk to the floor. "Coincidences."

"Come on Jade!" He clasped his hands together, begging. "You go through almost three years of high school with no human contact, and you expect me to believe it's a coincidence that suddenly your phone is blowing up at the dinner table? That you just magically have a group of friends out of nowhere?"

"Jeez, Matthew, let it go. You honestly think I'm capable of being in the winning group?" I tried to appeal to the (usually very large) part of him that saw me as nothing more than his lame, uneventful older sister.

"Yes! You managed to sneak out, first of all-- which I'll be needing instructions for, by the way-- and you had Roy and them over without mom and dad finding out-"

"Did I just hear that correctly?" My father's voice caused me to flinch as he walked into the room. Matthews's expression was frozen, stuck somewhere between guilt and fear as he looked between me and Dad.

"No-- well, yes, but it's not true," I lied, now feeling a wave of guilt myself. "Matthew's just being dumb."

"Jade, did you have a boy over without permission?" he questioned more sternly. I couldn't help but feel some relief through all the anxiety-- he obviously didn't hear the first, more incriminating half of Matthew's sentence.

I sighed, not wanting to lie, and figuring it wouldn't matter when Matt stood there with the truth written all over his face. "I know what you're thinking, but it wasn't like that. It was a group-- my group for the project I told you about. We needed somewhere to work."

He crossed his arms, leaning against the doorframe. "Jade, we have rules about this kind of thing."

"I know. I'm sorry, I just didn't think it was that big of a deal-- they're my friends, and we were just doing schoolwork."

"They were," Matthew came to my defense, "They were all working on it when I got home."

Dad let out a sigh, shedding some of his anger. "Just don't do it again, okay? You can have friends over, I just prefer if you ask me first." 

I nodded, hanging my head slightly in embarrassment.

"Dinner's almost ready. Matt, why don't you help me set the table?"

"Sure, yeah, I'll be right down," he agreed. Dad walked away, and just when I thought Matthew was about to let it go, my phone dinged once, twice, and then a third time.

He was close enough to my desk to lunge at the device before I could grab it. He snatched it from the table and I jumped up, trying to tear it from his grasp as his eyes scanned the screen.

"Matthew, give it to me!"

"I knew it!" he exclaimed, the notifications obviously a dead give away. My phone continued to buzz as more and more flooded in. Suddenly he stilled, eyes wide as he let out a laugh. "Holy crap."

I took the opportunity to grab my phone back, smacking the back of his head when I finally had it. He let out an offended, "Ow!" before rubbing at the spot, and I hurried over to shut my door, preventing any more chances of someone overhearing us. 

"You can't tell anyone about this," I insisted, trying to lessen the overjoyed look on his face as I continued, "As far as you're concerned, I have no part in the competition at all-- and neither do the people you saw here, okay?"

"Alright, alright, relax! I'm not stupid, I won't tell anyone. Besides... based on what I just read, I'm the last thing you need to worry about right now."

The urgency of the unread notifications dawned on me and I hurried to unlock my phone, first clicking on the message from The Seven to see what sort of riddle they'd given us this time.

My eyes widened as I finished, trying to fathom how they could expect us to do something like this. 

Matthew could barely hold in his laughter as he walked away, opening the door. He paused in the doorway and turned to me, a smirk on his face. "Hey, look on the bright side-- if you're lucky, it'll be Roy."

"Shut up!" I reached for one of the pillows on my bed, launching it at him in annoyance. He deflected it with his arms, laughing loudly as he left. I paced back and forth as I caught up on the messages in the group chat, which ranged from amusement to legal concerns.

As Daniel was quick to point out, the upcoming football game was the homecoming game-- the most attended sports game of the year. If I knew one thing for sure, it was that I didn't want to be the one running down that field.