"Do you have eleven protons?" Griffin asked as I cleared away my titration equipment.

I looked over at him. "What?"

He paused for a moment before replying, "You're looking sodium good today."

I rolled my eyes and put the last flask away. "Wow."

"Good work today class," Mrs Miller began. "I saw some fantastic titrations take place and I know it's gonna be close between who wins."

My stomach turned. While my titration had gone without a hitch, I'd noticed that Griffin too had been looking pretty pleased with his results. I had to hope my calculations were accurate.

"Speaking of closeness." Mrs Miller smiled. "I'm pleasantly surprised to say that instead of having three winners of yesterday's test, we actually have four."

"I wonder which people are tied." I glanced at Griffin and he looked equally curious.

"In third place we have Jordan Holmes from Dartington."

"Go Jordan!" I whooped and turned round, giving him a high five. That was five points more points to our school. He grinned and we turned our attention back to Mrs Miller.

"In second place is Bethany Whitlock from Hillcrest."

My palms grew sweaty. Our school needed the points.

"And tied in first is Rory Cooper from Dartington and Griffin Carter Beckfall."

My eyes widened and I looked at Griffin. "Well done." I croaked, still processing the fact that we'd come first.

"You too," he replied, a slightly strange look on his face.

Mrs Miller pushed her glasses further up her nose. "Have a good rest of your afternoon. It's a lovely day and I hear the scavenger hunt is taking place this afternoon."

I grabbed my bag and began heading towards the door,

"Are you taking part in it?" Griffin asked following behind me.

I paused. I was taking part in it, but would it be a good idea to tell him? Then again, he'd find out anyway. "Of course. I wouldn't miss a chance to beat your school just like we beat you yesterday in hockey."

Griffin's expression darkened slightly. "They played dirty."

I tucked a loose strand of my blonde hair behind my ear. "Funny, that's what my brother said about you last year."

"Your brother's on the hockey team?" he asked, eyes narrowing.

I ignored him, I didn't want Jack to become a target. I pulled open the building doors and we walked through. "Are you doing the scavenger hunt?"

Griffin looked at something on his phone, distracted. "Hmm?"

"Are you doing the scavenger hunt?" I repeated.

He held the phone up and leaned in closer to me. "Smile."

Without thinking I smiled and he snapped a photo of us.

"Why did you do that?" I frowned, coming to my senses and stepping quickly away from him.

"Number five, take a photo with a scavenger hunt competitor from another school." He grinned. "Yes princess, I am participating."

"Noah's on his way," June told me as I approached her and Ruben who were sitting on a bench in the sunshine.

"Cool." I sat down beside them. "So, how does this thing work?"

"Basically we just have to complete the list." Ruben waved a piece of paper in the air. "And do it as fast as we can by taking pictures of the things on it. Our timer has started."

"Strategy wise I'm thinking instead of doing it in number order, we do it in location order," June said.

I nodded. "Good idea, that'll save time."

I peered over Ruben's shoulder at the list.

1. Get a teacher's signature.

2. Recreate a homely scene in the cottage that is still haunted by the groundskeeper's ghost.

3. Find the picture containing Hillcrest's headteacher of 1912.

4. Recreate a scene from Harry Potter.

5. A selfie containing a group member and a scavenger hunt competitor from another school.

The list had a grand total of twenty items on.

"Where shall we start first?" Noah asked from behind the bench, surprising us all momentarily.

June recovered first. "Let's start far away and work our way back?"

We agreed that the furthest location had to be the abandoned groundskeepers cottage in the forest. On our exploration of the grounds on our first day, we'd seen the beginnings of the trail to it but hadn't actually seen it in person.

"Sunscreen anyone?" Noah pulled out a bottle from his bag as we began walking across the lawn to the forest.

"Yes please. I don't want to resemble a prawn later this afternoon," I said, taking the bottle from him.

Ruben laughed. "Me neither. My skin that day at the beach last summer is something I don't want to ever repeat."

"You were straight up barbequed." June shook her head. "Stay sun safe kids."

I started applying sunscreen to my face and arms. "After the scavenger hunt we should do our next prank."

"Which one?" Noah asked.

"I'm glad you asked." I grinned. "The blue Kool-Aid one."

Ruben's face crinkled in confusion. "Blue Kool-Aid? Do we have any of that? Isn't that an American thing?"

"My cousins sent me some last Christmas." I explained. "It's perfect for temporarily dyeing things. Dad had blue hair for two weeks."

Noah grinned. "Brilliant."

"All you need to do is unscrew the shower head in your doom room and put it in there," I explained. "And ideally do it just before Griffin showers or else another person will become the victim."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure it's him," he replied.

We left the lawn and entered the shade of the forest. After walking for around quarter of an hour the trees cleared and we reached the cottage.

"Home sweet home," I grimaced.

Ruben laughed. "The cottage looks... nice?"

"We do not have the same taste if you think that looks nice." Noah shuddered. "I'm not sure if I can do this anymore."

Ruben furrowed his eyebrows. "Do what?"

"Be around you." Noah wiped a faked tear away from his eyes. "After this reveal, you and I can never be. Your taste has caused a rift between us. Too big even for our love to overcome."

"My soul is crying. How shall I go on without you?" Ruben clasped his heart. "The group shall fall apart."

June rolled her eyes in amusement and I laughed. Dramatic flare was the definition of Team Apocalypse.

"I'm going to fall apart without you." Noah said, barely able to keep a straight face.

"I'm heartbroken," Ruben replied in a dramatic tone. He shook his head "What I meant was the cottage looks nice for a lonely groundskeeper who has ghosts as friends."

"It really does look haunted," said June, eyeing the peeling paint.

I mimicked a ghost. "OooOoo."

We bashed our way through a couple of bushes that had decided the path was their new home but eventually we made it to the front door. June pushed open the door and a cloud of dust filled the air. She coughed. "It doesn't seem as though any other teams have made it here yet."

The rest of us followed her inside. The cottage was more spacious than it initially had seemed and was made of two rooms. The main one held a fireplace in the centre with a table, sink and worktop to one side and a ratty couch positioned on the other. A few of the windows had cracks in their glass panes but other than that, the room seemed pretty sealed from outside elements.

"Cosy." Noah brushed a cobweb away from his face and disappeared through the doorway into the smaller room.

"There's no electricity here," Ruben observed, walking round the table.

I went over to the sink and peered out the window. "It would be so creepy here at night."

"Agreed," June said. "We should take the photo."

"Where should I put the phone?" Noah asked, reappearing from the small room dressed in a dusty apron.

Ruben began laughing. "Until this moment I never pictured you as a house wife. But now I see it, I can't say I'm hating it."

Noah laughed and gave a joking twirl. "Dinners at seven."

"How about putting the phone here here?" June gestured to a cupboard hanging off rusted hinges.

"Perfect." Noah put his phone camera on a timer and the four of us jumped into our roles.

5...

Ruben played the welcoming host, gesturing to invisible people outside to come in.

4...

June sat down at the table and pretended to eat with a bent metal spoon.

3...

I prodded the empty hearth with a fire poker.

2...

Noah grabbed a rusted frying pan off a hook in the wall and pretended to cook.

1...

Snap.

"One down, nineteen more to go," June said, pulling out a pen and ticking number 2 off the list. "Now onto—"

"Shh." Ruben held a finger to his lips and whispered. "Did you hear that?"