the next morning, i wake up and tommy's arms are still wrapped around me. i smile. i don't want to move, but it's already 9:00. and today is my last day in brighton.

luckily, i don't have to wake up tommy because he wakes up immediately after me.

"have you been awake for long?" tommy asks, rubbing his eye.

"no. woke up a few seconds ago," i respond.

"our sleep schedules are synced?"

"damn. that happened quickly." tommy smiles and gets up.

"come on, no time to waste. today's your last full day. we have to make it the best." tommy walks next to me and pulls me out of bed. "i'm going to my room and get changed. meet you downstairs for breakfast?" i nod and put on my outfit for the day as soon as tommy leaves.

when i head downstairs, niki is in the kitchen making breakfast with alex.

"i don't trust alex with breakfast," i say. "can i help instead?" alex looks at me and groans.

"big talk for someone who's dressed like me," alex says, pointing at his black floral shirt.

"at least i'm not wearing a beanie."

"you suck." alex hands me the spatula he was using to make scrambled eggs.

"i don't suck-"

"don't you even THINK about finishing that sentence." i laugh.

"as if you wouldn't make that joke."

"not with you."

"touché."

alex goes upstairs and i turn to niki.

"what are we making?" i ask.

"omelettes!" she replies.

"ooh, i love those."

niki puts bacon on the stove and sighs.

"this is your last day, isn't it?" she asks. i nod grimly.

"clay and i are purchasing my ticket tonight. i'm not looking forward to it."

"hopefully we can all do this again sometime. this was a ton of fun."

"it was. this was probably the best week of my life."

"oh yeah. i'm sure you and tommy had an even better week than the rest of us." i laugh.

"probably."

by the time niki and i finish breakfast, everyone's awake and downstairs. apparently, last night wilbur told everyone to be awake pretty early in the morning so we can have a fun last day.

"awww, we have to take a picture of val and alex together," nick says. "they both look like divorced dads! maybe even twins!"

"SHUT UP," alex and i both shout at the same time.

"they even have twin telepathy!" toby says.

after breakfast, wilbur practically pushes all of us to the van. we all get in and he starts driving pretty quickly.

"why are we leaving so soon?" george asks. "what's the rush?"

"we have an escape room booked for 10:30 and it's already 10:15," wilbur responds.

"we have more than enough time to get there," tommy says.

"no we don't. it's ten minutes away."

"but we have more than enough time to- ah forget it."

"please don't tell me we're gonna act like a white family going to the airport," clay says.

"WHITE?" alex asks.

"yeah. go white boy go."

once we get to the escape room, it's 10:26. however, the staff lets us into the room early since we're the only people there.

we enter a large dark room. it's designed like a creepy living room, and there are instructions on the wall. clay goes up to it and starts to read it.

"alright," he says, clasping his hands together. "it's almost like a scavenger hunt. we have to find the key to get out."

"oh no, he's about to go 1000 IQ on us," tommy says.

"what else am i supposed to do? we're not going to escape with your -50 IQ."

"low blow."

"i'll just look up how to escape on google," karl says.

"they took our phones at the start," george says with a raised eyebrow.

"not mine. i'm sneaky." karl pulls his phone out of his pocket and niki swats his hand.

"what the honk, man?" karl whines.

"are you trying to ruin the fun?" niki scolds. karl shakes his head.

"fine. in an EMERGENCY i'll look up how to get out."

"hey, geniuses," nick calls out. "maybe we should've read ALL of the directions on the wall first." everyone turns their head to him and sees him standing in front of another chunk of words on the wall.

"looks like it was written in blood," toby points out.

"it's not real blood," tommy says.

"no shit." toby groans and i laugh.

"you have an hour to escape, work together, blah blah blah," wilbur reads. "okay! it says your first clue is under something that has legs but can't walk, a strong back but doesn't work, and two good arms but can't reach."

"the fuck?" alex says. "read that again, i'm totally lost." wilbur reads the riddle over again.

"does anyone know what the answer is?" niki asks.

"a chair," clay says immediately.

"you and your big brain," wilbur scoffs. we all rush to a small wooden chair in the corner of the room and, sure enough, there's a note in a bottle under it. i pick up the bottle and open it, unrolling the note.

"what i keep depends on where i reside, but it mostly depends on what you put inside," i read. "that makes no sense."

everyone turns to clay.

"she's right," clay says. "that one makes zero sense."

"we're doomed," alex cries out.

i glance around the dark room. depends on what you put inside? it has to be some type of storage thing.

i see a drawer on the opposite side of the cluttered room.

"a drawer!" i shout out, running over to it. everyone follows and i try to open the drawer.

"it won't budge," i say.

"there's a puzzle combination on this lock," tommy says, pointing at a lock at the bottom of the handle.

"everyone split up and try to find the combination!" wilbur shouts. we all run in opposite directions, until alex shouts out.

"found it!" he holds up a book while he leans against the bookshelf he was searching. "the combination is on the spine!" tommy runs over and memorizes the code, then uses it on the lock. the lock opens and he's able to open the drawer, revealing the next clue.

"apparently this is the final clue," tommy says. "i have cities, but no houses. i have mountains, but no trees. i have water, but no fish. what am i?"

"well that's easy," niki says. "it's a map."

"but where are we going to find a map in here?" george asks. "it could be anywhere."

"i can look it up!" karl exclaims.

"NO!" we all shout.

"everyone split up! again!" nick says. once again, we all head in opposite directions. a few of us start tearing open cabinets, some look under furniture. but none of us have any luck.

"could this be it?" karl asks. we all run over to him.

"did you look up where it is?" tommy asks, raising his eyebrow.

"believe it or not, no."

"how'd you find it?" toby asks.

"i closed this door." karl points at a now closed door.

"that door was open?"

"well, it was blocked off so we couldn't escape, but yes. open nonetheless."

"look!" wilbur exclaims, pointing at the map. "there's a big red circle here. but... what exactly is it circling?"

everyone examines the map for a second.

"it's a map of the room," clay says. we all turn to him. "yeah. that's it. it's circling where the key is."

"great! where is it?" nick asks, turning to the room.

"uhh..."

we all struggle to read the map.

"it sorta looks like it's towards the center of the room?" niki says hesitantly. "it's in the middle of a bunch of clutter?"

"won't that be like searching for a needle in a haystack? if there's a tiny key in the middle of a bunch of junk?" i say.

"maybe. but we have to try."

wilbur and clay stay at the map while the rest of us attempt to search for the key. they try to help us by calling out the shapes around the red circle.

"do you reckon it could be under this rug?" toby asks.

"i don't know, check," wilbur says. toby searches under the rug and finds a small trap door.

"DOOR!" toby calls out. everyone gathers around.

"open it!" george says. toby attempts to open the door.

"of course it's locked," tommy says in annoyance.

"there's something written on the bottom of the rug!" niki shouts. "it says 'remember that chair? take a closer look at it.'"

she doesn't have to tell us twice.

we all jump up and practically sprint over to the chair.

"it's so dark, how are we supposed to find a key?" wilbur asks. george takes the chair and runs his hand along its surface.

"nothing on the top," he says.

"anything under it?" karl asks. george feels the floor underneath the chair.

"i think i would've found it if it was under the chair," i say, crossing my arms.

"very true."

george flips the chair over.

"IT'S HERE!" george points at the small metal key taped to the bottom of the chair. he tears the tape off of the key and runs back to the small trapdoor, unlocking it. inside, there's a brass key.

"WE'RE GETTING OUT OF HERE, BABY!" alex shouts, clapping his hands. george hands the key to wilbur and he is able to open the door to escape.

"WE DID IT!" karl shouts. "AND I DIDN'T USE GOOGLE ONCE!" we all cheer and clap. the workers congratulate us.

"and with that, we're moving on," wilbur announces.