“That sounds like fun. Would it be okay if Dare and I tag along?” Chrissy asked to invite herself.
“Me too,” Jill said and then turned to Phil. “You want to go too, don’t you?”
Phil, being whipped, nodded.
At that moment, Cassidy suddenly realized that the two couples that usually went out with her and Don were going out with Sun and me. Double-dating was the only way her dad would let her out of the house.
“What about me?”
Wolf and Tim looked at each other and said at the same time, “Not it!”
“I guess you’ll have to take Gina and her new boyfriend,” I suggested.
“Better yet, we could go out alone,” Don tried.
Cassidy ignored her boyfriend. It was apparent they’d discussed this at length before. Coach Hope hadn’t budged on his group-dates rule, even when Cassidy had turned 18.
I didn’t want to get into the middle of that. I was confident that if Cassidy decided she didn’t want to do it anymore, she would talk her dad out of it. It told me that she didn’t consider Don to be her forever guy.
“I didn’t know you were dating,” Cassidy said to Gina.
“BOB,” I supplied.
That almost got me suspended … again … for fighting. I’d momentarily forgotten that Gina had two older sisters, and I was sure that they threw down when they were younger. She came over the table with my doom written all over her face. Luckily for me, I have cat-like reflexes, or she might have gotten to me.
Cassidy made me get on my knees and beg Gina’s forgiveness. The group then decided that Dare, Chrissy, Phil, Jill, Cassidy, Don, and Gina would be joining us on our date. Somehow, for my atonement, I had to pay for dinner and the escape room.
I was glad that Sun was a good sport about everyone horning in on our first date. If she had pushed back even a little, I would have put a stop to my friends joining us.
Actually, it did sound like fun.
◊◊◊
Sun picked a winner for dinner. It was both excellent and touched the adventurous side of my personality. She had us go to an Ethiopian restaurant.
Watching everyone’s reaction was interesting. Chrissy, Gina, Don, and Cassidy were all eager to try it. When we sat down, Dare and Phil were doubters. Once we finished, everyone said they had enjoyed it.
They brought out an enormous platter of food and served it family style. We had different varieties of wat—a thick stew—served atop injera, which is a large sourdough flatbread. The bread was made out of fermented teff flour. The idea was to tear a piece of bread off and use it to scoop up the stew. What kid doesn’t want to eat with their fingers?
We would spin the platter around every few minutes so everyone could try something different.
◊◊◊
The escape rooms had been built in the old IGA grocery store that had gone out of business when Walmart came to town. They had six different rooms where you attempted to solve their puzzles.
When we came in, I noticed that they had a record time posted at the front desk. A group had escaped their room in twenty-eight minutes.
“I have a feeling we’ll do well,” Phil said.
“Why’s that?” Gina asked.
“David is just a little competitive. I bet he sets the record.”
I figured that with Sun, Dare, and Gina’s brainpower, the four of us should solve the puzzles quickly.
One of the staff took us into a room and explained how everything worked. To escape each room, we had several puzzles we would have to figure out. Some clues would help in figuring it out.
We only had an hour to solve the conundrums and make our escape. She told us only about forty percent of the groups were able to free themselves. She seemed pretty proud of that, which made me even more determined.
The woman also shared that if it looked like we were stuck, they would give us hints, as they would be watching us on monitors.
“I think we should look around the room to get the lay of the land before we start reading clues,” Sun suggested.
We all agreed and began to investigate.
“This has to be how we get out,” Dare announced.
Against the wall stood a clear tube with a key at the bottom.
“I bet we have to find something to fish it out,” Phil suggested.
Looking around, I walked over to the desk and found a letter opener. I used it to unscrew the clip holding the tube to the wall and pulled it up. The key fell out, so I handed it to Sun.
“Give it a try.”
Sure enough, it unlocked the door. Sun walked out and hit a big red button to signal we’d succeeded. Seven minutes! We didn’t need any stinking clues.
We got our picture taken for their wall of fame and then tried a new room.
I was proud of my group for figuring out one puzzle in particular. They’d found a safe behind a picture that had a keypad to open it. We’d discovered the clue taped under a lamp.
“To open the lock, you need a six-digit number that is perfect,” Gina read.
“That makes no sense,” Cassidy complained.
“What would make a number perfect?” Jill asked.
They all looked defeated, and then Sun perked up.
“Maybe they mean perfect numbers, like 6, 28, 428, and 8128?”
Dare was the only one who seemed to get it.
