The Challenge

Seven gently leaned her bike up against North Star High School’s bike rack. “Stay put,” she told the bike firmly.  Her lock been jamming recently so she hoped good karma and the late (or very early) hour were enough to keep it from being stolen. She wondered if she should just get back on her bike and go home, a late night invitation from Jaime could be nothing but trouble. She couldn’t leave though, not until she knew exactly what she’d be missing out on. Jaime had probably orchestrated it like that: giving enough information to pique the recipients’ interests, but not enough for them to have any clue what they were getting themselves into. It kept everyone guessing, and if there was one thing Jaime liked it was being the most knowledgeable person in the room. 

Seven crept around to the front of the school. It was a pointless gesture: thick tree cover made North Star barely visible from the road, and Seven would be nothing more than a shadow in the moonless night, but she still expected to get caught any moment. She blindly walked towards the front entrance as Jaime’s invitation had stated. The air was thick and humid, making it feel like the darkness was closing her in from all sides. She wondered if she would be able to see anyone or if she would just run into them, when a bright light suddenly appeared to her left. Seven flinched and gasped, and then instantly felt foolish when she realized it was just Jaime with a flashlight, dramatically illuminating her face from below her chin. “Hello Seven,” she said in that way of hers, almost sounding nice but just a bit too pretentious to really be welcoming. 

“Hi,” Seven replied shyly. She hated that she was so intimidated, but Jaime was a legend. Valedictorian and the first person in the school’s history to get accepted to an ivy league, Jaime was everything Seven aspired to be. Well, minus the smarter than thou complex and entirely unsubtle flaunting of her academic prowess. 

“You’re the last one,” she said theatrical, sweeping the flashlight in a wide circle to illuminate three other faces. Seven instantly recognized all of them, despite her admittedly pathetic social presence at North Star. Max Rodriguez, Autumn Kang, and Jay Harper, class ranks 1st, 3rd, and 4th respectively. Seven was 2nd. She instantly decided coming here was the right decision. 

After pausing for dramatic effect, Jaime continued, “Okay class! Pop quiz. You’re all good at those.” Seven saw Max roll their eyes and swallowed a grin. “What do all of you have in common?” 

“Call on me, teacher! Call on me!” Autumn waved her hand around so vigorously she looked like she was flagging down a rescue helicopter. 

Jaime gave her a scathing look, which Autumn apparently took as permission to speak because she guessed, “None of us have a social life?” 

“Good try student Autumn,” Jaime replied, matching Autumn’s sarcasm. “Any other guesses?” 

“We haven’t gotten 8 hours of sleep since September?” Max supplied. 

“Not quite,” Jaime said. When neither Seven nor Jay felt like playing along she sighed and explained. “You all would sell your aortas to be valedictorian. Don’t you dare claim you’re doing it for the education or the ‘pursuit of knowledge’. No one takes 6 AP classes because they honestly just want to learn. You all have something to prove. But as you’ve surely learned, maintaining a GPA is hell. So I’m offering you the chance to settle it now, once and for all, so you can actually enjoy your senior years. Sound good?” She snorted derisively at whatever response she got from the other three, Seven was too in her own world to notice. This was beginning to sound more and more like a terrible idea. “So, here’s the plan: I have a puzzle set up for you to test your true intellectual abilities without the confounding variables of cheating or cramming. Winner will be guaranteed valedictorian because I will hack into the school’s database to ensure you get the best classes and maybe a grade boost here and there. Losers may find that their grades are adding up in a more unfavorable way.” Seven knew her horror registered on her face because Jaime made eye contact with her and burst out laughing. “Don’t worry. We’ll just be giving valedictorian to whoever truly deserves it most. You’re in a particularly good position to win, Seven.” She clasped her hands together and smiled, not bothering to explain. “So, you guys in?” 

The four students looked at each other in wonder, all knowing it was a terrible idea, wondering whether Jaime would even fulfill her promise. Autumn gave them all a mischievous smile and shot her hand in the air. “I am,” she declared with confidence. 

That was all it took, apparently, because Max and Jay instantly chimed in, refusing to let Autumn one-up them. Seven felt a strong urge to take the challenge as well, of course she wanted to prove she was the smartest in her grade. She knew Autumn had cheated her way through AP physics and Jay wasn’t good with quick thinking, but they weren’t the ones she needed to beat. Max was the only barrier between her and valedictorian and she knew she would hate herself if she lost to them. She also knew she would never beat them fair and square, not with her working night shifts all year. “I am,” she said in a voice that was small but definitive. 

“Good. I’ve hidden something inside the building along with some clues. Your job is to figure out what it is, find it, and bring it back to me. And watch out for security cameras!” She called after them as Autumn and Max had already started running for the door. 

“Good luck,” Seven told Jay before sprinting for the door herself. Her brain was already shutting itself into testing mode, clear of all extraneous thoughts, effortlessly sorting through her memory for the exact information she needed. This was a version of her that felt unstoppable. 

-

North Star still used traditional mechanical locks, which were rather simple to deal with. One just had to have a basic understanding of how a lock was made in order to take it apart, which Seven figured was true of most things. She didn’t bother picking the lock herself, Max did it effortlessly and Seven just grabbed the handle and pulled herself in. 

Now began the difficult part: Seven had no idea where all the security cameras were. She knew the exact model the school used: the AndroSafe 2000 had pretty poor range and resolution, a cheap and out of date system that could only really cover a third of a classroom. The problem was that there was a good chance the camera would see her before she saw it, even if she was careful. Especially in the dark. 

Chaos ensued as Autumn and Max raced around looking for clues and Jay searched in a more calm and thorough manner, but Seven stayed rooted in place, searching through her mind instead. First, she needed to figure out how to avoid cameras. The others were using their phones to look around more fruitfully, but Seven could make do with minimal light. She would be almost impossible to spot in the darkness, just a shadow of a shadow, passing through. Secondly, she had to figure out where Jaime would have hidden the first clue. She’d said it was meant to be an intellectual test, which meant she wouldn’t have hidden it just anywhere. It would have to be somewhere she would never find it unless she knew exactly where to look and it had to be somewhere Jaime had hinted at or alluded to or that just made sense. She thought back on everything the girl had said, starting with the invitation and ending with her telling them all to watch out, recalling every word and sorting through it all with a clinical detachment. 

She thought she knew exactly where it was, but the idea made her sick to her stomach. 

Jaime had said to watch out for the security cameras, but Seven didn’t think she just meant to avoid them. The first clue must be hidden inside a camera. The other clue laid in Jaime’s personal comment to her. “You’re in a particularly good position to win.” Seven wondered if this statement had less to do with her skill, and more with her name. Knowing Jaime, it would have to be hidden somewhere entirely self-centered, and she was the seventh valedictorian of the relatively young school. Each valedictorian was awarded a plaque to be placed in the room of the teacher of their choice. There was no room 7, but there was 107, 117, 207, and 217, which narrowed it down to a reasonable number of rooms to search. 

Seven went to room 107 first, trying to look meandering and clueless so the others didn’t think she was onto something and follow her. She instantly wrote the room off when she realized it was a pottery class and moved on to 117. Silence and shadows enveloped her as Seven tried her best to convince herself she wasn’t frightened. She could barely see, so she got on her hands and knees and crawled, feeling for things in front of her. Desk and chair legs were indistinguishable from each other in the dark, and Seven got the strange sense that things weren’t really there if she couldn’t see them. After what felt like an endless trek, she got to the corner of what she hoped was the far wall where the cameras should be. She pulled the closest chair/desk underneath it and climbed up to unplug the security camera. She vaguely wondered if there was an alarm system, but the cameras were likely too old to support that so she took a shaky breath and pulled the plug from the wall. 

Nothing happened, so she felt her way back to the doorway, impatient to see if she was right. If not, she’d have to repeat this process with the other rooms and if none of those worked then she didn’t know what she would do. She put her hand on the light switch, closed her eyes so they would adjust easier to the sudden light, and flipped it. 

The world seemed ablaze with her only able to see the pink-red of the backs of her eyelids. Finally, her eyes adjusted enough for her to open them. Seven’s eyes flew open to the sight of a face just inches from hers, eyes wild and alive, teeth bared. 

“Aghhhhhh!” She screamed so loudly she was sure her throat would be sore for a week. 

Jaime doubled over laughing and stayed that way for a solid two minutes. Every time it seemed she had pulled herself together enough to speak, she’d burst into a new fit of hysterics. “You just really made that too easy for me,” she said between giggles. “Wow. Umm... so yeah good job I guess.” 

“That’s it?” Seven asked, skeptical. 

“I’m not a miracle worker, I can’t hack into the school’s database. I just wanted to see how far you all would go for an easy cheat to good grades. Turns out pretty far. I mean, trespassing, destruction of property, you-” 

A boom sounded behind Seven and a distinct click. She knew what she meant, but she couldn’t believe her ears. She wouldn’t. She ran to the now closed door and pulled furiously on the knob to no avail. They’d been locked in. Was this another one of Jaime’s tricks? But she looked two breaths from a panic attack and Jaime was not one to show weakness, even if it was an act. Seven searched for words, but her throat was closing up and it wasn’t all panic. There was a foul smell in the air and a hissing sound from one of the vents. 

“Oh,” Jaime said. And then: “It seems the real challenge is just beginning.”