People piled inside the gym. Benches, from the bottom to the top, had been filled. Supportive schoolmates wore the school colors of blue, white and gold. They also waved long balloons in the same colors. They sat on the right part of the gym, flooding it with school pride.
The banners from the Pep Rally had been left on the walls. The Art Club practically adorned their side in streamers on the ceiling and logo tapestries beside the banners. Ready-made signs had been provided to the audience for them to raise.
The opposing team’s school took up the left in red, black and silver. They came with the same amount of support. They wouldn’t let their team down just because the home court belonged to Woodlands Academy. The Red Foxes of North Valley High School would not yield from victory easily. They brought blow horns to shake the roof.
Other visitors had joined the spectacle caused by the online frenzy.
The media coverage done by the school newspaper had outdone themselves.
Cheers rose up as the Dance Crews from both schools brought the energy. Woodlands wasn’t about to hog in the spotlight. They alternated the performances with North Valley. Both sides also filmed the scenes. Student reporters provided real time feedback on the current situation.
The percussion drum beat steadily as Woodland’s Cheer Squad took the floor.
Then, the North Valley’s Cheer Squad also ran for their side.
The noise had reached another level as the cheerleaders went to their positions. When the music began, both squads began their routines and stunts. Neither one got in the way of the other. They had mutually agreed to use one soundtrack to better hype their schoolmates.
It was working better than they expected.
In the shadows of the hallways, a basketball team’s locker room had no one talking. All the players set their minds on today’s game. They kept to themselves and their thoughts. The only noise came from the locker hinges and the loud speakers from the gym. The sound waves thumped against the walls, the roof and the floor.
They absorbed the faint cheers, letting it pump their blood.
The players could never describe how much that helped to keep their spirits up.
Logan was tying his shoes. Water droplets dripped off his dark hair. He had just finished a shower. He had been in a hurry to change that he dampened his uniform. He didn’t find it uncomfortable. Instead, he welcomed it since the gym lights would be warm. He needed to stay fresh as he could.
He played his best whenever he was in this condition.
Those rumors about his unwashed lucky socks were truly fabricated.
The locker entrance bursted open. Its metal door crashed from brute force. Heads turned towards its direction. Their concentration broke. Yet, no one spoke up as they waited for the person to appear from the narrow corridor.
“Logan!”
He scowled, taking his foot off the stool, “What is it? Aren’t you supposed to be performing?”
He walked towards the intruder. Vertical white stripes with gold edges covered the sides of his royal blue jersey and shorts. A golden laurel wreath that sprouted acorns had been printed on the front. The oak tree in its middle matched the same color. The school motto had been embroidered at the bottom of it,
‘Strengthen your potential.’
Carla pressed her hand against a wall. She struggled to catch her breath, “The routine can keep up without me. Your coach wants to ask if Max and Jae are here yet.”
When the basketball coach came up to her, alarm had taken over her mind. The choreography and the soundtrack wasn’t long. If what he had said was true then, the game would be delayed. It seemed unusual for the two to be missing. They worried if something could have happened.
Logan caught on the urgency in her tone. He looked at the others in the room, “Anyone seen Jae and Max?”
He received a mumble of replies. All of them came up negative. The younger Parker twin checked each face. Then, he snapped his head towards their lockers. He searched for any sign of his older twin and that person’s annoying friend.
“Not even the shower room?” He asked, still darting his eyes around the room.
The response was the same.
Logan turned back to Carla. She seemed to have recovered, “Did you call them?”
“I did!” She exclaimed, “But they’re not answering.”
“Is there any clue about where they could be?”
“Oh!” A sophomore player gasped. Everyone shifted their attention towards him, “I think I saw a picture of Jae in the Marriage Booth. Selene had posted it on the school’s page for promotion.”
“Jae? Getting married? To who?” Another one raised his eyebrow.
“I don’t know. Never seen the girl before. She has platinum blonde hair and wore a white dress. She could easily look like a goddess that is out of our league except the captain’s.”
“That has to be Emily except I still don’t have her number…,” Logan concluded, his hands on his hips. His forehead smoothened as his feet moved towards his locker, “I might try to call Alex.”
Carla tapped on her phone, scrolling through her contact list, “I’ll try Selene.”
In the midst of Woodlands Academy’s fields, most stalls and booths had packed up. What had been left were the tents and tables. Anything that didn’t belong to school property had been taken away. A few janitors and cleaners began to disassemble them for storage. The administration decided it was better to have them removed before the game ended.
A group of six students shuffled under one tent. They rummaged through heaps of boxes, trinkets and standing decorations. They left a mess on the trail. When they had finished them all, they had gone to check the trail. They went around in circles, looking for one tiny thing.
Somehow they could hardly see the floor anymore.
“I swear…! WHERE IS THAT DAMN KEY?!” Emily yelled. She stomped her foot for the nth time. She hit a fake goblet, “We had already done your kiss! Then, you told us to come back after three hours while you look for the lost key! So why are we still stuck like this?!”
“Now, honey—”
“Don’t call me that” she sneered, slapping Jae’s arm.
“No problem. I was just testing” he winked. The eye roll told him that his humor wasn’t appreciated at the moment, “We need to calm down if we want to find that key.”
“We had been calm! But here we are!” She pointed out. Her light blue eyes swept on the pile of junk. She kicked the same goblet, “I’m surprised you aren’t panicking when you have a game in minutes.”
“Minutes?!” Max exclaimed. He popped out from under the table, his violet eyes wide, “How many are we talking about here?!”
“About five? Ten?” Emily guessed for him, “I don’t know but based on the announcer at the gym, the Cheer Squads are already doing their thing right now. What does that say on how much time you have left?”
Alex stopped from picking up the litter. She made sure the box was empty before she placed the items back, rechecking them too if something small slipped inside, “The Cheer Squads are the last to perform. After that, it’s practically game time unless they let the audience take a break.”
Max rose to his feet. His head hit the table, his face contouring into a pained look. He rubbed his head as he fixed his posture, “Damn it! We have to go!”
“Excuse me?” Emily blocked his way. She raised her fist, rattling the chain, “Your team captain is still handcuffed to me. How do you expect to let him play?”
“Oh, yeah, that…”
“If it came to this,” Alex dumped the filled box on the table, “Why not just have a janitor break the chain? At least, that way you’d be separated and Jae can join the game.”
Five pairs of eyes stared at her.
“What?”
Before anyone could open their mouth, a new voice joined.
“Emily? What are you still doing here?” Hachi asked, stepping inside the tent. She saw her daughter’s side profile through the swaying tarpaulin strips, “Isn’t the game about to start?”
“Oh, hello, Aunt Hachi” Alex greeted with a slight bow.
“Alex?” Hachi scowled. At this time, she noticed the rest of the parties, “Jae? Aren’t you supposed to be an important figure at the gym right now?”
“We’re kind of stuck,” Emily explained on his behalf. She raised both of their wrists, showing them to her mom, “We’ve been in handcuffs for hours. We still can’t find the key.”
Hachi raised her eyebrows, “Did you get tricked into a Marriage Booth?”
“How did you know?!”
“I didn’t?” she shrugged, trying to suppress an amused smile.
“What’s going on here?”
A man with a short cropped coffee hair walked into the tent. His chocolate eyes looked through a pair of glasses. The body muscles he’d developed had softened over time, particularly around the stomach. It bulged a bit over the waistband of his jeans.
“Oh, hey, Joey” Emily greeted him first.
The rest muttered theirs, following her lead.
“What’s up, kiddo?” His gaze dropped to her cuffed wrist. He arched an eyebrow, “Did you get tricked into a Marriage Booth?”
“How did you—” She began to say then, she decided against it, “Anyway, we’re looking for the key. If not, we’re going to need a chainsaw or something to cut it.”
“Well, let your mom take a look,” Joey suggested, wrapping an arm around Hachi’s shoulders, “You know mothers have a magical way of making things appear.”
Selene pulled her phone away from her ear, “I just got a call from Carla. Apparently, Coach Sanders is looking for Max and Jae. We need to hustle.”
The students did as they were told. Max checked out of the tent, looking for a janitor. Felix rechecked the box Alex had organized. Alex picked up more items and shook them, listening for a rattle and watching if anything would fall out. Selene helped her out. Jae crouched on the ground and tapped his fingers, hoping to feel the key in case it camouflaged.
“Ugh, it could be anywhere by now!” Emily groaned. She took the bouquet and searched between the stems. She hadn’t seen anyone look in it yet and figured any place could be possible now.
Hachi picked up the goblet. Her thumb brushed over the rim, “There’s no use complaining about it. You can spend that time searching for the key. What color is it? Black?”
Felix tapped on his chin, “I think so? It wasn’t me who bought it.”
“Is it this one?”
The well-oiled machine screeched into a halt. Eyes shifted towards Hachi. She held up a tiny key. It felt a slight adhesive on it that even when she pulled away the index finger, the key stuck to her thumb.
“Yes, that’s it!” Felix jumped. He ran for her side and reached for the key.
She pulled it away from him, “I think I should be the one to unlock the handcuffs so no one drops it.”
Walking towards her mother, Emily scrunched her eyebrows. She blinked several times, afraid that that the key would disappear, “How did you even find it that fast?”
“Oh, the goblet felt sticky and the inside was painted black. Because of the paint, you wouldn’t see anything in the goblet. I just thought the key might be stuck because of the adhesive covering it had” Hachi explained. The key fit perfectly into the hole and loosened the lock, “The rest was just pure luck.”
“Just luck, huh?” her daughter whispered, massaging her now free wrist. A red rim had formed around it.
Joey shrugged his shoulders. If his face could talk, it would say I-told-you-so, “Definitely not. Spread the word! Let it be known that mothers have magic abilities at finding lost items.”
