Lost Treasure: Into the City

Kim drops me off at Ben’s house. It wasn’t as big as I thought, not like a mansion. Okay...I lied it is a mansion. Two big fountains with gardens on either side of the walkway to the front door. The building is white with clay tile roofing. It has a wraparound porch with pixie lights twinkling the whole length of the porch. The front door is a two-bay door with beautiful brass handles and hinges. Brass ivy vines decorate around each window of the doors.

I ring the doorbell, a man dressed in a black tuxedo answers the door. He has a clipboard in his hand.

“Name.” He stated flatly.

“Jewel O’Toole” I reply gripping tighter on to my bag slung on my shoulder.

He looks down the list then looks at me and smiles. “Welcome” he says, stepping aside to let me in. I nod and enter.

Inside has white marble flooring and tall ceilings. A long table sat against the wall to the right already full of gifts. A staircase climbs the wall on the left leaving a big open space between with doors that lead to other parts of the house.

I walk over to the table and dig out his gift. I didn’t have paper to wrap it so I put it in a manila envelope with a card. I put his name on it in calligraphy writing. Hey I tried... Then the butler guides me to where everyone is.

After turning down a few hallways we came to the pool hall. There must have been fifty kids here. The game room is attached to the pool hall and it is full of kids too. Food and drinks line up against the far wall. Tables and chairs next to the pool.

I scan the crowd looking for anyone I recognize. Who are these people, do they even go to our school? I spot Ben in the game room. Michelle is in the pool; Jade is by the food. I go to Jade first.

“Hey girl, anything good?” I ask eyeballing the things on the table.

“Hey Jewel! Nah! Not really, just a bunch of sugar to wind us up. The punch looks good, if you like sherbet frozen yogurt.” She says as she pours both of us a cup.

I sip it and it’s really good. I think I found a new thing Kim has to get me at the store.

“Are you in your swimsuit yet?” She asks as we walk to the pool’s edge.

I watch two kids slide down the corkscrew slide and skip across the top of the water before sinking.

“Yeah, but I want to check out the game room before getting wet.” I say pointing in the direction of the room.

She nods and we go in. It’s really loud inside with a lot of flashing lights. It overwhelms my senses so I have put my hands over my ears until I can adjust. I see Ben playing a game where the buttons are on the floor with rails to help balance. A large screen with arrows climbs the screen while fast beat dancing music plays. There’s a second pad next to him. I guess two can play.

Ben sees us approaching, he abandons his game to greet us. He comes in for a hug, his arms around my torso. I hug his neck.

“Happy birthday, Ben!” Releasing his neck.

“Thanks, Jewel.” He smiles but his hands linger.

I step back and Jade gives him a hug and wishes him happy birthday.

“Glad you could make it. So, what do you think? There’s a lot to do. What do you want to do first, Jewel?” Looking around as he spoke.

“What’s that game? It looks fun.” I ask pointing to the game he just got off.

“Dance Revolution, it is fun. Here I’ll show you how to play. It has easy levels to learn on, then they get harder as you advance.” He explains as he goes through the playlist.

I stand on the second player pad as he chooses a song. Then he shows me to match the arrows on the screen with the buttons on the floor. After a few songs he switches it to two players.

The screen splits so there are two sets of arrows. Ben put his on a more challenging level while I learned on easy. The first five songs I play, I was terrible. After that I started getting better. It was hard finding the beat with all the other noise in the room. Once I focused my hearing on the game in front of me and then it clicked.

I take all new tasks with the intent to win. By the tenth song I was just as good as Ben. Jade was getting bored watching, so I tell Ben we’ll try something new. We have quite a crowd gather, and I need to cool down. He follows us to the pool.

I set my bag on a table. I sit and take my shoes off. Then stand and pull my shorts down. Then I grab the bottom of my t-shirt pulling up over my head. I step out of my shorts and put them and my shirt in my bag. Then turn to Jade and Ben. They’re standing still just gawking at me.

“What?” I say putting a hand on my hip.

“Wow Jewel, nice bikini.” Jade says.

Ben recovers but his eyes kept wandering down my body. I blush at the attention, so I hook Jade’s arm and jump into the water. Ben jumps in with a cannonball splashing us. Michelle made her way over along with Chuck and Buster. With the six of us together, what kind of trouble can we get into?