“No, I haven’t!”
“Excuse me?” Sunny cuts in. “But what exactly is Mr.Ian-not-Ian doing here anyway?”
“He has the key,” I say, “for the box. We need his help to open it.”
Sunny pulls a face. She side-eyes Cam.
“You are such a liar.”
“I’m not lying,” Cam says. But he doesn’t seem particularly surprised by Sunny’s reaction. Almost like he knew it was coming.
I step across the raised floor and stand next to Sunny. “What’s going on? Why do you think he’s lying?”
“Because of this.”
Sunny digs into her bag and pulls out the box from the Osher Foundation Gallery. I can’t help gasping when I first see it. The wood is pale and damp, maybe aspen or pine—that’s Mom’s favorite choice for flooring. There’s an elaborate inlaid design on the latched lid. No wonder Cam didn’tcare when I waved the pen box around. You can’t really mistake anything for this.
As I look over it now, details and all, I see what Sunny’s referring to.
“It doesn’t have a lock,” I say. I turn to Cam angrily. “You tricked me!”
But he still has that same calm expression. He points at the box.
“According to the book, there’s a message in there. It’s coded with a simple substitution cipher. I have the key to read it.”
I shake my head. “There’s not a clue or cipher in here. This is the treasure. We solved the clues and found the treasure. This isit.”
“Okay.” Cam shrugs dramatically. “I mean, you can go tell Gilbert Baker’s estate that, I guess. The book said you need a key word, and I have the key word. So why don’t you open it and find out what’s inside?”
I look over at Sunny. She gives me a tiny nod.
I turn to Gabriel and Julia. “You think we should?”
Julia smiles. “Hey, it’s not every day you get the chance to open something from a forty-year-old treasure hunt.”
“I say we open it too,” Gabriel says. He motions toward Cam. “Then we’ll know if our Ian can pull his weight in this group or not.”
“I’m not an Ian!” Cam yells.
Sunny shushes him and sits right there on the floor. I sit next to her, then Julia, Gabriel, and Cam sit on Sunny’s other side. The five of us come together in the middle of the room, rightunder the epicenter of the gay heavenly clouds. We form our own little incantation circle. Sunny carefully hands me the box.
I hold it closed for a moment, as if the lid will pop open and ruin the surprise for me.
Julia tilts her head. “What is it, Ivy?”
“What if…” I pause. “What if whatever’s inside here doesn’t split four ways?”
“Five.”Cam coughs conspicuously.
Sunny holds up a finger. “Absolutely not,” she says in warning. “If anything, you’ve only slowed us down thus far.”
Cam scowls at her. He draws his knees toward himself and hugs them as he gazes across the circle.
“I say we split bragging rights,” Gabriel offers. “All four of our names in the papers. Or a group name. Sunset Yearbook? Yearbook Crew?”
“I mean, it’s better than Dyslexic Stoner,” Julia says, chuckling.
“Who?” Cam asks.
