Page 51 of Fostering Chemistry
I twisted to face him. "What, do you want to quit?"
"Hell no, we're so close. Come on." He broke into an effortless run again, pulling me along with him.
We were panting by the time we made it to the front entrance of the Union, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw another team run up. It was Tori and Jayden, naturally. Diego dropped my hand, but not before Tori saw it.
She broke into a grin. "It's really down to the wire now.”
I nodded.
"Let's separate," Tori said quickly to Jayden. “We can cover more ground that way. I'll go right, you go left."
Jayden nodded, already taking off.
"Call if you find it!" he shouted over his shoulder.
Diego was behind me, and when I turned to him, he raised his head quickly, looking guilty. Had he been checking me out? Thatwasn’t the most pressing matter at the moment. “Should we split up, too?”
“What?” For the first time, he seemed to notice that Tori and Jayden were heading in opposite directions. “Yeah. Good luck."
We separated, and I hurried off after Tori.
"Wait up," I called.
She paused with a grin, and said, "Only if you tell me why you two were holding hands."
"Because I nearly got plowed down by a crowd of students outside the political science building."
Tori's smile widened. "You weren't anywhere near political science when I saw you. But come on, we can search together."
I zeroed in on a white poster board sign driven into the ground by a wooden post.
There were names on it, but not any of ours.
"Okay, we know what it looks like. Let's spread out," I suggested.
We crossed a paved area at the base of a large set of steps, and then onto a drive that continued around the side of the building. Trees lined the far side of it.
"We need to cover more ground,” Tori said. "It could be in the woods."
I stuck close to the building, and she moved about twenty feet away, keeping parallel with me. We both found another sign, but it was for another team.
Unfortunately, Diego had been right. The building was huge, and the grounds covered at least twice the area of the union.
I started jogging again, and a moment later, Tori did too. There were more trees now, and the union's glass wall looked out into a beautifully landscaped garden that gave way to a wooded area.
I hopped over a small hedge, found another sign that wasn’t ours, and kept going.
"This could take days," Tori called.
I moved away from the building. With all the trees, rock paths, and fountains, it was too much ground for Tori to cover alone.
Then Tori’s phone rang. She listened for half a second and then squealed, running ahead.
"Good luck!" she called back.
Crap, Jayden had found their sign. I moved faster, zigzagging to make sure I wasn't missing ours, and then my phone rang. Diego had found it—yes! He spoke rapidly, trying to explain where he was.
"I’m on the south side, between these two big evergreens, right by a little rock path."
