I still have to edit past chapters because I'm not sure if it's stated in previous chapters but I swapped the Coyotes' and Owls' house colours around: Coyote is now yellow and Owl is now purple.

Chapter 19

Coyote POV: Levi

       Not too much information on S.H.R.E.W.D was found during the days and days the eight of us were researching the company. Piano still felt S.H.R.E.W.D was too suspicious for his liking and honestly, I believed him. His instincts were the best.

       We didn't even have any time left the investigate. Today was the relay race so at the end, we were going to find out which house was going to have the 'honour' of going to S.H.R.E.W.D's Vancouver headquarters.

       And the worst part? None of us could throw the relay race. One house was going to be sent there and with all the captains knowing what the prize was and how suspicious we should be of the company, there was no way we could all botch the race.

       Mr. Hicks would get suspicious of us and that was the last thing we needed.

       At least there was a good thing about today.

       Mr. Hicks announced that our parents were invited to come to the school to see how we were doing and to watch the relay race. We were all in the cafeteria, waiting for our parents to arrive.

       One by one, the parents started to arrive, greeting their children. When Mom and Dad walked into the cafeteria, Astrid and I went over to them and gave them a hug. "There's my beautiful children," Mom said. "How is everything?"

       "Meh," Astrid said. "It's just a school. We're learning. Just meh."

       "You say that every time," Dad pointed out. "So Levi, how are you enjoying this school?"

       "I really like it," I said. "I've created a lot of paintings since I've been here."

       "Would we be able to see them?" Dad asked.

       "Of course," I said.

       "Is that Uriah?" Mom asked and I followed her gaze, seeing Uriah getting a smoothie from the concession stand. She then called his name and when he saw her, he walked over to her where Mom immediately hugged him. "It's nice to see you again!"

       "You too," Uriah said.

       "So are you screwing my daughter yet?" Mom asked. She was never afraid to say what was on her mind and at times, she should really pay attention to what she said.

       Astrid sighed heavily. "Mom, seriously? One, gross. I'm not into that whole... jock thing. Two, stop trying to sound hip by asking me if I'm screwing someone."

       "And three, I'm actually screwing your son," Uriah said.

       "Wait, what?" I asked. "No, no. You and I have never... We haven't... Just no."

       "But in that closet..." Uriah said.

       "Uriah! That was not... I really hate you right now."

       "Wait," Mom said as she looked at Uriah. "Are you actually dating my son?"

       "That, I am," Uriah said.

       Mom immediately smiled. "Awe, I really support it. I'm officially over the idea of you dating Astrid. It's all about you and Levi now. What's that called? When someone likes a relationship?"

       "We're not telling you, Mom," Astrid said. "Stop acting like a teenager."

       "You're no fun," Mom said.

       Someone called Uriah's name and when I looked over to see who it was, I saw a man walk over to us and give Uriah a hug. "Hi, Dad," Uriah said as he hugged him back.

       "I haven't seen you in so long," Uriah's dad said. "You really need to call me or video chat me more. I get lonely when you're at this school."

       Mom gasped dramatically. "Uriah, how dare you neglect your father?"

       Uriah's dad chuckled at Mom's comment. "It's nice to see you two again," he said.

       "You too, Sal," Dad said. "And I already apologize in advance for my wife's teenage-like attitude. She's trying to, in her words, fit in with the youth."

       "You're just an old bum," Mom said to Dad.

       I loved Mom's comments.

       "Oh, Dad, this is Levi," Uriah said, gesturing to me. "He's Astrid's brother and... my boyfriend."

       "Boyfriend," Sal said with a smile. "I always knew you were gay. Or are you bisexual? Or what's that other one? Pansexual, right?"

       "I don't know what I am," Uriah said. "Or I don't really care. And why did you think I was gay?"

       "Because I'm your father, Uriah," Sal said. "You were always checking out boys, and don't lie to me saying you weren't." Sal then looked at me. "It's very nice to meet you, Levi."

       "You too," I said. "Did Uriah tell you that he's now the Tiger's captain because of me?"

       "What?" Uriah asked. "You're not the reason I'm the captain now. You had nothing to do with it."

       "I know, but Astrid was sort of involved and I wanted to take credit for her idea," I said.

       "Jerk," Astrid said.

       "It wasn't even her idea," Uriah said. "It was Diesel's."

       "Who's Diesel?" Mom asked.

       "He's in the Owl house," Astrid said. "It's his first year here and he's, like, a really cute nerd. He's always rambling on and sprouting this little facts. It's so adorable."

       "Wait, hold on," I said. "Is that confirmation that you like him? Because if it is, I'm not talking to you anymore since I told you that I liked Uriah."

       "Oh, no, my annoying little brother not talking to me anymore," Astrid said. "What a shame. How will I ever be able to live?"

       My older sister was such a bully to me.

       Our families talked together a bit longer before Mr. Hicks told all the students to meet up with their houses. Mom and Dad wished both me and Astrid good luck before the two of us walked off.

       "You know, normally I would tell you that I would crush you, but I actually don't want to win," Astrid said to me.

       "Yeah, me too," I said. "If there was actually a good prize, just know that the Coyotes would crush you Tigers."

       Astrid snorted. "Sure, Levi."

       "We crushed you during dodge ball," I pointed out. "And aren't you guys supposed to be super athletic? Strong and fast?"

       "That... Does not count," Astrid said. "It was you up against Uriah. He told me he didn't want to hurt you."

       I patted Astrid's shoulder. "It's okay, you can make up excuses if it will make you feel better."

       Astrid glared at me before she went to where the Tigers were and I went to the Coyotes. I was last to arrive so as soon as I was there, Piano said, "I say we throw the relay."

       "We're not throwing it, Piano," Dove said. "We can't."

       "Why would we want to throw it anyway?" Valerie asked.

       "Because..." Piano said slowly, trying to find an excuse without telling everyone here why he wanted to throw it. Enough people were already involved. We couldn't add more. "Because I found out what the prize is for winning and let's just say it's boring. So boring."

       "I agree," I said. "I'd rather play basketball than take the prize."

       Dove sighed. "We still can't throw the relay."

       "Awe, why not?" Piano asked.

       "Excuse us," Dove said to the Coyotes before grabbing my and Piano's arms and pulling us slightly out of ear shot.

       "I told you what's going on, love," Piano said. "Why don't you want to throw it?"

       "Because no matter what, someone has to win," Dove said. "And if I recall, one person from every house is involved in your investigation. Do you really want Alvin to get the prize? Or Uriah and Astrid? Pearl, Ester, and Diesel?"

       "Uriah can get it," Piano said. "He scares me."

       "Excuse you, but that's my boyfriend," I said. "And Dove is right. Someone has to win. I'm not saying we should try our absolute hardest to win but if we purposefully throw it, Mr. Hicks will catch on. Other students might catch on."

       "All I heard was you telling me that we can't purposefully throw it," Piano said. "What if I 'accidentally' throw it?"

       "Not happening," Dove said. "We're just going to have to do the relay as good as we can without making it seem like we're throwing it."

       "Fine, but if we win because we can't throw it, you owe me a lot of boneless chicken wings," Piano said. "The really spicy ones."

       "Yeah, whatever," Dove said before we went back to the rest of the Coyotes.

       Mr. Hicks walked around the cafeteria, handing each captain an envelope and telling them not to open it quite yet. When all captains had one, he stood in the middle of the cafeteria and cleared his throat to get everyone to stop talking. When they did, he said, "First off, I'd like to thank all the parents for coming to this year's relay race. Now, since the race does take place all over the school, feel free to wander around to get a good look at the school and see if you'll end up being in a place where the houses will be for the race. If you are, please refrain from helping them. Now, for those first year students, this is how the race works. Inside the envelope your captain is holding is a riddle. Once you solve it, you'll head to your first location where you'll have to perform a task, each relating to at least one of the houses' strong suits. Once completed, you'll get another riddle for another location. There are eight tasks in total. After completing the eighth, you'll receive a ribbon of your house's colour. You then return here, which is considered the finish line. Questions?" Nobody said anything or raised their hands. "Alright, you may open your envelope in three... two... one... Go!"

       "Open it slowly," Piano told Dove, who completely ignored him and opened it at a normal speed; not too fast but not too slow.

       Just enough so we wouldn't seem like we were throwing it, yet we also weren't trying to hard.

       When Dove pulled the paper out of the envelope, she read the riddle out loud. "To solve this little fix; liquids, solids, and gases mix. Head to the place of some reaction to further this puzzle transaction."

       That was the easiest riddle ever. This was a relay race for students of a gifted school. I thought this would be more challenging.

       Apparently, I wasn't the only one who thought so. 

       "That's it?" Piano asked. "What kind of riddle is that? They might as well just stick the answer on the paper."

       "Well, I guess we can't waste any time going there," Dove said so we all had to leave the cafeteria to head to the science lab.

       And no other houses had moved from their spots yet. They were all still looking at their riddles.

       I thought the Owls would have been the first to solve this riddle. Or any riddle. But this one in particular. So why was it taking so long?

       One teacher was in the science lab to make sure we completed the task and didn't cheat our way through. At four lab tables were a name tag for each of the houses so we went to the Coyote one. A piece of paper was there, giving us instructions for a chemical reaction we had to perform.

       And the first rule written on the paper was to not look at a periodic table or use our phones to look up the information. This was purely based on memory.

       And everyone in the Coyote house knew I had an eidetic memory so I couldn't lie about not remembering anything.

       We were screwed.

       While Dove was reading the directions, I looked at the door of the lab, waiting to see any of the houses walk in any time soon. None did. 

       I didn't get it. The riddle was easy. There was no way none of them couldn't solve it as fast as we did.

       "Levi," Dove suddenly said, causing me to snap out of my thoughts and look at her. "We've been taught what these chemical formulas are but none of us can remember the compound names or the more common names for it."

       I looked at the instruction sheet, wanting to roll my eyes at what the formulas were. I thought we were going to have to make an interesting chemical reaction. Not something so basic.

       "Sodium bicarbonate is the first one," I said. "And the second is diluted acetic, or ethanoic, acid. Or more commonly known as baking soda and vinegar."

       "You're kidding, right?" Piano asked. "Baking soda. And vinegar. We just have to mix them together? That's the task?"

       "Apparently," I said.

       We just had to get the task done and over with and there was no way we could botch it with the teacher watching. 

       I couldn't believe how easy this was.

       Once we finished the task, the teacher told us to grab the envelope by the door. We went there where there were four envelopes, each labelled with one of the houses. Dove grabbed ours and opened it, revealing yet another easy leading to our next location. The library.

       Piano, Dove, and I couldn't even pretend we didn't know the answer to the riddle because everyone else got it as soon as it was read it. We actually couldn't 'accidentally' throw the relay if we tried.

       As soon as we walked out, we saw the Tigers about to walk in. "How the hell are you done already?" Wayne asked us. "We just solved the riddle."

       Just solved it?

       "Sorry, can't talk, we have to go to the next place," Piano said. 

       I started walking off with the Coyotes but Uriah grabbed my arm since the Tigers had already headed into the science lab. "How did you solve the riddle so fast?" he asked. "You guys looked at it and got the answer in just a few seconds."

       I furrowed my eyebrows. "It was the easiest thing ever. It literally said liquids, solids, and gases mix. Which leads to the science lab."

       "What?" Uriah asked. "The riddle didn't say that. It was the most confusing thing ever." He took the riddle out of his pocket and showed me. "This is what all the other houses got. Not you?"

       "No, we didn't," I said. "To solve this little fix; liquids, solids, and gases mix. Head to the place of some reaction to further this puzzle transaction. And then the riddle we just got was, again, an easy one."

       "I don't get it," Uriah said. "All the riddles have always been the same. How come you guys get simple ones that don't take long to solve?"

       "I have no idea but I don't have a good feeling about it," I said. "I know I probably shouldn't tell you this but if your second riddle is as confusing as the first one, then your next location is the library. Oh, and just remember this. If you have to mix NaHCO3 and CH3COOH together, it's just baking soda and vinegar. If not, then our tasks are different when they shouldn't be."

       "Uriah!" Wayne suddenly said, standing by the door. "Stop being a horrible captain and help your own house, not your boyfriend's."

       "Wayne, I'm pretty sure I can't help Levi's house if he's ahead of us," Uriah said.

       "So you're cheating and get him to tell us?" Wayne asked. "We don't need his help."

       "I'm not asking for his help," Uriah said. "I was just telling him how hot he looks today and how the two of us should b--" Wayne didn't even let Uriah finish before he headed back into the lab. "And I should go in there too."

       "Good luck," I said. "Even though none of us want to win."

       "You're right there," Uriah said, giving me a quick kiss before heading into the science lab.

       I went to the library where the Coyotes were already at work on the task. Piano saw me walk in and pulled me off to the side. "What were you talking to Uriah about?" he asked.

       "The riddles," I said. "And guess what? The other three houses were given a different riddle than us. He showed it to me and it was the most confusing thing ever."

       "What?" Piano asked. "So... We were purposefully given a simpler one?"

       "Considering it was labelled with our house's name, then yeah," I said. "And I don't know why."

       "Mr. Hicks wants us to win," Piano said. "That has to be it."

       "But why?" I asked.

       "Probably because of S.H.R.E.W.D," Piano said. "If we win, we get a 'tour' of their headquarters. What if they're actually shady and have some top secret research going on? And they want us Coyotes to be their guinea pigs? We're all creatively inclined. They could screw us over somehow."

       "Normally, I don't buy too much into your conspiracy theories but this one is actually freaking me out," I said. "We're clearly given the easier tasks as if Mr. Hicks does want us to win. We need to start botching this relay."

       "I don't think it's possible," Piano said. "We can't risk everyone else knowing about it and if you, Dove, and I don't try, the five other Coyotes will."

       "Oh, so now you want to be all logical and not botch the relay?" I asked.

       "Uh, yeah," Piano said. "I'm saving the eight of our asses now. We can't risk anyone being suspicious of our little research group."

       "That didn't bother you before."

       "And that was before I found out we're probably set up to win. It will be a lot more obvious if we botch it now. Basically, we're screwed."

       And we were. 

       All the tasks and all the riddles were too easy. We basically soared through everything and were soon given the yellow ribbon to return to the cafeteria and be claimed the winners.

       To make things worse, the second place house finished half an hour after us. Dove told me that every year before this, the relay races were always so close. Two houses basically had to race from the last task to the finish line to see who won.

       There had never been a win as big as this one.

        It didn't even feel big to us.

       The Tigers were third to finish and when the did, Uriah walked over to me, grabbed my hand, and pulled me away from everyone. "You know how you told me to remember the chemical formula for baking soda and vinegar?"

       "Yeah," I said. "Did you forget as soon as I told you?"

       "Nope," Uriah said. "I still remember them. NaHCO3 and CH3COOH, right?" I nodded. "Well, we weren't given those formulas so I had no clue what we had to mix together. It took us so long to do that stupid task because he couldn't look up anything."

       "You were given other formulas?" I asked. "So both your riddles and your tasks were different than ours? Even when they're supposed to be the same?"

       "Exactly," Uriah said. 

       "Piano was right," I said. "Mr. Hicks did want us Coyotes to win. Probably to do with the whole S.H.R.E.W.D thing. And we have no idea if we could trust them."

       "We'll keep looking," Uriah said. "All of us. We'll find out something, anything, before you're all sent there. I promise."

_________________

oof things are getting sus

piano is still my spirit animal lol. levi's mom is also my spirit animal. and uriah's dad. i have many spirit animals here. levi is even one of them. piano is my biggest spirit animal though.

and i change the colours of the owl and coyotes houses because i'm weird and have to be part of the house with my favourite colour lmao. out of the four houses, i'm a coyote and i want to be part of the yellow house so coyotes are yellow now.

idk why my mind works this way.