Frankie swallowed their chips and looked into the camera with sad eyes. “Terrible,” they said after a dramatic pause. “I can only take solace in the fact that whoever this twisted Game Master is, they at least seem to be taking care of Elephant, you know, despite the whole hamster-napped thing.”

It was true. Even though the group of newly bonded pals hadn’t received any other clues that might help them locate the missing hamster, the Game Master had been sending them all photos of Elephant in different outfits, looking fed and well taken care of. Still, knowing that Elephant was okay hadn’t made any of this easier for Miguel. He had to stop sharing the photos with Angel after the third or fourth one because it would always make him cry out of worry for his beloved pet.

“Seriously,” Kylie piped in, and Danny swooped his camera over to get her in the shot. “Who kidnaps a hamster? For two months? If this was intended to be a game, it’s gone way too far.”

“I think we already passed the ‘too far’ point when we caught Mr. Verdi at the school last time,” Matt added, and Danny expertly moved the camera from Kylie’s face to Matt’s. “Remember how he started sobbing when we confronted him?”

“But Mr. Verdi wasn’t the Game Master,” Becca pointed out, raising her chin just the slightest bit. When the camera moved to her face, she straightened her back and cleared her throat. “He was just somebody who got caught in the game. Remember what he told us? The Game Master made him do all that stuff.”

“Nobody makes grownups do anything they don’t want to do,” Frankie scoffed. “I still think Mr. Verdi is suspicious as heck.”

Becca couldn’t exactly deny it. Ever since the new school year started, Mr. Verdi had been missing from campus, which wasn’t exactly innocent behavior. Could it be true that Mr. Verdi had known more than he let on that day?

The entire thing was so confusing. The Game Master was calculating enough to have planned the summer school incident without issue, from clues hidden with glow-in-the-dark stickers to puzzles that honed in on each kid’s special interest in one way or another. And a flyer had been left behind describing each one of them to a T. It was almost as if the Game Master had wanted to be their friends, but what kind of friend would put a group of kids through such wild challenges?

“Well, whoever it is, we’re going to find out,” Becca finally said, breaking the awkward silence that had come over them all at the mention of Mr. Verdi. “Trust me when I say that. We killed it last time around, so whenever the Game Master decides to throw us a bone in helping us find Elephant, we’ll be ready.”