Someone knocked on the door. Alex said, “I’ll get it,” rolling off the bed to go answer it.

“Hello, Romeo. Do you have my Luna?”

“Your Luna?”

“That’s what I said.” Stella peeked around him. “Good morning, little one. How are you feeling? I’m up early and I don’t like it.”

Luna bristled at being called little one, but shrugged it off. “I’m fine.”

“Hi,” Nicole said from behind and above Stella. “We had an idea. I thought you might need help getting ready, so we decided to bring the wardrobe to you.” She held up a stack of neatly folded clothes.

“And as a bonus”—Stella held up her bag—“we’ll strategize how to catch up in the game while we get ready. Harlow and Francis are still asleep. We figured we could just fill them in when we see them.”

Alex stepped to the side to let them in, while keeping eye contact with Luna. They walked in single file, to check in on her, to help her get ready, to play the game. Together.

A grateful lump felt stuck in Luna’s throat.

Oh.

Oh no.

SATURDAY, 6:45 A.M.

Stella sat on the floor in Luna’s room, tablet and their combined presents in front of her. “So, we’re in agreement. Olive intentionally lied to us. Everything might be connected, but C-P-R supersedes everything. Each recipe step is telling us something we have to do with our presents.”

“That’s how I messed up,” Luna said, also on the floor, in between Nicole’s knees, while getting her hair french braided. “I thought everything mixed together and you had to try to make any part of it apply to your challenge. Alex was right. I should’ve listened.”

“It was a good guess,” Nicole said kindly. Luna had explained her doggie debacle logic in detail. Combined with the “pour over” vs “pour into” mistake, she’d created her own recipe for disaster.

Luna continued, “I think the first step references Jewel’s announcement post. She posted it on March fourteenth. Not sure what we’re supposed to do with that, though.”

Alex twisted the snowy owl key in his fingers, sitting in between Luna and Stella. “I think we’re past steps two and three. We were each given a color, some of us got freebie presents, and we decided to work together as a group. Harlow was right. We had to mix our colors.”

“Freebie presents. Ooh, I like that,” Stella said. “Presents come in two classes: freebie and challenge. Continue.”

“Then,” Alex said, “Jewel paired us up, made us each have a companion, and we got keys from the challenge, which unlocked the freebie presents. I think the pairs she put us in might be a requirement for winning. For example, I can only win the game if it’s with Luna.”

“I like him,” Stella said to Luna. “He’s my second favorite now.”