“Oh, Nicole?” Jewel asked. “Would you mind doing me a small favor?”

“Depends on what it is.” Her tablet looked white but had the faintest hint of yellow.

“Player six was unfortunately delayed. They’ll be here bright and early tomorrow. Would you mind holding on to their tablet until then?”

“Sure.” Nicole shrugged, accepting the purple tablet.

Six? There’d be a sixth person? After Luna received her invite, Jewel promoted all five Golden Follow profiles to the home page for the app—she had even forced Alex to make an account as a part of his acceptance.

Five. Not six.

“Go ahead and turn on your tablets,” Jewel said. “We’re going to cover the remaining rules for the game, regulations, all that wonderful and law-abiding stuff.”

Luna’s screen blinked to life. After powering up and breezing through the company logos, the screen shimmered with gold. The background remained solid white, but golden flecks rained from the top of the screen to the bottom. Black text began to scroll behind the glitter, from bottom to top.

A twister brought Dorothy to Oz
And Wendy flew to Neverland.
Wonderland taught Alice nonsense,
But Narnia failed Susan in the end.
Here, my doorways will take you
To places unknown and unseen
But above all, always remember
Everything is exactly as it seems.

From my dreams to yours, welcome to
Golden Weekend X:
The Cruelest Jewel
Press here to begin …

“The Cruelest Jewel,” Stella said. “That sounds lovely and not at all ominous.”

“Because it is,” Jewel said, distracted by her tablet.

“Lovely or ominous?”

“Hmm?” Jewel looked up and around the room. “Oh. Just think of the game as a thorough and fun way for us to really get to know one another.”

“You didn’t answer the question,” Stella said.

“Didn’t I? Hmm. Curious.” Jewel tapped her screen with a flourish, raising her hand in the air after finishing. “If everyone can press the blinking button at the bottom of the screen, we’ll begin.”

Stella laughed. “Imagine that.”

“Imagine what? Care to share with the class?”

“Not yet.”

Jewel narrowed her eyes and stared stone faced for a couple of heartbeats before her expression brightened into a killer smile. “I can respect that. Moving on.”

Luna made a mental note of that exchange. Stella mirrored Jewel but with a worrisome frosty edge. Jewel was the queen of constant cunning with a heaping dose of weird. Smart, sassy, and strict, not harmful.

Stella, on the other hand, definitely seemed to have a bad side, and Luna didn’t want to be on it. Underestimating Stella, the newcomer to Golden Rule, would be a mistake.

“The game is very simple, but please pay attention for the sake of my last good nerve,” Jewel said. The tablet screen changed to a solid black background. Large white text in a beautiful cursive font moved in time with her as she spoke, like a slide show. “To win, all you need to remember is C-P-R.”