Chapter Twenty-Six
Day 10
The next afternoon, my phone pings while I’m lying in my hotel room bed.
Isa (they/them)
Meet in the community room after siesta? Official team business
Andy (he/him)
Gibs is out cold. Be down as soon as I can wake him.
Ellen (she/her + they/them)
I’ll be there.
Isa (they/them)
Cool! I’m already here so come whenever
I immediately get up and grab my bag, even though there’s still fifteen minutes left of siesta.
From her bed, Laurel pauses the cheerleading docuseries. “Going out?”
“Just the community room. Team stuff.”
“Cool.” Laurel sits up. “Hey, I had lots of fun yesterday.”
“Me too.” First, it was the castle-fort, and then we watched YouTube videos about Barcelona culture, narrated in beginner Spanish.
“Maybe our teams can hang out again tomorrow,” Laurel says. “I don’t even think it’d be all that awkward for Andy and Madison, since there are plenty of other people they can talk to.”
I slip on a pair of sandals. “That’d be nice.”
“Yep.” Laurel watches me head to the door. “Check with your team and let me know?”
“Okay. I’ll ask,” I promise.
Isa is alone on the couch when I get to the community room.
They look up when I enter. “Hey.”
“Hi.” I take a seat beside them.
The school tablet lies on the coffee table. Photos appear in neat little rows across its screen.
I point at a few that look unfamiliar. “Where are those from?”
“That was after the castellers.” Isa clicks on a photo of a tall building. A small sign hangs below one of its windows.
“‘Llibertat d’opinió i d’expressió,’” I read carefully. “That’s Catalan?”
“Yep. It means ‘freedom of opinion and expression,’ according to Google Translate. I’ve been doing some research. This whole region of Catalunya is part of Spain, right?”
I nod.
“But it wasn’t always. It used to be separate, like its own kingdom, so some people think it should be its own country again since it has its own language, culture, and everything. Then other people who live here want to stay part of Spain.”
I keep my eyes on the tablet as Isa clicks through photos. “They don’t teach stuff like this in Spanish class. Or world history.”
“Right? It feels like there’s so much they leave out. Makes me wonder what they don’t tell us about the history of other countries, too. Or even our own.”
Before I can respond, Andy and Gibs barrel through the door.
“Sorry we’re late!” Andy takes the seat across from me.
“I’m not.” Gibs drops into the other chair. “I could’ve slept for another hour.”
“I’m starting to think you might be half sloth,” Andy says.
“Anyway.” Isa clears their throat. “I thought we should go through photos and officially decide where to visit for the fourth clue.”
“That’s why you called us down here?” Gibs groans. “We’ve still got plenty of time.”
“Three days isn’t that long,” Andy says.
If three days isn’t long for us, it’s going to be impossible for Laurel and her team to get through two more clues, plus a presentation.
“Exactly.” Isa gives Andy a thumbs-up. “We should figure out where else we want to go so we can come up with a clue and create a slideshow.”
“I know where we should go,” Gibs says.
I don’t, but I do know I promised Laurel I’d ask if her team can hang out with ours tomorrow, which gets me thinking.…
“Oh yeah?” Isa asks. “Where?”
“The park with the dragon-lizard statue. It was made by the same dude as La Pedrera.”
Gaudí. If my team’s okay with going to a park he made, maybe they’d be willing to visit another Gaudí creation.
I pull up our group chat and scroll way, way back to some of our very first messages.
“What about Casa Battló?”
The room gets so quiet, I wonder if I’ve accidentally interrupted someone.
“That was the other building we were looking at for clue one,” Andy says. “Right, Ellen?”
“Yes.” A smile tugs at the corners of my mouth. “Gaudí made both.”
The room goes quiet again.
Finally, Isa turns to me. “There are just so many places in Barcelona we haven’t been to yet. How come you want to go back to Passeig de Gràcia?”
“Laurel said her team had a lot of fun with us yesterday, but they’re behind on figuring out their clues. I thought we could go to Casa Battló while they’re at La Pedrera, then hang out together after.”
“You told her where the first clue is?” Andy’s voice sounds like Mom when she’s practicing scales, quiet at first, then louder by the final note.
“No.” I look down, wishing I could rock this tight feeling away. I squeeze my hands between my knees until an idea comes to me. “But if we go to the park first, that could give them time to figure it out. Then we could go with them and just split up when we get to Casa Battló.”
“I don’t know, Ellen.…” Isa glances at Andy and Gibs.
Desperation pools in my chest, suffocating and thick. “But we each get to choose a place to visit. That’s what we decided last week.”
“We didn’t”—Andy clasps his hands together—“I mean, we said that there was enough time to do that, not that we were one-hundred-percent going to.”
“But you went to the sports museum,” I shoot back. “And if Gibs wants to go to that park, then I should get to pick a place, too.”
To me, it makes sense. It’s logical. Practically a rule now.
Andy opens his mouth, then closes it.
“There’s an easy way to decide.” Gibs sits up in his chair. “Let’s vote on it.”
“Vote?” Isa raises an eyebrow.
“Yeah, vote. We’re a team, so we should do what the majority wants.”
This definitely isn’t what Andy said last week. My world tilts.
“I’m okay with that,” Andy says.
I stare at him, but he won’t look back at me.
“Same,” says Isa.
Suddenly, my world’s not just off-axis, it’s spun itself right out of the solar system.
“Okay.” Gibs leans his elbows on both knees. “Raise your hand if you want Ellen to pick a different place for us to visit on our own, without another team.”
Gibs lifts his hand immediately once he’s done speaking. Andy raises his hand more slowly, then Isa.
“And raise your hand if you want to go to Casa Battló and do whatever with Laurel’s team before and after.”
My hand is the only one that goes up.
“So that settles it.” Gibs sits back. “Three against one.”
“Cool.” But Isa’s voice is quiet again, just like after the garden, when we were talking about destiny and patterns. “Want to look through these pics and create a cover page for our presentation?”
I swallow over the thickness in my throat as Andy and Gibs make their way around to the back of the couch. I try to tell myself that this is fine. It makes sense that my teammates would want to see someplace new, not retrace our steps from the first clue.
Except, now I have to tell Laurel.