The students were chilling in the living room one afternoon, chatting and pretending to study.
"Pillow fight!" Alfie shouted and threw a cushion at his friends. However, he missed and instead, knocked a bookend off the shelf, causing it to smash right into the floor.
"Alfie!" Amber scolded. "Look what you've done!"
"Oh no, my mom is going to kill us!" Kendall panicked.
"I got it!" said Carlos, picking up the bookend from the ground.
"Wait, what's that?" Nina asked, as she noticed what appeared to be a strip of paper sticking out from the hole in the floor.
"What's what?" asked Carlos.
"The strip of paper sticking out from the floor," Patricia pointed out.
Carlos got closer and pulled out the strip of paper.
"In this house is where clues to the treasure are hidden- Your Excellency and Cheery," the helmet-lover read out loud.
"Treasure?" James gasped. "As in, gold or diamonds?"
"Wait, who are Your Excellency and Cheery?" asked Katie.
"Who cares? We're gonna be rich!" Logan exclaimed.
"Wait, there's more!" Kendall exclaimed, noticing a fold from below. "Carlos, unfold that!"
"Your first clue is hidden in where the sun meets the eye at noon," said Carlos.
"Sun meets the eye?" asked Camille. "What the heck does that mean?"
"And why noon?" Logan wondered. "Why not other times?"
"What kind of eye do they mean?" asked Patricia. "A lot of things have eyes: needles, hurricanes, potatoes."
"Well we can rule out hurricanes," said Logan. "There's no hurricanes in Minnesota."
"And needles," said Katie. "There's no way a piece of clue could be hidden in the eye of a needle."
"Well, the gardening club does plant potatoes in the Palm Woods garden, but they do that in spring, so we can rule out potatoes as well," Camille added.
"Could they mean the Eye of Horus?" Nina suggested. "Back at Amun, were were involved in a treasure hunt that needed to be solved with an Eye of Horus locket that some strange old lady gave me. Long story, I'll explain later."
"Eye of Horus?" asked Logan. "You mean that symbol in ancient Egyptian religion?"
"Yeah, our dorm houses at Amun are named after figures from Egyptian culture," Nina responded. "Our dorm houses are all from the the late 1800's, but the ancient Egyptian names make them sound older than they actually are."
"But our dorm house was built in 1863 and is named after TV writer and creator Scott Fellows," said Kendall. "Well, Fellows House used to be called Ramsey House, after Alexander Ramsey, the first Minnesota Territorial Governor. Of course, the house name was later faced with backlash because of Alexander Ramsey's role in removing the Native Americans indigenous to Minnesota from their homelands, so in 1977, when Palm Woods Academy went under a major renovation, the dorm houses were renamed."
"Either way, our dorm house was never named after Egyptian mythology figures, so I don't think it was your Eye of Horse thing," said Carlos.
"Eye of Horus," Nina corrected.
"The sun meets the eye," Lucy kept repeating to herself. "The first clue must be hidden somewhere outside since you can't see the sun from inside!"
"One question," Fabian interjected. "Where exactly outside?"
"Where the sun meets the eye," said James, trying to figure out what the clue meant by that.
"Well, we do have that statue of in the courtyard Wilder that casts this really cool light," said Katie.
"You mean shadow?" asked Mara.
"No, she means light," James insisted. "I swear, around lunchtime on a sunny day, there's always this blinding golden ray of light shining out of Wilder's left eye- it must be the statue!"
"James, you're brilliant!" said Nina.
"Let's go!" Carlos insisted.
...
"So where exactly is the treasure?" asked Mick.
"Well, according to the strip of paper from the hole, our clue is hidden IN where the sun meets the eye at noon, so it must be, well, inside," said Kendall.
"But we can't open up the statue," said Logan.
"What if 'where the sun meets the eye' means the where the light from the sun shines onto, or rather, into?" Fabian suggested.
"You're a genius Fabes!" said Amber.
"And the light shines right onto the grass," Camille added, flipping through her thoughts. "It must be buried under there!"
"How did we never pay attention to this before?" asked James.
"Well what are we waiting for?" asked Carlos. "Let's go grab some shovels and dig it up!"
"No, we can't get caught," said Kendall. "Let's sneak out after dark."
"Are you crazy?" asked Logan. "Absolutely not!"
"Logan, are you forgetting? We're part of Griffin's favorite Knight Bubble," Kendall reminded, and the Amun students looked confused. "Long story short, my mom's a prominent member of the Palm Woods PTSA and Griffin seems to really love us Knights and our friends."
"Good idea, let's hold a secret meeting later," Nina suggested and put her right hand over her right eye. "Swollef?"
"Wait, how do you know about our secret bucket list-slash-adventure group?" asked James.
"And why are you putting your hand over your eye?" asked Logan.
"What?" asked Nina. "I just thought you guys maybe wanted to form a secret club so no one will know that we're solving mysteries around the school and name it the backwards of your dorm house."
"See, back at Amun, we formed a secret club that only consisted of us Anubis House residents that focused on solving mysteries," Patricia responded. "We called our secret mystery-solving club 'Sibuna', you know, Anubis spelled backwards? So Nina figured you might want to call your secret club Swollef, Fellows spelled backwards. Oh, and Logan, we put our right hand over our right eye every time we call for a Sibuna meeting. It's kind of our official gesture."
"That's smart!" Carlos commented.
"Ooh, so an American Sibuna!" Amber exclaimed. "I like it!"
"Sorry, like James said, we already used the name Swollef for our secret bucket list-slash-adventure club," Kendall pointed out. "Which I guess is no longer a secret now that I've said it out loud."
"Ooh, what about AmSibuna?" asked Amber. "You know, American Sibuna?"
"Smart!" said Logan.
"Okay, so for our initiation ceremony, you are to sacrifice something important to you and pledge to keep all secrets safe," Amber instructed. "Got it?"
"Slow down Amber," said Nina. "Kendall said the house is named after American TV writer and creator Scott Fellows, so there's nothing paranormal about Fellows House."
"So, no initiation ceremony?" asked Alfie, disappointed.
"No, but we were going to do the pledge, at the very least," Nina insisted.
"The initiation will be tonight after dark," said Fabian.
"After dark?" Logan yelped. "No, no, absolutely not! We could get caught!"
"Oh Logan, so pessimistic," Kendall teased. "Are you forgetting Griffin let us go outside after dark and hang out on our rooftop hangout? Just for fun?"
"Oh, and do NOT, under any circumstances, tell Mrs. Knight or Trudy about this," Nina reminded.
"Why not?" Kendall wondered.
"We don't need your mum or Trudy busting us and we won't be able to solve the mystery," Amber explained. "We are, after all, a secret club. That means we do not tell anyone not in our club about our findings, especially not the adults, and we do not induct anyone unless we know for sure we can trust them."
"Wow, this is going to be a lot harder than I thought," said Katie.
"What do you guys even do in your free time?" asked Lucy.
After Mrs. Knight went to bed, Katie carefully got out of bed and closed the door. The brunette went to each floor and removed the tape on the door of each hallway, allowing the students to sneak out without raising suspicion.
"Come on Logan, stop worrying," said Carlos.
"I don't want Mama Knight to bust us," Logan insisted.
"Let's just quietly get out there, get inducted into AmSibuna, and solve the mystery as soon as possible so we'll never have to do this again and we won't get caught," said Kendall.
"I don't like the sound of this," Logan shook his head and followed his friends.
"You think I do?" asked Katie. "My mom and I share a room, and if she sees I'm not in bed, she'll freak out!"
"Now, who can show me to the woods near the river?" asked Nina.
"Why?" asked Logan.
"It's the most isolated area of the school, and people are less likely to find us there," Fabian explained.
"Follow me," said Kendall.
...
"Okay guys," said Nina, once they reached the area in the woods near the river. "This is where we'll hold all official AmSibuna meetings."
"Now everyone, pay attention. The pledge goes like this:" Amber announced. "I, your full name, being of sound mind promise to protect the secrets of Fellows House and stand by my fellow club members."
"I, Kendall Knight, being of sound mind promise to protect the secrets of Fellows House and stand by my fellow club members."
"I, Katie Knight, being of sound mind promise to protect the secrets of Fellows House and stand by my fellow club members."
"I, James Diamond, being of sound mind promise to protect the secrets of Fellows House and stand by my fellow club members."
"I, Carlos Garcia, being of sound mind promise to protect the secrets of Fellows House and stand by my fellow club members."
"I, Logan Mitchell, being of sound mind promise to protect the secrets of Fellows House and stand by my fellow club members."
"I, Camille Roberts, being of sound mind promise to protect the secrets of Fellows House and stand by my fellow club members."
"I, Lucy Stone, being of sound mind promise to protect the secrets of Fellows House and stand by my fellow club members."
"Good," said Amber. "Now, let's begin our first official AmSibuna meeting. What do we have so far?"
"So, we found our first clue, which says 'In this house is where the treasure is hidden- Your Excellency and Cheery. Your first clue is hidden in where the sun meets the eye at noon'," said Carlos, unfolding the note he took from his pocket.
"We don't know who Your Excellency and Cheery are, but we figured that the first clue must be hidden in that area in the grass where a light from Wilder's right eye shines into," said James.
"Okay," said Amber, writing in her notebook. "We for sure got a note telling us where the first clue is, but we're not 100% certain about the hiding place of the first clue."
"Well, the garden is nearby," said Kendall. "We can borrow a few shovels from the shed."
"Good thinking mate," said Fabian.
"No, absolutely not!" Logan protested.
"Logan, do you want the treasure or not?" asked James.
"Fine," Logan gave in, as the gang snuck into the shed and got out some shovels.
"Alright everyone, dig!" Kendall instructed.
"Yeah, what Kendall said!" said Amber.
"Amber, that includes you too," said Nina.
"Fine," Amber sighed and picked up a shovel.
"Guys, I think I struck something," said Kendall.
"What's is it?" asked Carlos.
"It looks like a box" said James.
"Okay, we've got our first clue, let's go," Logan begged.
"Not so fast Loganator," said Kendall, opening the box. "Let's see if the hint for the second clue is in here."
"Your second clue is hidden in the tower of love notes, three steps forward, one step backward," James read out loud.
"Tower of love notes?" Katie wondered. "Seriously, whoever put together this treasure hunt is smart."
"Alrighty, let's put everything back before someone suspects something and tries to bust us," said Camille.
"Um guys, I think I hear something," said Amber.
"Hide!" Kendall loud-whispered and gathered his friends behind the middle school building.
"Who's there?" Nina asked nervously.
To be continued...