35

They all left Cabin 1.

Johanna asked, "Shouldn't we split up to try and find the swamp, since we don't know exactly where it is?"

"Yeah," said Rudolph. "But we should use the buddy system."

After searching for a while, Toby and Johanna started to notice the ground becoming softer.

Toby turned his head and asked, "Hey, isn't the ground a bit squishy for mid-December? Shouldn't it be too cold?"

"Yeah," said Johanna, who was behind him. "Hey! Look out for that tree!"

"What tree… OW!" Toby said as he walked right into it. He fell backwards and splashed into wet ground.

"Tree… squishy ground… big, giant… water-pond-swamp-thing… I think we found the swamp!" He pulled his cell phone out and texted his friends.

Within a few minutes, everyone else was there.

"What did you find?" Rudolph asked. "Another clue? The will? What?"

"The swamp," Toby said. "We found the swamp. Don't get ahead of yourself, Rudolph. We decided we would look for the tree once we found the swamp."

"Um… I think you found the tree when you found the swamp, Toby," Johanna reminded him. "All the other plant life that was in the movie seems to have died."

Everyone scrambled for the tree and started tearing at it.

"Whoa! Slow down! If something's in there, and it's important, you'll rip it!" Rudolph yelled.

"Hey! I found something!" Brooke said.

"What?" Rudolph asked.

"An espresso maker!" she replied sarcastically. "A piece of paper, stupid!"

"What does it say?" Zach asked.

Brooke squinted at the paper and read, "'At the old diner, you spin me right round.'"

"A Flo Rida reference? What?" Toby asked. "I didn't know Flo Rida was a singer in the early '90s!"

Rudolph replied, "Actually Flo Rida took that song from an old '80s band."

"Oh," Toby said.

"I think you may be on to something, though. We definitely need to go to the diner. The clue says that much. The song… well, the original one… says something about a record. Maybe the clue is in a jukebox!" Rudolph continued. "I mean, you kinda have to spin through the songs…"

"Or maybe… it's on the thing that held the order slips, since it's in the diner and it literally spins," Megan said.

"Either way," Katherine said. "How will we search without looking suspicious?"

Johanna said, "When we passed by there last night, I saw a help wanted sign. Maybe I could get a job as a waitress there."