Lince's effort to escape from Jinius had been (in her opinion) full proof and valiant, but the veil to the older student's classroom had been a hitch in her plan, seeing as how she nearly got tangled up in it and ran smack into someone on the other side as she was passing through. The genius following, in turn, ran smack into her and let out a cry equivalent to that of a dying cat's. The sound of shattering glass followed soon after.

The person Lince had ran into backed up, allowing her to get a good glimpse of him. He wore big sunglasses, and Lince's eyebrows rose as she saw that the lenses were cracked and missing, revealing his bright, wide-eyed expression.

"Well, well, looks like we have our next pair!" he said into the megaphone he was carrying, his obtrusive tone--coupled with his shock of blonde hair--reminding her unpleasantly of Puffy. She instinctively took a step back--until she remembered that Jinius was right behind her and she realized his hands were clutching her elbows.

"The hell?" she said, jerking her arms from his grasp and turning swiftly around to face him. "Why were you-" she began, before the man with the megaphone grabbed hold of her shoulder and spun her to face him.

"Ripp Seggob, scavenger hunt extraordinaire! I will be your host these fine few days!" he declared gleefully, as Lince stared with raised eyebrows and a gaping mouth.

"What?" she and Jinius asked in unison, both dumbfounded.

"Scavenger hunt, my dear people! Surely you knew of it? It's only been in the school's calendar for weeks!"

There was no possible way for either of them to know; Jinius didn't go to school there anymore, and Lince had been there for one and a half days.

"Well, if you don't know, allow me to explain the rules!"

Lince was this close to knocking the megaphone out of his hand and bitch-slapping him. She just wanted to get back out to her hammer and nails and work, maybe antagonize Puffy a little. Was that so much to ask? She glanced over the man's shoulder at the hallway, and her jaw fell just a little as she saw that the tables with charity food cans were gone, every classroom door was open, almost all of the lockers had disappeared, and there were pairs of students mingling about the hallway that had been empty almost ten minutes ago.

'Definitely got some Twilight zone shit going on now.' Lince thought, looking back at...Ripp Seggob?

"Look, what's-his-face, I just wanna go back outside and work; I don't wanna do any scavenger hunt, and this guy behind me is not my partner and we are not a pair and will not be. So get the hell out of my way, please."

Ripp looked as if he had been slapped for a moment, before he smirked at her.

"Well, sweetheart..." he began, his voice soft. "This guy is your partner, you are a pair, and you will be doing this scavenger hunt, and you will not be leaving this school until you finish. So..." he brought his megaphone up and screamed, "TOO BAD!"

Jinius scowled, thinking 'Hey...screaming's my thing...' before his train of thought was interrupted and he--along with the chick in front of him--were rudely pushed off to the side and through an open door which instantly closed as soon as they passed through the doorway.

"Damn...blondie...fish boys..." he heard the girl muttering, and he stared at her until she looked up and stared back at him.

"..."

"What are you looking at?"

'A rather nasty piece of work.' he wanted to say, but instead he said, "Err...you. Of course."

"Right. Well. Do you have any idea what's going on here?" she asked, cocking her head to the side and noting that this guy looked like a complete moron in his wizard hat.

"No ideas at all. But that sign that says 'Scavenger hunt rules' just might give you a clue," he said, pointing to the classroom's chalkboard.

"Har har, we have a comedian in the house." Lince mumbled, turning and walking up to the board to inspect the sign.

'Nirpkelk School's Grand Scavenger Hunt, hosted by Ripp Seggob.

'The rules are simple; no leaving school grounds and no asking assistance from other pairs. All items must be found on a pair's own. Now, for the items that must be found;'

1. Three tubes of blue mascara.

2. A remote control.

3. A watch.

4. Five rusty screws.

5. A blue tarp.

6. A lock of sandy-colored hair.

7. A mattress (extra points if it's blue)

8. Three pinecones.

9. A pigeon.

10. A cape.

"Well," Lince said, turning to Jinius with a hint of a smile and tugging on a lock of her short, sandy hair. "Looks like we've got one thing already found."

"Indeed...uhh...?"

"Lince. Lince Locke."

"Right..." Jinius said, reaching out his hand. "Jinius Klock." Lince stared at his offered hand for a moment, before saying,

"Yeah, yeah, I know who you are. Jinius the genius; some chicks outside were fangirling about you, saying about how you used to go to school here. Big deal."

Jinius's hand fell limply to his side as he narrowed his eyes. "I happened to be this school's star student; their absolute best, and I'm also top in my class at the university." he said, pointing to his chest and smirking.

"Alrighty then...well, today's only my second day here, so sorry for not knowing your history, sir."

"That's quite alright, miss." Jinius sniffed, crossing his arms.

"So, what about the other stuff on the list?" Lince said, crossing her arms as well and turning back to study the list. "Some of these things should be too easy to find. The rest...well, we'll just have to look. But whatever, let's just get this over with. I have other things to worry about." 'Like Puffy.', she added, but didn't voice it. She still had to get him back for screwing with her combination lock.

While she'd been musing to herself, Jinius had moved to study the list, his eyes going wider and wider as he read. "A pigeon?" he mumbled, "Are they serious? What, do they think we're at a zoo or something?"

"Yeah. This school's weird as hell, I'm serious. Do you know they've got us doing manual labor?"

Jinius just stared, wide-eyed, at her.

"Yeah, and they light the hallways with black lights and neon signs." Lince continued.

"What, this a school or the red light district?" Jinius asked, evoking a slight smile from Lince. They both turned to look at the list again.

"Well, we've got a cape, the hair, and a watch." Jinius said, withdrawing his pocket watch frowning as he saw that the glass face had cracked. 'Damn, and I won't be able to fix it until this whole thing's over.'

"Well...maybe this won't that hard, after all..."

They were interrupted as the door was thrown open and a mass of yellow and violet stumbled into the classroom, landing in a heap on the floor.

"Damnit, Prudence, get off me! I am not doing this scavenger hunt thing!"

"Shut up, Boggs, it's your fault! You ran into the guy! I told you not to run through the veil, but noooo, you had to! And now look where we are now!"

The two people continued struggling for a while, Jinius looking on in confusion while Lince, shocked, attempted to hide behind him. She had recognized that head of spiky blonde hair.

Puffy.