The tree was decorated with waterproof lights, fairy and lanterns, she had put some fake flowers all up in it as well, how, she didn't remember. She just knew her arms hurt and that she was extremely tired.

"That sounds great! I want to compete!" Sean exclaimed after me and Josh had explained what they were to everyone. Though we obviously didn't mention it was a way to kind of think about which of the boys I needed to pick between.

Because by now obviously Sean had calmed down and was smiling widely, such a sweet guy. He seemed so excited for the Lodge Olympics. Honestly everyone did.

"Yeah! And I want to help with Music and Flyers obviously! For the most part it doesn't sound like it's going to involve much tech, but before and after we're going to need some cool intro music to get us going in the background." Noah offered, which was actually a really good idea. If he did the flyers they would end up being great. Especially if Josh helped him with it, those two were really good with design.

I glanced over my shoulder to see If Ben was on his way back yet or not, it had been quite a bit and he was still out there.

I looked back to the others. "So it's really just a big race from what we're thinking. First everyone bikes down to the lake, which is a really long ride as we all know. There will be different trails, the one that's safe for people who aren't really too good with a bike, and then the extreme trail that you and Ben will be able to do pretty easily." I motioned to Sean, he nodded with another smile, clearly excited just to be able to ride his bike.

"Then everyone has to Kayak across the lake, we'll have a few people who want to volunteer to make sure that everyone is safe along the whole bike trail and on the water, since we know both places can be dangerous. They'll pretty much be wandering around the whole time, making sure everyone is safe and following the rules." Josh continued it for me.

I nodded before continuing it. "After we cross the lake, you camp out for two nights, both times at a randomly selected campsite, so we'll have to go out and mark out the campsites and make sure to make a map that leads to the locations along with the backpacks having things everyone needs along the way." I smiled before looking back to Josh to wrap it up.

"Then You make your way to the rock climbing area, climb to the top and zip line back over the lake and walk the way back to the lodge, we'll provide a whole dinner for everyone when they get back and hopefully we can make it a yearly thing, bring people to the lodge every year, maybe within a few years it'll be a really big deal and that'll be great." Josh finished it off, leaving everyone gleeful over it.

"That sounds great. Let me know what I need to do to help set it up." He smiled at me and Josh. He moved to come towards me to talk privately. His phone buzzed moments later. "Noah, Edd needs us to do something in the fifth room on the second floor. I swear that room is cursed..." He mumbled, he gave me another smile before him and Noah turned to make their way back to the Lodge.

"On that note, I'll go talk to your dad about the Olympics of the NorthStar Lodge." Josh told me with a grin. "You gonna come with?" He asked me. I shook my head a bit.

"Not yet, I do want to be there when we tell Dad though. I want to see the look on his face when we tell him the next big thing for the lodge. I think I'm just going to be here for a while." I told him.

He nodded and moved to hug me. "Skye and Josh; one, the world; zero. Maybe I can stick around for a while this time." He told me as he pulled away. I nodded with a smile.

"That would be great. I'm glad you came back."

"I am too." He started to walk back to the lodge before he turned to look back at me. "Oh! And I decided on a points system for the boys! Sean is at One! Make sure you text me if there's any other updates!" He called out to me. I laughed and rolled my eyes. There was no way I was going to do a points system.

After he was gone I sat at the trunk of the tree, waiting for Ben to get back, where he had gone in was the only entrance, so I know he hadn't gone around, unless he had taken to super long way out which would be insane saying as it was like a two hour walk.

He had admitted something pretty big. I needed to talk to him. So i'd wait for him.

~

I almost fell asleep as the sun was beginning to slip away from me. I forced my eyes open one more time, I couldn't fall asleep here, I'd get sick, it was cold, the fall season was approaching, and with it, the cold would be coming. Probably would get eaten up by bugs as well.

Plus I wanted to wait for Ben. Just like I shouldn't be out here, neither should he. It wasn't safe for either of us. It would be better to make our way into the tunnels together.

That and I still needed to talk to him.

I forced my eyes to stay open until I finally saw him coming out of the woods, looking as though he was going to be making his way to the Lodge.

He spotted me in my bright blue shirt and jogged over to me.

"What are you doing out here!? It's cold and dark!" Ben took off his jacket and wrapped it around me. I wasn't shivering but I would admit that it was decently cold out.

"I was waiting for you." I said sleepily as he got me to stand up. Apparently my skin was a lot colder than I felt as he pulled me close and rubbed my arms to warm me up. He sighed heavily.

"You're going to get sick, you should have gone back to the lodge." He said protectively, though he didn't sound angry about it.

"What were you doing in the woods for eight hours?" I asked, being somewhat stubborn about it since I had just sat out here for seven hours waiting for him to get back.

"Thinking mostly..." He admitted as he continued to try and warm me up. Eventually he stopped and just looked at me. "I tried doing some carving on a tree out there for a while and didn't really figure anything out. Though I don't actually think that Sean did it. I honestly think that your mom did it, and that's why it's under the bark. I figure she wanted to keep the future name of her daughter a surprise." He smiled a bit as he looked at it again. "Imagine being pregnant and figuring out you're having a girl, then sending your husband on a wild hunt to figure out what you want to name the kid? Wouldn't that be kind of cool? Seems like a really cool concept." He said as he slipped his hands into his pocket.

"You really think it was my mom?" I asked as I stepped forward and looked at it closely, standing right in front of Ben pretty much. "She was so cool... I really wish I had more time with her.." I mumbled as I reached out and brushed my fingers over the carving, though- it pushed itself in, as though I had pressed a button and the ground below me opened up and nearly swallowed me whole.

Luckily Ben was behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. Though- he was standing right on the edge of the trapdoor style hole. He nearly fell forward, which would slam my face into the wood of the tree. He panted, trying to find something to do. He tried to lean back but that only resulted in one of his feet slipping and he lost his grip on me, only able to grab my wrist before I went down.
"Ben!" I called, alright, admittedly, this made my mom sound a little less cool. What if this wasn't put here by her? What if this as someone else? What if this hole just went down to nothingness? What if I just- didn't come back?

"Skye- hold on. Iv got you,just hold on." He told me, doing his best to pull me up, but he was too unstable, he would fall in if he held onto me too much longer. So... I let go. I didn't want both of us to go down. "Skye no!" He shouted at me as I began to slip from his grasp. He let himself fall to his knees to grab my wrist but it was no good, I had let go and there was no way he was going to be able to hold onto me. "SKYE!" He yelled as I began to move down the hole.

It was like- some kind of vent or something. But it was so steep that it was practically going straight down. I could still hear Ben calling for me. I squeezed my eyes shut and did my best to not scream. I obviously failed at that, letting out the loudest scream I could.

Out of nowhere, it just evened out a bit more, still going just as fast, but not as steep anymore.

Then I was falling and landed in a large pile of pillows. I crawled out of the pillows and sat on the floor for a moment as I shook violently. You know those rides at water parks that just drop you straight down? It was kind of like that but I didn't want to do it. I hadn't even looked around the room yet, it was dark. I stood up, my knees still shaking as I felt around for a light, eventually finding one and looking around the room.

The room was white, with vines painted on the wall, the vines all having these white flowers on them. The floors were a dark cherry wood that went well with the walls yet clashed with it at first glance.

It was kind of like my mum's tunnel aside from that, but the furniture looked more vintage instead of brightly coloured and modern. There was a desk with a few drawers, a dresser, a full sized mirror, there was bean bag chairs, several large piles of pillows around the room, like it was just a hangout. There were pictures everywhere, along with random pieces of paper and a few decorations. I still didn't know much about my mum... I didn't know what her friends were like, I didn't know if she had any other boyfriends aside from my dad and SJ, those were all the questions I had never considered asking her while she was alive. I really should have talked to her more...

I sighed as I looked around until I turned around suddenly to see Ben thrown into the pile of pillows at the bottom of the 'slide'. Did he really just jump into the hole? Not knowing where it went or if I even lived after the fall..?

Point for Ben- wait, no I wasn't doing the whole points thing. No.

The very second he stood up he made his way to me and hugged me so tightly I couldn't really breathe. "I'm so sorry. I couldn't hold on. I'm so so sorry. Are you ok?" He whispered in my ear. He wasn't even mad at me for letting go. All he cared about was that I was ok...

"I let go, I didn't want you to get hurt. I can't believe you followed me, what if it led to a hundred foot drop and I died?" I asked him softly. He squeezed me tighter, clearly thinking of me dying.

"Then I would have died with you..." He answered. I took my head from his shoulder and looked at him.

"Ben..." I whispered. I couldn't find the right words. I didn't know what to say. How was I supposed to reply to that?

"I'd do anything for you, Skye." He continued seriously. Without even thinking, his lips brushed against mine. This would be the first time I'd ever kissed Ben. It was by far different than when Sean kissed me. When Sean kissed me I pulled away instantly because I was with Ben. But this time- it was actually Ben. I wasn't dating someone else so it wasn't /wrong/. I just- couldn't. I hadn't chosen yet. I didn't want to hurt Sean just as much as I didn't want to hurt Ben.

So I pulled away, putting my forehead against his instead.

"Ben I can't. I haven't chosen yet. You know that.. I don't want to hurt you... or Sean." I told him.

"I know.. I'm sorry." He said quietly as he nodded and pulled away, breaking eye contact and finally looking around the room. He moved from in front of me to go look at the pictures on the wall.

I quickly wiped the tears that had developed in my eyes away before I moved to follow him. The first one that seemed to take his interest was a picture of my mum and dad in front of the Lodge. Of course while they were both teenagers. The other part I noticed was that Samuel James was there with them. Maybe they had all been friends?

Looking along the other pictures I found one of my mum in the tunnels with a whole bunch of other people I didn't recognize, all wearing the same uniform that Kaylee, Noah and the other had been wearing when I first arrived here, the ones I replaced with the purple shirts that we all wore now.

It kind of looked like my mum was trying to stop whoever was taking the picture, from taking it. It was actually really cool. Kind of like she was embarrassed. There were several other pictures, but it was all people that I didn't recognize.. Some of them were in black and white still. So they seemed a lot older than the ones of my mum. Had this room been here before she got here?

Then there was a random blank piece of paper on the wall. Me and Ben looked over it for a little while, trying to see what it was. But it was just- blank.

"What's so special about this for it to be taped to the wall..?" He asked quietly. I shrugged and he moved to go look at the other pictures while I moved to the dresser. It was one of the ones that had six drawers on it.

In the first one, was a whole bunch of snacks that I was certain were expired. The second had some things that looked like homemade stuffed animals. A lion, a bear and a few dolls. I smiled a bit as I picked up the bear. They were actually really cool.

Her mum's initials were in one of the dolls, and her dad's were in the bear, Samuel James's were on the Lion. There was A few other initials on the other two dolls.

I moved onto the next drawer it had clothes, and so did the other four, though the last one I opened had really old clothes in it, covered in dust.

"Skye, we need to find a way out of here." Ben told me as he made his way back over to me. He was right, we couldn't just sit here until someone found us. I looked around the room, there was a hatch on the wall, just to the right of where the 'slide' dropped us off at. I opened it to see another tunnel, kind of like the 'slide' but it was level, so I would be able to crawl through it. I glanced at where Ben was looking at some books on a shelf, clearly having gotten distracted with it.
I looked back into the vent and crawled in, as of right now it looked like it was the best way out of here. It was bit enough that I could probably wobble through on my knees, though I wasn't going to. It was far faster to just crawl.

"Skye?? We don't know if that's even safe! Seriously?" He shouted at me.

"Still going to follow me in though aren't you?" I called back to him with a slight smile. I heard him sigh and then heard him follow me into the vent to get into the next room. How sweet.

The vent opened up into this massive room, there were a few other vents that probably led to other locations but we didn't need to look at all of those yet, the goal was to get out of her and get back to the Lodge. And definitely shower. I had already been through several spiderwebs and dusty/dirty vents today.

In the center of the room was a wooden platform and a pulley system. I looked at Ben as he emerged from the vent and looked around the room as well.

"It looks like there are other rooms like the one we were just in..." He motioned to all the other vents. I nodded.

"Yeah but there's no point in looking at them tonight." I told him as I made my way to the pulley in the center of the room. He obviously followed me.

I looked up to see where this was supposed to lead to. It was just a trapdoor at the top, a small amount of light showing through, aside from that, there wasn't really any other light in the room.

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

Are you still out? It's already after dark, be sure to make your way back soon. And you should spend some time with Josh. He made his way all the way back out here just to help you with this, only to end up doing all the work himself. He's planned for the idea you two had, along with doing your job all day long. ~ Dad

I slid my phone into my back pocket once more. My phone usually let me see messages but didn't let me reply to them without using data.

"Doesn't look safe, I'll go up first." Ben said as he grabbed onto the rope and looked at me. I moved to stand next to him instead.

"We're going together. You're not going to risk your life for me again. You've already done that enough today." I told him sternly. He frowned slightly but nodded, he took my hand to be safe. It wasn't like I was just going to jump off- though knowing me I would go peek over the edge to see how high we were going. Ben was too smart for my own good.

He tried to tug on it with one hand but it didn't budge. He sighed and looked at me. "Hold on tight, I need both hands." He told me. I hesitated but nodded, wrapping my arms around him to hug him pretty much.

Back when I had first met Sean and Ben I would always get these butterflies around them that made me feel so nervous. But I eventually got used to them. Then when I started dating Ben, Sean didn't give me those butterflies anymore- then he kissed me and everything got confusing. After that both of them gave me butterflies and I just wanted to curl up somewhere and think.

It eventually faded away with both of them though. And it hadn't returned until just now, with Ben.

He tugged on the rope, distracting me from my thoughts. Then we both shouted in surprise as the platform launched itself upwards at an alarming speed.

"Get down!" Ben yelled at me, both of us having the same thought that we were going to crash into the ceiling. I knelt down, Ben kneeling over me so he would take most of the hit when we hit the ceiling.

Ok, I admit, Ben got into a lot of trouble for me today. And if I live after this I'll be more careful and take care of us more. As long as we both just live.

The platform stopped suddenly. We slowly stood up and looked at the ceiling above us. Ben's hair brushed against the ceiling slightly. If he had been standing up straight he would have hit the ceiling.

Ben opened up the trap door above us and boosted me out before taking my hand and for the most part pulled himself out as well. We looked back down, watching as the platform slowly returned to where it belonged down at the bottom of the room.

I quickly shut the trap door before both of us laid back in the grass, panting. I couldn't help but laugh. It was really quite ridiculous if you thought about it. A carving of my name in the tree I'd known of for a year turned out to be a button that opened up a trap door that dropped you onto a slide leading down to a secret room that seemed to have been there even before my mother had found it, that had a whole bunch of my mum's stuff and led to another room with a whole bunch of passageways to who knows where with a deathtrap high speed launcher in the middle of it.

Right? Absolutely bonkers.

"You're going to laugh at a time like this?" He asked me, but honestly he ended up laughing too.

"Think about it, Ben! This whole thing. My mum is a pure genius, whoever built all of this is a genius! It's all so amazing!" I said as I looked at the tree branches above us. It seemed that the trap door opened up in the forest Ben had come from earlier. It was pretty hidden. After I shut it, it was kind of hard to find it again.

But the Northstar was so amazing. I had friends, my dad, and all my mum's cool secrets. It was kind of like she was still here, leading me through a life of wonder without even being alive.

I grinned as I looked over at Ben. He smiled back at me and then stood up, offering me a hand which I gladly took before standing.

My phone buzzed again.

Your dad is starting to get worried, don't worry, I'm covering for you though. Told your dad that we're playing hide and scare. He says we have to go to bed soon though, so get your girly little self back over here before he realizes that you aren't actually here!! ~ Josh

Oh and tell Ben I said hi, don't think I didn't notice that he's been missing all day as well. (Smirk emoji) (Winkie emoji) Make sure you tell me how many points he got later! ~Josh

I huffed and put my phone in my pocket, the wink emoji was a bit much, saying as Ben was standing right next to me, reading the whole thing.

"Josh says hi." I said in a droning voice. He chuckled.

"Don't forget the smirk emoji, oh and the wink one. And what's this points thing he's mentioned?" He asked with a grin. I laughed and pushed him so he'd fall back into the grass again though he grabbed my hand so I'd go down with him.

"How rude!" I shouted jokingly as we laughed and I scrambled to get out of his arms. I laid on the grass next to him, still laughing.

"Today was a good day.. Stressful... but good." He said softly as the laughing faded. I nodded.

"Mhm. We found a new mystery, a new adventure to go on. And I suppose this one will just be me and you." I said with a smile. "Oh! Speaking of adventures!" I started.

"Yeah?" He questioned as he propped himself up on his arm so he could look at me as we were talking.

"Me and Josh came up with a great idea!" I continued with a smile, looking up at him.

"Is this the points thing?" He questioned with a raised brow. I scoffed and smiled innocently.

"Nooo, the points thing is nothing. It doesn't matter don't worry about it. It was Josh's idea. But anyway, the idea was the Lodge Olympics! Or the NorthStar Olympics! It's going to be a huge outdoors competition that the whole lodge gets to compete in. I think it'll be a great thing for all of us, the staff and the guests!" I continued on excitedly, rambling on and on about how everything was going to work and all the different things we could do.

I suddenly stopped though as I looked at him. "Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked with a small laugh. He just had this- look. I think I had seen it before, maybe the way Noah looked at Kaylee? Possibly? No- it was different. My brows furrowed together as he took a moment to answer.
"Nothing.." He finally answered, returning to simply smiling at me. I shrugged it off and moved to take my phone back out.

"I want to remember this forever." I told him as I held my phone up and kissed his cheek before taking a picture. He turned his head to look at me, his nose ended up being right up against mine.

"So do I." He said quietly. He moved in but I stopped him.

"Ben.. I still can't. I still don't-"
"-want to hurt Sean. I know..." He said quietly as he simply placed his forehead against mine instead. I sighed. This was going to be how it was until I chose wasn't it? They were both only going to start liking me more and more until I finally told one of them no. But how could I do that to them? Why would I? The only other option was to say no to both of them.

I didn't want to think like that. I looked at the picture I took and then smiled slightly, looking at him once more and ruffling his hair. "You need a haircut." I told him with a smile before I sat up again. This time moving to help him up.

"We need to get back to the Lodge." I told him softly. It was already well after dark and it was far too late for us to still be up and out.

"Yeah, it's getting to be really cold." He said, ah that was right. He had given me his jacket.

"You want your jacket back?" I offered as we started walking. He shook his head and just walked next to me.

We could see the lights on the tree from where we were. It didn't take long to get to the tunnels, so we just walked together silently until we got back to the lodge and then he gave me a small smile.

"Have a good night Skye.." He said softly as he kissed my forehead and then moved on to go find a place to sleep for the night.

I quickly made my way upstairs to my bedroom and sat on my bed, Josh was sitting on the couch though he moved to sit next to me.

"How many points?" He asked.

"A lot." I answered.