"Ooh, what does it do?"

I placed my fingers to my lips and narrowed my eyes into my mildest teacher glare.

Ms. Bailey beamed a smile at my group. "Guys, the finishing teams get a prize."

"What's the prize?" about five students chirped.

"Shhh," I hissed.

"It's a surprise!" she exuded. The eighth-graders buzzed with excitement. "Let's get outside and form four groups."

My twenty Creative Writing students, bundled in layers and clutching GPS devices in their gloved palms, chittered and bunched together. "Outside, kids. Come on," I encouraged, but my actions did not follow my own instructions. I paused to focus my camera on the log rafters of the restored, historic assembly hall. A few other kids stopped next to me, holding up their phones up to do the same.

"It's pretty, huh, Mom?" Tanni murmured.

"Yup," I agreed, then pointed my camera at the child who didn't share my DNA but still claimed me.

Tanni ducked away from my lens with a squawk of protest and dashed outside.

Ms. Bailey and Ms. Rebecca, another guide, handed out papers with coordinates. "OK, guys!" Ms. Bailey said. "The adult leaders are me, Rebecca, Ms. Oyola, and Mr. Fin."

The kids gelled around the adults. Once the groups settled and quieted, Ms. Bailey continued her orientation. "The Dana Brown Center is only one part of Shaw Nature Reserve. The Reserve includes 2,441 acres of wetland, prairie, and woodlands. And it's cold out here. Doesn't feel like it's almost spring break, does it?"

The kids shook their heads in dismay. Some already shivered and huddled together for warmth.

"In March, Missouri weather does all kinds of crazy things. It's about thirty degrees right now, so be sure to stay warm and..."

I didn't catch Ms. Bailey's next words. One of the girls tugged on my thick coat sleeve. "Can I go to the cabin and come right back?" she whispered. Sarah, short and slim, peered at me from behind her thick-rimmed glasses. Some of her mop of curly, multicolored hair poked out of her stocking cap.

"Why?" I hissed.

"She forgot her gloves," explained Timothy. Equally pale and bespeckled, Timothy rarely left Sarah's side. As usual, both of them wore black hoodies, but Timothy towered over the demure Sarah by at least a foot.

"Go. But hurry," I encouraged, and Sarah skittered off, hustling down the gravel path's slight slope toward the two cabins where my group of creative crazies would spend the night.

For not the first time, I chuckled at myself. Taking twenty teenagers in the woods, I thought. Everybody thinks I'm crazy for doing this. Maybe I am.

This group of kids, however, had won my heart. They called one another family, and they stretched themselves for me daily, both in their writing and their thinking. They asked for an overnight field trip "as a family," and I along with the support of the Shaw Nature Reserve team secured a grant for my city kids, covering their stay, transportation, and survival classes. The GPS scavenger hunt was the first of many items on our jam-packed agenda.

I resumed listening to Ms. Bailey's instructions in time to catch her conclusion. "Then, you'll meet back here with the sheet completed and the puzzle solved. Any questions?"

"We're gonna win!" shouted Emani, one of the girls in Mr. Fin's group. Always one to become a bit overzealous at a challenge, Mr. Fin sneered at me, and his crew of cronies followed suit.

"We're not," Timothy muttered, and my misfits busted out laughing. Despite myself, I also chuckled. Sarah rejoined us, her hands now protected from the biting wind.

"Ready?" Bailey cued. "Set? Go!"

All of the students raced off, their boots and sneakers crunching through the frozen, dead grass as they bolted for the surrounding treelines.

All except my party of five, anyway. They included Sarah and Timothy; Tanni; and another pair of best friends, Kat and Iris. Timothy and Tanni held our group's two GPS devices.

"Let me see the thingy!" Kat said in her high-pitched, sing-song voice. Her twin puffballs of hair bounced as she skipped down the gravel trail.

"Hold on." His face obscured in the shadows of his hoodie, Timothy furrowed his brow and punched some buttons. "I'm trying to figure out where to go."

Progress slowed to a stop, and none of the others seemed interested in helping Timothy. "Look at my Grumpy Bird!" Kat gushed. She squeezed Iris into a mighty hug.

Iris made a groan of protest, and I burst out laughing. Her outfit included black sweatpants, sweatshirt, and cape with a hood in the shape of a cartoon avian creature. The yellow beak touched the middle of her forehead, and the menacing eyeballs sat above her own blonde eyebrows.

I smirked. "What did your mother think about your outfit this morning, Iris?"

Iris shrugged, her head feathers bobbing with the movement. "Oh, you know," she droned. "Disappointed in my life choices, but what else is new?"

"We're going this waaaaay!" Tanni, tall and lean, picked up an awkward gallop, arms flailing and thin black braids flying.

"That's not the direction of the first coordinate," Timothy protested.

"Ooh, a stick!" Kat leaned into the brush to pick up her treasure. Her caramel cheeks had flushed red with the cold and exertion. "It's a good stick."

Iris's blue eyes scanned over Kat's prize, then nodded sagely. "Yes. A good stick."

"Tanni must see this stick." Kat and Iris raced after Tanni, the stick wedged under Kat's armpit.

Sarah put a comforting hand on Timothy. "I don't think they care about the scavenger hunt."

"No, they don't," he said with a pout.

The path looped behind our sleeper cabins.

"Guys, look at this." Tanni's long form could be seen through the naked tree branches, waving frantically. "We found ruins."

"Ruins." Timothy huffed. "Yeah, right."

"No, look," Sarah said, pointing.

The gray bark and dead foliage had camouflaged the structure. When we approached, we saw a crumbling fireplace with stone chimney as tall as the surrounding trees. Its wide base contained dark scorch marks.

We gathered around the looming stonework.

Tanni let out a gasp. "This is what Mr. Fin was talking about on the bus."

I narrowed my eyes, suspicion warming my gut. "What was Mr. Fin talking about."

Iris flapped her black cloak for wings. "There was a homestead built here, before these cabins. The place had a long history of bloody, horrifying murders, since like the colonial days or something."

"Oh God." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Mr. Fin is a troll. Don't tell me you actually believe—"

"And then!" Kat picked up the story, spreading her arms wide. "This dad? He—he slaughtered his whole family. His wife and like, ten kids."

"No, seven," Tanni corrected. "Then, they bulldozed the house and built our cabins. He pulled up the story on his phone and everything."

That's what they were all freaking out about on the ride down here, I thought.

In full teacher voice, I projected, "Guys! Don't fall for his usual pranks." I snatched the GPS device from Tanni. "Let's focus on this scavenger hunt. Please."

My group did not focus on the hunt. They chose to focus on rocks, streams, bugs, birds, hay bales, and a "legit alien crop circle." Even Timothy forgot our objective during the ensuing insanity, although a brief argument between he and Sarah left me curious.

"You can't disturb a paranormal site, Sarah," I heard Timothy whisper. "Paranormal investigators observe, not mess with the stuff."

While I didn't catch all of Sarah's reply, it involved something about her "demonic sensitivity," which allowed her to understand the paranormal world much better than he, just a stupid investigator, ever could.

Whatever, I thought. It's probably nothing.

We limped back to the main assembly hall at least fifteen minutes after the other three groups, who had already dove into our group's collective prize of chocolate pie.

Mr. Fin and his group, all seated at the same table, leered at us. "We thought you all got lost or something," Emani said, her voice thick with fake syrup. "We got first."

"Yeah? Well." Kat produced the object she had hidden behind her back. "We found a stick!"

"Put it outside, Kat."

"Awwww!"

I rubbed my face to gather myself, then projected my voice to the group. "After you finish your pie, go hang out at the cabins for awhile."