"For you I can't tell, I'm not filling these" Said Ryan just as he entered the tree line, out of the reach of the teacher hearing, taking the lead of the group. "Here we go to the adventurous unknown world." His papers, thrown away, flying at the wind, rolling over the bushes descending the soft hill.

Jon followed him, not yet sure if to take the lead back from him, but considering it seriously. Fred and Emery shared a look, lifting their eyes from the papers to accompany their teammates, who'd appear to be in a hurry. Fred had already realised that Ryan had chosen a wrong path, descending to the river. But the rules were very clear, and Fred used to play by the rules: All teammates should cross the final line, together. He sighed and followed Emery's cautious steps in the irregular rocky road.

"Hey, Mary! Book guy! Keep up, one team is going to cross that line first. And I'll show Nelson how wrong he was to throw me off the team... I'm going to win this. So, don't make us lose! Or I won't be any near happy..." Ryan yelled at them. Who he believed he was to give orders, yet yell at them?! Jon was walking near him, almost closing up the distance, so he haven't complied about him delaying but even Fred was starting to get full of the assertiveness of Ryan's tone of voice.

"You're going in the wrong way, Ryan..." said Fred, just loud enough for him to hear but trying to hide the annoyance he felt for him.

"What have you said, Book guy?" Ryan asked him, striding menacingly towards Fred.

"Here, in the map, we're going too far east. We're heading towards the river, the bridge is farther north than that. And my name is Frederic."

Ryan stood in front of Fred, showing him how taller he was. "Book. Guy. What are you going to do about it, book guy?" He ripped off the papers from Fred, letting them fly away by the wind. "We're going by the river side." Ryan told him, then for the others: "We need no map. I have an excellent navigation sense. We're going by the river side. I have a flawless plan... " He chuckled to himself, giving importance to the word flawless, as if he was some malefic genius from a Disney movie.

Fred gathered the papers he could before rushing behind the group, who followed the bully like fools. He was almost sure he saw a faint glimpse of bright excitement on Emery's blue eyes. He even couldn't get her name right, calling her Mary...

############################

"Here it is. The bridge." Announced Ryan proudly.

"We've been walking for half an hour now, and we haven't one single clue yet, how can we hope to win?" asked Jon. Fred was incredulous, even Jon was playing by Ryan's tune.

"You're all so... short-thought-ed. Kids, let me explain it to you, as you seem to have difficulties in get it right: all teams have the challenge to gather the clues, cross the forest and the final line, the winner being chosen between those who cross it first by number of clues gathered, isn't it right? Mary, Book guy? Are you following? Well,... " Ryan grinned widely. "all teams have to cross this bridge. The bridge is wooden,... and I happen to have a secret weapon... " Ryan took a lighter out of his pocket, smirking wickedly at it, lighting up a tiny waving flame. "How much do you want to win this?"

The shock passed by them three, affecting differently at each. And Ryan was playing wisely. He wanted to make them share of his idea, to turn his own decision into a group decision. Fred decided to hate him for that.

They all wanted to win, that was true. There was a grand prize for the winning team: tickets for entering a larger competition on a country to be announced, four weeks of challenges, paid travel and hotel staying. But how badly they wanted to win? Enough so that they were willing to burn down a bridge made of wooden logs to difficult the others from winning? The plan sounded efficient. 

Jon was the first to speak. "The bridge is already old, I guess it won't be a problem, a great loss for the park if it just... disappeared."

"Mary?" Ryan asked.

"It's E-mery. " said Emery, not for the first time.

"Whatever... what do you say? "

"Well... I can't tell I don't want to win so, if it's we either do this or we lose, I agree. The bridge is worthless anyway. If needed to, my father can replace it."

"Good! Very Neat! Book guy, democracy works, majority wins, let's cross it and light it up. Hurry! John, you help me getting it burning. You two go to that hill and keep watch. "

Fred followed Emery, timidly enough to avoid speaking, his incredulity only increasing. Even Jon was aligning into the plan.

"This is wrong. This is so wrong, on so many levels."

"Don't you want to win?" snapped Emery at him in little more than a whisper.

"Course I do, but not like this, neither destroying anything." justified Frederic, as they settled behind the trees out of sight.

"We all agreed that it'd not be a great damage after all."

"Why had we to be teamed up with the thug, anyway?"

Emery did not answered, attentively watching at the operation happening down the path. In a few moments they were on trail again, a line of smoke rising from the bridge, flames engulfing the logs hungrily, whirling at the wind.

"Now, if they want to cross that river, they'd have to get wet and swim. Probably none will try. It is not very comfortable to wander around dripping." Said Ryan triumphant.

"There might be another crossing at some place, we'd be better going fast, anyway." warned Emery.

"Very unlikely..." said Jon, "this was the only one figuring in the map, and even on Google maps I cannot find any other."

''Let's hope it's true and try to get some clues asap. We'll split to cover more ground, I'n goin' with Mary across the hill, Johns' and Bookie' you'll cover the  riverside north for both clues and places where a crossing may be easy. But walk quick, no time for snapping pictures of nature. We'll meet back at that tower, you see? And keep an ear at my whistle, we may still get wet company."