Chapter 1
You’ve won an invitation to the
WILDLANDS
SAFARI ESCAPE CHALLENGE
SAT–SUN APR 12–13
AT WILDLANDS SAFARI PARK
Stay in a Wildlands Camp!
Solve brain-bending puzzles in a race against the Wildlands Ambassadors!
Unlock gates to access new animal areas!
Win amazing prizes!
Are you ready for a truly WILD adventure? A Wildlands vehicle will pick you up for a ride to the safari park, where you’ll camp out with three other randomly drawn testers and an escape challenge counselor! After a few warm-up puzzles, you’ll start Day 2 on a gated path, solving puzzles in a race against our student team of experts, the Wildlands Ambassadors!
Each solution will unlock new animal enclosures where you’ll get extra close to our wildest residents. Solve all the puzzles successfully and each team member will win a Special Zoo Experience or Camp of their choice at the Columbus Zoo. And someone may have the option to shoot for a spot on the Wildlands Ambassador team!
READER NOTE!
WANT TO HELP LUCY SOLVE THE PUZZLES? GRAB SOME PAPER AND A PEN OR PENCIL AND LET’S SURVIVE THIS SAFARI!
Lucy looks at the invitation carefully. She turns it over and over. She double-, tri-ple-, quadruple-checks the date and then the time and then the letters on the out-side of the envelope from the L to the A. There are probably a few other Lucys in the town of Zanesville, but another Lucy Q. Spagnola? She’s pretty sure she’s the only one of those in the whole state of Ohio. Which means Lucy is definitely, posi-tively, 100 percent invited to the Wildlands Safari Escape Challenge.
Even the idea of a free special experience at the zoo makes her heart flutter like there are hummingbirds trapped in her rib cage. After all, zoos mean animals, and the only thing Lucy loves more than puzzles is animals, and she knows a ton about them too. Despite all of that, Lucy takes a deep breath to try to get those chest hummingbirds to settle down. She absolutely, positively can’t get excited about this. Because it’s Wildlands. The most terrible, depressing, humiliating day of Lu-cy’s life happened at Wildlands, and the Ambassadors were there.
There is clearly only one reasonable thing to do with this invitation. Lucy pinches it carefully between her thumb and forefinger. Then she stomps on the pedal to open the kitchen trash and drops it inside.
“No way, Santa Fe.” Alex’s voice is unmistakable.
Lucy crosses her arms and looks up at her big sister. Here’s what she knows for sure about Alex, starting with the fact that if Lucy were a bobcat, Alex would be a lion.
1. Alex is eight years older and seven inches taller than Lucy and, much like a lion, will always be more imposing and impressive.
2. She works two jobs, as an animal care intern at Wildlands Safari Park Rescue Sanctuary and as a tutor to kids in the fourth through sixth grades. And she does all of it while studying environmental science in college (which is how she ended up with the Wildlands job to begin with).
3. She is basically the smartest, coolest, most athletic person Lucy knows (captain of her high school volleyball team and now plays in college too!), so stuff is easier for her.
4. Her superpower is knowing what Lucy is thinking.
Alex crouches in front of Lucy. Her nose crinkles, which happens when she’s smil-ing without smiling.
“Why would you throw the invitation away? This is a special invitation. So special that only four kids got invited.”
Only four kids? Lucy thinks about that, because four kids doesn’t seem like very many invitations for a giant safari park. But it does feel a little like a camouflage statement.1 Like Alex is saying one thing but the real truth is hiding in plain sight.
1 An ant-mimicking spider is a master at camouflage. It walks into an ants’ nest waving two legs in the air like antennae to convince all the other ants that it is not a spider at all. That’s the camouflage. But the truth is, that spider is definitely a spider and it’s there to drag off (and eat) ant stragglers.
And Lucy thinks that hidden thing is this: There’s only one possible way Alex could know that only four kids got invited, and that’s if she’s the one who did the inviting.
Lucy squints at her sister. “Were you in charge of the invitations?”
“Nope.”
Lucy squints harder. “Are you absolutely, positively sure?”
Alex shakes her head. “Absolutely. All the interns were asked to identify fifth and sixth graders with a variety of interests and strengths. Leah and I both tutor middle schoolers, so we had bigger lists, but it was all down to a random drawing.”
Leah was Alex’s lab partner a lot in her freshman year in college, so Lucy knows she’s studying environmental science too and that she also tutors and works at Wildlands in the same internship program. Still, there’s one other part of this that’s a little bit suspicious.
Lucy squints even harder. “Why did you include my name at all? You know what happened last time.”
The last time she was at Wildlands is what Lucy means. And what happened is that Lucy tried out for the Wildlands Ambassadors team. This did not, for the record, result in Lucy being a Wildlands Ambassador, but it did result in the worst day ev-er.
Alex takes Lucy’s hands and gives them a squeeze. “I do remember, but I think you would love this! It’s not a tryout, you know. It’s like an escape room, and a hike through Wildlands, and a way to learn more about animals! Plus, you’ll be part of a team.”
“A team that’s competing against the Ambassadors.” Lucy looks down at her feet. She doesn’t want to think about teams, especially not the Wildlands Ambassadors team. If they had a mascot, it should be a pack of wolves, because they’re a super impressive team for several reasons.
1. They are special Wildlands volunteers who are trained to help with animal care and educational programs in the park.
2. They have supercool team uniforms, complete with jerseys that each have the Ambassador’s name across the back.
3. They are also the eighth team Lucy has tried out for and failed.
Lucy sits at the counter as she remembers all the tryouts. There was select volley-ball and travel volleyball (she got hit in the face with the ball on both) and then the middle school softball and tennis teams, where she quickly remembered she has noodle arms and bad hand-eye coordination. She tried lacrosse, but that was a dis-aster (she didn’t exactly know lacrosse rules, and there was a weird long stick in-volved). After that she tried a singing group at school and then the big middle school play and both of those were a no, though she did get a callback for Villager 3, a role that ultimately went to Penelope Simms.
It’s always hard to look at the list of kids on the roster and not see your name. And it’s even harder to get those awful better-luck-next-time calls from coaches, but none of that was anywhere near as bad as the Wildlands tryout. Partly because she did so well at first, and partly because Lucy wanted to get on the Wildlands team more than anything.
She remembers that terrible day three months ago. She thinks of that wobbly plat-form and her hammering heart and the tears that kept coming no matter how hard she tried to stop them.
Lucy shakes her head to try to push all those images away. “I can’t go back to Wildlands.”
Alex frowns and softens her voice. “I know that was hard, but think about how much you love animals. This really would be different. Think about all the animals you’ll see.”
“But I’ll be competing against the Ambassadors. Plus, I’ve already seen the park,” Lucy says. What she does not say is that no matter how much she loves being near wild animals, she absolutely, positively does not want to see Wildlands (or the Am-bassadors) ever again.
“But this is a whole new section! Most of these animals weren’t on exhibit when you were last there. It’s grown, and it’s going to be amazing. You’ll be amazing!”
Lucy feels a rush of excitement. Questions fly through her brain: What animals are there? Does this mean the Canopy Walk is finished? Did they bring in the ostrich-es? She would love so much to see ostriches again. And the Canopy Walk! She would be up close to giraffes and zebras, and--
Wait.
Lucy didn’t think of it before, but that walkway will be up high, like a platform. And a platform at Wildlands was the cause of the worst day ever. No matter how amazing animals are, she can’t go through that again. “I just can’t do it, Alex.”
“Don’t be a turkey, Albuquerque.”
Alex has been doing this rhyming thing as long as Lucy can remember. And maybe it did help Lucy learn that Santa Fe is the capital of New Mexico and Lincoln is the capital of Nebraska, but it sort of makes Lucy feel like she’s back in third grade. Plus, Lucy has no idea how Alex keeps track of the state capitals now that she’s added in other random, noncapital cities.
Alex sighs, pulls the invitation out of the trash can, and puts it down on the coun-ter. Even looking at the edge of the paper makes Lucy’s stomach do a slow somer-sault. Part of her wants to snatch it up and pack her bags. All those new animals. And one of the special zoo encounters in Columbus? It’s a dream come true! But that stomach somersault is a warning. Once it starts, it will keep going until her throat feels too tight and her face feels too hot, and that’s when terrible things happen.
“Okay, there’s one other part,” Alex says, and Lucy can tell she’s been saving this one. “If you win, you might have another chance to join the Wildlands Ambassa-dors. It’s right in the invitation.”
“No way,” Lucy says. Her stomach is curling into a ball now, and she can feel that ball beginning to roll. Dr. Kern said that feeling should be getting better, and it has been. Mostly. But she’s not taking any chances.
She crosses her arms to tell Alex she means business about not being interested. “I am never, ever trying out for that team again. Or any team, for that matter.”
“Being on a team is the best thing in the world.”
Of course Alex would say that. Alex played basketball and volleyball, and she was super good at both. She’s been on lots of great teams. And their mom? She is an even better athlete. She played softball in college and even coached the high school team for a few years. They have so many team trophies and team pictures and team flags in their living room that Lucy sometimes thinks they need one of those glass cases like the ones near the school office.
But Lucy doesn’t have anything on the wall. Not a ribbon or a trophy or a single shirt with her name on it. Because Lucy has never, ever been part of a team. And after the miserable failure of her tryout for the Ambassadors, she’s 100 percent sure there isn’t a single team in the world that will take her.
Except . . .
If that whole mess on the platform hadn’t happened, she just might have made the Ambassadors team. She had a perfect score on the animal knowledge test, did a good job on the indoor stall cleanout (even though there was lots of poop-shoveling involved!), and aced the map memorization segment. But then she had to climb the platform to do end-of-the-day animal counts. That’s when everything was ruined, thanks to a stupid panic attack. But if she could have another chance . . .
“What do you mean by another chance?” Lucy asks quietly.
Alex smiles. “If your team wins, one of the members will have the option to join the Wildlands Ambassadors team.”
Lucy feels a little electric zip of excitement running through her whole body. She suddenly looks at the invitation on their kitchen counter more closely. Because now it’s not just a cool-sounding overnight camp. It’s starting to look like a ticket to her biggest dream ever coming true!
Chapter 2
Lucy’s excitement feels like it will shoot her right off her chair and into the air. But then a new thought comes in like a sledgehammer. “Wait. I thought all of the Am-bassador slots were full. There are only five openings, and they were filled.” 2
2 The five slots are filled by five kids. Adam, Amelia, Isaac, Emma, and Olivia. Lucy knows this because she saw the email announcement. And she knows Adam and Emma, who go to her school. But that email also made Lucy think that even if she hadn’t had a complete and total meltdown on the viewing platform, she still wouldn’t have made the team. Her name doesn’t start with a vowel, which feels like it might be a requirement.
Alex shrugs. “They’ve decided to expand the program to six volunteers.”
“So who would get the spot?”
“Well, it depends on who wants it. It’s a volunteer position, so if more than one person wants it, the keepers will determine who might be best suited to the role.”
Lucy stands up, feeling a little bit wobbly and a little bit sick and a lot bit excited. It sounds completely amazing and maybe too good to be true. Which means . . . it probably is too good to be true.
“How will you determine who’s best suited?” she asks.
“I’m not sure, but I’m guessing they’d choose the person who worked the hardest throughout the challenge and demonstrates the right aptitude.”
Alex opens the fridge and looks left and right, like Mom will pop out of a cabinet. A little silly since Mom is at work, but then Alex pulls out a brown bottle from the back of the fridge, the kind with a fancy silver cap and a fancy label and high-quality root beer filled right up to the top.
“What if you just think about it?” Alex asks, pushing the bottle across the counter. “You keep saying you wish you had a team. And now you will!”
Lucy touches the bottle and sniffs the air and thinks about taking a drink. But she doesn’t actually do it. Taking a drink feels like admitting she might be changing her mind. And she isn’t ready to admit that. Because while she can’t think of any-thing she wants more than to join the Ambassadors, she can’t think of anything she wants less than embarrassing herself in front of them again.
Which means if she does this challenge, she has to be absolutely, positively sure she will not panic. Lucy tries to think of every panicky thing involved.
