It was 11:27 pm when Ian’s phone rang. Ian was still at the dance, staying just to talk with Kate about her upcoming trip to Glacier National Park that she had won a few hours prior. The room started to empty and people got bored and bored and bored.

“Hold on a bit,” Ian mumbled as he reached for his phone, covered in cracks and in a green phone case. “It’s Charlie, we need to talk to him.” Ian looked at his phone and looked back up at Kate. Kate grabbed Ian by the arm and pulled him out of the auditorium to the hallway. Kate snaked through the remains of the crowd, which started to lose people because of the fire thing. After a few seconds, they left the auditorium and went into the hallway where Charlie saw Mr. Collymore.

Ian hit the accept phone call button and turned the call on speaker. 

“Hey,” Ian mumbled to Charlie, “What the hell was that happening ear-”

“No time to explain because something happened.” Charlie quickly forced towards Ian, making Kate get closer to the phone and become interested in the conversation.

“Well, what happened?” Kate exclaimed, starting to raise her voice.

“So, I got home after the whole fire thing, and when I got into my bed there was a piece of paper. It had something on it that said, ‘The Empire State Building this card recalls, go to the place where the water falls’. I have no idea what it is, it might be a prank from Sadie but you never know when you see a teacher choke another teacher.” Charlie quickly stated.

“All I got was, ‘I got home’, ‘piece of paper’, and ‘prank’,” Kate whispered towards the phone slowly.

“Listen, can you just help me answer this riddle?” Charlie pleaded towards Kate.

“Sure, just say it again? Slowly,” Kate started as she got even closer to the phone.

“Okay, it said,” Charlie clearly and slowly talked, overexaggerating Kate’s request, “‘The Empire State Building, this card recalls, go to the place where the water falls.” 

“Well, ‘the water falls’ would be a waterfall, but which one? There’s like, hundreds of them!” Kate exclaimed. 

“Yeah, it doesn’t seem like a whole note, was there anything else on the note? Or another note? Because that riddle has more holes than Kate’s favorite pair of jeans.” Ian mumbled under his breath.

“Hey, those are amazing jeans!” Kate shouted at Ian.

“No, nothing else, except something faint and splotched”, which might’ve gotten wet.” Charlie stated in a clear tone, questioning Ian a bit. 

“Well, does the Empire State Building have to do anything else with this?” Charlie asked.

“Wait, I think i got it. One time when I was six, I went to New York to see a broadway show, but that’s not the point. I went up to the observation deck of the Empire State building and I saw some mist in the distance. My parents said that was from Niagara Falls. Maybe that’s it, Niagara Falls!” Kate exclaimed.

“Well, we should go there, I think.” Ian blurted out loud.

“Well, it costs like, $500 to get a flight, and nobody would believe us.” Charlie darted at Ian.

“Not unless we have a good reason, and some backup.” Ian responded to Charlie, making it up as he went along. 

“Well, we could get Mary and Mateo to come along. They’ll probably be able to help. After all, Mary can make meals out of almost anything and Mateo is just the thing we need.” Kate suggested.

“Laughs?” Ian sarcastically asked Kate.

“Yep,” Kate piped along, making Ian smack his forehead.

“Well, how can we be sure this is real?” Charlie asked, making the talk become very official.

“Look, you saw Mr. Collymore holding up Ms. Belmont, and then this whole thing happens. I believe we need to go there, and fast.” Kate suggested. “You know we have to go.”

“Okay,” Charlie mumbled, “Next week, we leave.”