[HEART] Don't you!

Gluttony! Gluttony, I say!
The food, no matter how much is taken, more just appears!
The next riddle’s location? Bah, I’ll tell you nothing!
Look at yourself! Give a good look!
Only then will you realize what is behind it!

[ooc; The students first prompt is to find the location they are meant to meet up. It can be up to you whether this process is long or short. Once they find where they are going I will pop in to give the next clue! Enjoy ]

Stella was beyond excited for today's scavenger hunt, despite the fact that it was Valentine's day themed - the idea of putting her sleuthing skills to good use was more than enough to get her out of bed early in the morning. After waking up and getting ready for the day, Stella found her first clue as she stepped outside her dorm. A small card was taped haphazardly onto her door knob, in her mind it was a little silly but it did work nonetheless.

After reading the clue a few times, Stella automatically guessed the dining room through deductive reasoning. What else could it possibly be? The clue was easy enough, now all she needed to do was meet up with the other person that would be doing the hunt with her (after all the flyer had said the hunt would be done in pairs). Before she did that though, there was one person that she needed to find - someone that she had signed up for the scavenger hunt mostly without his knowledge.

Walking through the halls of Foresta, Stella kept her eyes peeled for Adrian Mackenzie. Although they hadn't quite interacted too much since the incident on the abandoned farm, Stella had taken it upon herself to get him to participate in some school events. Now it was up to her to make sure that he actually went where he need to be, mostly so some poor soul wouldn't be left on their own trying to figure out some clues.

    Presence of mind somewhere under a pillow, Adrian folded, flipped, and flicked a small card between his fingers whilst his legs led him to roam the Academy's large halls in a singularly aimless fashion. He kept his straight, broad-shouldered posture as a result of his physical conditioning without thought, giving enough of an aire of I'm too important for you that none of the other wayward students would dare approach him uninvited.

    Not to say that he could not, at times, be pleasantly social, but currently he had a lot of nothing on his mind. Rather, Adrian had decided to pointedly ignore the contents of the card (and further implications) until the whole thing had blown over. If he actually read it - for he had certainly devised its purpose easily enough - he might then be obligated to follow through any directions or suggestions that it had posited. Well, so long as he did not think about another person potentially being involved, he could never be faulted for disappointing them by his lack of presence, right? Right.

    So much for not thinking about it. In the end, it seemed not to matter at all, because the moment his head came into clarity there came an intrusion of his personal space, as well.

    "Oh. It's you." It took only a moment, in that very brief silence following his words where he very pointedly ignored whatever emotional reaction she might have to that greeting, for him to connect her face with their shared history. Curse him, perhaps, for his assumptions, but without prompt he immediately held out the bi-folded card for Stella to take. On one side, his name. The other, a small riddle.

Stella continued to search and search until a familiar face came into view, with a satisfied smirk the young woman walked up to Adrian - seeming barely phased as he acknowledged her in a less than welcoming manner. "Yes, it's me. I'm here to make sure you're going to the scavenger hunt I signed you up for." Without missing a beat, Adrian held out the clue that he had received.

Taking it out of his hands without even asking, Stella looked down at Adrian's clue curiously - wondering where he would have to go and attempting to devise a plan on how to make him stay. A few seconds passed then as Stella read the clue, followed by a simple and surprised "Oh." He had the same clue as her, which seemed to a coincidence that she had no control over for once.

"Look, you've got to follow me. You have the same clue as me, I know exactly where we're going." Stella said to the young man then, appearing to be quite pleased that Adrian was going to be her partner. Now this way she didn't have to make sure another person kept him with them. Instead it was all up to her and that made things a whole lot easier. Stella reached out for Adrian's arm then, her fingers wrapping around the middle area of his forearm. Despite the fact that Adrian could easily overpower her, Stella then decided to pull him along as she started toward the dining room. "I'll help you out with this one since it's pretty easy but the next one you have to help out with too." Stella said to the boy then, a strange sort of intensity setting into her eyes.

    "Of course you are." Adrian relented easily, casting a look over Stella's figure none too subtly nor with even a hint of lingering. This girl had barraged him with her piercing, inconsiderate questions some time before and despite an immediate sense of disdain, he knew well enough that she would likely not let go once she got her teeth in him. Better to go along with it for now until he had a chance to break away.

    That hope dashed nearly instantly with her proclamation. Although, Adrian decided to avoid looking at it as resigning to his fate in favor of viewing it as an opportunity. It sounds better that way. Who knows who else he might have been paired with otherwise? At least he knew her.

    Wait, did she say she signed him up for this? This bi... His brows furrowed in discontent as she dragged him down the hallway. Admittedly, he was allowing her. Not that he chose to, or gave it much thought at all to begin with. Just that Adrian felt ... not pleased by the situation.

    "Did you rig the lottery, too? Tell ya, Heels, didn't think you'd be that much a rogue."  An idiot, maybe. No, barbed and forceful. Not one to take a challenge by backing down, Adrian quickened his pace to pull even with Stella. He would have dragged her down the halls himself if he had had any idea where they might be headed. He had not bothered to read the riddle before his companion had stolen it from him, so he could do little more than avoid being seen as petulant or confused. He would accept this challenge. Meet it head on. And hold some ire for the girl beside him, who had a peculiar way of pushing him into these situations.



    When their objective became clear, somewhere in the last fifteen paces to the large double doors, Adrian insisted on being the first to enter, throwing the way open with as much noise as possible. He breathed a commanding presence over the scattered students, jarred from their snack-time studies by his sudden entrance. Instead of insisting on how obvious the riddle had been, for various reasons, Adrian waited for Stella to join him at his side. And it would be at his side, not him with her. She was definitely following in this case. Still, she was also the one with the clues. "Now what?"

"Oh, if I could win the lottery I would not be going to school here that's for sure," Stella responded easily to Adrian's jest as they made there way to the dining room. Once they arrived, Stella watched Adrian with a bit of amusement as the young man entered the dining room quite dramatically(in her opinion at least).

Despite the obvious opportunity to compete with Adrian's entrance, Stella denied herself that and instead stepped in slowly with an air of confidence right behind Adrian. It was unavoidable that she would have to stand beside him, but that didn't matter to her for the time being since her mind was on the hunt at hand. "We look for the next clue," Stella replied easily to the young man - not bothering to stand by Adrian's side for too long.

As she walked into the dining room, Stella easily drew the attention of some of the male students. Her attractive appearance easily being something that not everyone could look past. "Just walk around the area instead of trying to show off, I don't think everyone here cares about your hair." Stella said to the young man then, making a jab at how loudly the young man had entered along with the fact that the color of his hair could easily stand out against a crowd.

    “Hm.” He observed the wide open room with disinterest, scanning its occupants and accouterments in one smooth sweep while his partner departed. A bunch of bright-eyed, flush-faced pubescent children stared at him in properly cowed awe. Some took hungry interest in the lithe figure of his companion, but he could hardly begrudge them of that. She did carry herself with an intriguing sense of sharpness in her purpose, which he felt, somewhat alarmingly, intrigued by as opposed to wary of. Wary would seem a good investment, since she definitely knew how to press and jab her way through a person’s discomfort, but Adrian suspected that the entire Valentine’s affair had drastically shifted his sense of self-preservation. Would that make him weak-willed? A target to her inquisitive nature, should she detect it? No, he certainly would not allow her such easy access to his thoughts regardless.

     Besides, Stella hardly came across as an ignorant one. She could certainly handle herself among school children.

   Opting to circle the room in a fashion opposite his wayward cohort, the towering teen did not so much stalk as barrel his way through. Paintings, mirrors, tables, and a buffet. Why are mirrors in the Dining Hall, anyway?  He checked the paintings first, running his fingers alongside and under each gaudy frame about as discreetly as he could manage considering his imposing prowl. Eyes sharp, Adrian searched with a high attention for detail for anything resolutely out of place. Unfortunately, students were in and out of this place so often that there were discarded or forgotten paraphernalia scattered about at nearly every table. It would be a bit ridiculous, he reasoned, for the next clue to be hidden under a table, where female students wore skirts and any hint would have to be peculiarly definitive lest he be reduced to searching at random. Leave that mess for Stella.

      He would make his way to the mirrors if the paintings offered nothing of value.

YOU'VE FOUND SOMETHING

As Adrian moseys past the mirrors on the wall, should he choose to notice it, there's a tiny bit of paper jutting out from behind the frame of the reflective surface.

    He found it.

    The clue not been hidden in nearly as careful a manner as he might have expected; the edge of the paper visible to any that cared to take a detailed notice. Even if he had chosen to not run his fingers along the outer edge of the mirror frames, Adrian felt sure he would have discovered it nonetheless. Or, at least, if he had been more invested.

    Glancing at one side of the paper to confirm the intended receiver, implicated by a solidly printed heart in red (something which renewed his discomfort), Adrian now had to make a decision. Should he alert Stella of his find? Yelling across the room simply would not do, and forget about trying to hunt her down through the mess of students with their curious eyes and assumption-making tongues. Perhaps he should leave things as they are. If he hid the clue himself Stella would probably give up at some point and curse impossibly hidden pieces of paper. But how much longer would that take?

    While he thought to himself, distracted in his own head and gazing slightly off towards the ceiling, Adrian flipped the card between two fingers in an absent-minded fashion. In the open. Clearly visible, if not entirely readily obvious.

As Stella walked over to the opposite side of the dining room, the young woman kept her eyes peeled for any sort of change in the dining room scenery that might pop out at her. About five minutes into her searching then, Stella's eyes briefly passed over a younger female student that was sitting and enjoying her lunch while staring lovingly off into the distance.

A few seconds passed and Stella followed the young girl's line of sight, her own eyes landing on Adrian. 'Of course,' Stella thought to herself with a small sigh. Another second passed and Stella spotted the small piece of paper that was dancing in between Adrian's fingers. "You found it!" Stella's voice echoed across the dining room as she walked over to him with a quick pace. "Let me see it, at this rate we'll beat everyone else." Stella said to the young man, seeming to watch him with admiring eyes for the moment - holding her hand out so that he would hand over the clue.

READ'EM 'N WEEP

1/2 cup butter
3 Cloves Garlic
1 Small Onion
1 Package of Frozen Chopped Spinach
1 Can Mushrooms
1 Package Herb and Garlic Feta
1 Package Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 Unbaked Deep Dish Pie Crust
4 Eggs
1 Cup Milk

    When Stella called out for him, the energy she carried hardly seemed warranted, but then, Adrian had to remind himself, she really had proven invested in this. Excited, even. For a moment, their eyes locked. Unexpectedly, there appeared to be a gentleness in her features, yet he could still detect the intensity with which she approached life. Much akin to his own piercing gaze - not that he had ever had personal experience with that - she gave an aire of superiority.

    Usually.

    This moment, however...

   "Right." He announced, masking his inner thoughts before too long a pause carried out. "I did my part," He added tauntingly as he handed the card over, which he had, yet again, failed to properly inspect, "Your turn."

    The following revelation took longer than he really cared to admit, "Wait. Beat?"

It was within a moment, despite wearing heels that made her two inches taller than her normal height that Stella suddenly became acutely aware of Adrian towered over her. Another second passed and the young man broke Stella's stare with his words, causing her to look away as he handed the clue over. Estelle remained silent as she read the clue, an odd thing for a young woman that loved to talk. Tapping her left foot in an incessant manner, Stella finally looked up as Adrian broke her concentration from figuring out the next clue.

"You didn't know? The school is offering online gift cards and some other prizes for the two students that are the first to find their items in the scavenger hunt." Stella laughed lightly for a moment, realizing that this could be the best way to bait her companion into helping her more. "Pretty sure they might have even been saying the winners will get one free miss day from class," Stella smirked up at Adrian then - hoping that this was the kind of incentive her partner needed.

    The mere thought of competition brought a spark of liveliness to Adrian's demeanor, urging his attention to flick over the couples scattered about the Dining Hall with precision. Each registered immediately as adversaries within his mind, blinded suddenly from the reality: if they were truly participating there would be no reason for them to be idling here. No, really it came down to the randomization of the pairings within the event. No guarantee for hopeful pairings. No purpose to those already together.

    What did that say about those electing to participate? Who would sign up for an event like this because they were single and socially awkward? Who had the likeliest potential to receive a questionable note that morning? The type of students who could not seem to avoid the limelight. The students who always ended up in the middle of things, no matter their attempts to avoid it. In all, there were only so many that stood out to him as such because, while not exactly popular, they were each known.

    Adrian preferred not to think what that meant about him.
    He had not signed up for this. And, yet.

    That sharp look turned to Stella as if with demand. How many others had joined this charade due to someone else signing their name in the event notice? Well, no matter. The Heart pairing, he nearly shuddered at the thought, had their second clue already. They had barely taken any time in starting. He may not like how things came to this point, but she was right. At this rate they very well may win. No reason to ruin a lead like that.

    "What's it say?" Never had his attention strayed from Stella. Although at first with regard that yelled accusation somewhere Adrian's visage shifted to recognition. Teammate. Ally. Companion.

    Partner.

    At Adrian's question, Stella took a deep breathe and then proceeded to recite the clue to him - word by word. The young woman then waited a few seconds to let everything sink in with Adrian before she spoke. "I'm honestly stumped, it's obviously a recipe - but cooking really isn't my forté. Do you have any idea what this could mean?" Estelle looked back up at Adrian once more, impatient for answers and hoping her partner could offer some input as to what this clue meant.

She guessed that they could check the kitchen area, but if it was a recipe maybe it was something that was already cooked? The young woman frowned and let out a heavy sigh. She loved riddles and clues, but thinking about food only made her hungry. A light bulb clicked on in the teen's head then. "Maybe we should check the food serving tables and see if there's any food there that matches this recipe?" Stella offered up this option at a very quick pace, her accent rearing it's head quite harshly for just a moment at her excitement.