11. A Puzzle to Solve

A PUZZLE TO SOLVE 11 Sam looked around the classroom. "Orson hid the switch somewhere in here," he said. "We just have to find it." "We sit in here every day," Antonio said. "Wouldn't we have seen it before?" "Think of this like a video game puzzle," Lucy said. "Okay. But how do we solve it?" Antonio asked.

Outside, the wind howled. Water rained down from the sprinklers in the ceiling. The friends shivered. Suddenly, Lucy remembered something. She pulled out the binder and started flipping pages. The ink on the pages began to run. "Look!" she said. Lucy pointed to a photo of Orson Eerie. He was standing in their classroom almost one hundred years earlier. "Great. A creepy old photo of Orson," Antonio said. "How does that help us?"

"Orson hid the switch when he first designed the school," Lucy explained. "So we know the switch has been here since the beginning. That means we need to search the room for something that hasn't changed since this photo was taken. Whatever still looks the same— that's probably where the switch is hidden!"

Sam nodded. If this was like a video game puzzle, then there needed to be a hint to take them to the next level. They looked at the photo, and then looked at the room.

Lucy checked the thermometer. "Hurry guys!" she said. "Only three degrees left!" Despite the cold, Sam could feel sweat pouring off his forehead. His eyes focused on the room. Everything was different than it had been all those years ago. Different desks, different lights, different posters on the walls. Then he saw it. He couldn't believe it. The hiding spot had been in front of them all along!