Natalie stood, gaping. "You mean we're… we're poor now?" She couldn't believe it. Her mother just disowned her. She just couldn't wrap her mind around that.
"Penniless." Ian sighed in defeat.
"Actually," Mr. McIntyre intervened. "I should have mentioned this before the others left. Grace had an addendum to her will regarding everyone who made it through the gauntlet. There were eight of you- you will receive double the amount you turned down to get the first clue."
"It was a million dollars originally," Ian said. "So Natalie and I each get two million dollars? I suppose we could live on that." A crooked smile crept onto his face.
"That is such a relief!" Natalie let out a huge sigh. "Being poor wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, but still-"
"You were only poor for about two seconds!" Dan laughed, rolling his eyes.
"Dan- the two million dollars apiece- that would be for us too!" Amy realized.
Ian, hearing the sound of Amy's voice for the first time after exiting the gauntlet, tucked his hands into his pockets and sauntered over to her. It was time to make amends.
Amy saw him coming and blushed. But the clue hunt had changed her. She used to be so naive, and… uncomfortable in her own skin. But ever since she discovered she was part of the Madrigals, finally finding where she belonged, she felt like she finally fit in. It had helped her become more confident. She realized she couldn't even remember the last time she had stuttered. She took a deep breath and prepared herself for what she knew was about to happen.
"Amy."
She nodded, slipping a small smile. "Hey."
He bit his lip. There were so many things to say, but he just couldn't find the right words for any of them.
"It was really courageous what you did." Amy shrugged one shoulder up, her smile inching slightly to the left.
Breathtaking. Ian sighed. With only that small gesture, she looked absolutely gorgeous.
"And what exactly was that…?" He asked.
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, you know what you did. You stood up to your mother. If I was in your position, with her holding a gun up to you and your sister, I don't think I would have been able to stand up to her." She didn't know he had it in him. Like her, the hunt must have changed him. For the better.
"Well we had to. Was there really any other choice?" Before she could speak, he started talking again. "And frankly, I've heard from almost every other team that they're jealous of how brave you are."
"Really?" She gasped.
"Yeah."
With his golden eyes searching her jade ones, it was almost as if they could have silent conversations, too.
And then he bent forward, his lips grazing her. He began to pull back, but Amy pushed up onto her tip-toes and continued the kiss. Her hands settled on Ian's neck and she felt more confident than ever.
That's when Dan groaned. "Ugh, this is gross!"
The two teenagers broke apart and cleared their throats awkwardly.
Natalie rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on! Don't act all weird about it- everyone knew it was going to happen at one point or another."
Dan smirked. "Yup."
There was an uncomfortable pause.
"You know," Ian said suddenly, breaking the silence. "You and Dan…"
Natalie's eyes got wide. "What?" She screamed incredulously. "No way. Oh, god. I can't believe you even suggested that."
"Ew, gross!" Dan agreed. "Never. Not in a million years."
Natalie turned around to face him, eyebrow raised. "Excuse me? Are you saying I'm unappealing?"
"No!" Dan said. "I'm not saying that at all. I just can't imagine us getting together. That'd just be weird, right? I mean, I don't think you're unappealing at all! It's just-"
"Ha!" Ian laughed. "You admit it!"
Amy smiled.
"I do not! I was just saying…" Dan trailed off, then shot Ian a look. Amy couldn't help but laugh.
Nellie ambled over to their group, observing how close Ian and Amy stood to each other. "Guess what! I just bought your old apartment in Boston. Your aunt totally flipped. Ha!" Their au pair cracked up.
"She totally deserved that too." Dan said.
"But where's she gonna live now?" Amy asked empathetically.
"I don't know." Nellie said with a shrug. "I'm sure she'll find somewhere else. Whoo!" She paused. "Somehow, I'm guessing we're going to see a lot of Lover Boy over here." She gestured over to Ian.
"Well, now that we're on our own, we might as well move to Boston. Brilliant idea, Nella!"
"It's Nellie…" She mumbled.
"Right, sorry." Ian scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Well… what do we do know?" Natalie asked.
"I say we rent a hotel room and chill. Then maybe tomorrow we could head back to the United States. It'll good to be home." Amy sighed.
"Yeah. It will be." Dan nodded. "Except for the fact that this one guy in my grade is out to get revenge on me because I stole his pants one time from his gym locker…"
Nellie laughed. "After surviving the 39 clues, I think you'll be able to take him."
"And if you can't, I can always get him with my dart gun." Natalie offered. "After all, we will be in the same grade."
"Yeah! We can team up! I'll pull the pranks and when they come back for revenge, you can beat them up! Whoo! This'll be great!" And the kids started planning.
Amy turned toward Ian and smiled. "So you'll be in my grade."
"You don't sound very excited about that."
"Well, you have a British accent, you're super smart, and," She blushed at the last one, "and abnormally appealing." Ian laughed. "You'll have a lot of girls after you."
"Then a lot of hearts will have to be broken."
And they started kissing again.
This is how I think Into The Gauntlet should have ended. There was absolutely NO mention of IanxAmy so I had to write this! Hope you like it. Plz review!