Playing It Safe

All of my friends and I are in AP/AICE programs. For my birthday, ten of us go do a big bank-heist-themed escape room — locked in a room that you have to solve puzzles to get out of.

We often find solutions and then find the clues five minutes after we have already solved them, but for some reason, it takes us fifteen minutes to get the safe open at the very end of the game.

We all refuse to call for a clue, but try everything we can for the safe. Along the TV screen-timer comes the message: “Send the boss lady forward.”

All my friends argue about this while I step up. We had mentioned it was my birthday so we safely assume they mean me. We are given the correct combo and yet still can not open the stupid safe.

We are turning the handle the wrong way.

When we finally got out, the lady running our room asked us what the big deal was. I shrugged and said, “We overcomplicated it.”

They said to us: “You guys moved so fast, it was unbelievable!”

My best friend explained that we pulled the honors thing where you move so fast on the hard part that when you get to the basic stuff, you get lost.