Flashback to the eighties! Start warming up by writing 100 words while Henry teaches you an important lesson that will later come in handy. "Shawn," he says, "Sometimes enemies are where you least expect them."
Write to the song as we fast forward to present day!
The two of you are hanging out in the Psych offices, playing paper basketball while waiting for a case. Word war for 10 minutes while you try to score the most points.
Unfortunately, we'll never find out who wins, because a call comes in over the police scanner! There's been a murder! And, perhaps even worse, it's rush hour! Choose to either sprint for 15 minutes as you're stuck in traffic or flip a coin to speed on the way there.
Heads: You don't get caught! You only need to sprint for 5 minutes and arrive at the scene early, before it's covered in cops and forensics guys.
Tails: You get stuck with a ticket. Write 600 words to pay it off, and arrive last at the scene.
Juliet and Lassiter are on the case! For some reason, Lassie isn't all that pleased to see you. Wonder why for 50 words while Juliet, admitting they're stumped, talks him into giving you a few minutes on the case. Sprint for 10 minutes while you poke around the crime scene:
If you write less than 200 words, you don't get enough evidence and will have to break in later to reexamine the scene: do a Fifty-Headed Hydra to do it without getting caught! Then proceed to the next step.
If you write between 200 and 300 words, you have enough information, although you're not quite sure what to do with it: proceed to the next step.
If you write more than 300 words, you've almost got it! In the future, you can skip one task.
Write to the nearest 500 as you question a witness, a neighbor and friend of the victim. She reports that unfortunately, she didn't see anything, but she heard a knocking noise, a scream, a crunch, and what she describes as 'squishy' sounds. As you thank her for her... vivid descriptions, sprint until you've written three sound effects (fwoosh, ratta-tat, boom, etc.).
Do a Three-Digit Challenge as you mull over the information you have so far:
It's a classic locked-room mystery if ever there was one. Mrs. Jane Doe was killed by a blow to the back of the head by a blunt object, but the murder weapon is missing, eliminating the chance of it being an accident. All the doors and windows were locked from the inside, with no signs of forced entry on any of them. The angle is such that she couldn't have killed herself- besides, again, there's no weapon. Mrs. Doe's basement is flooded, a fact which Lassie complained about in endless detail, and her house is a mess. This case is downright impossible.
The next day, you return to the scene to look it over again. Somehow, it looks to be even messier... which is odd, as her neighbor explicitly described her as a neat freak. Remember your father's advice... and sprint to the nearest 1000 as you have your eureka moment!
All of a sudden, someone slams into your back and begins attacking you, which rather soils your moment of triumph. Word war for 20 minutes to fight him off and escape the house. By fight him off, of course, you mean that you knee him in the groin and book it for the door.Sprint for 5 minutes as you run to the police station to tell them what you've realized!
Write leisurely for 30 minutes as you lay out what happened, with a healthy side of dramatic over-exaggeration and the occasional psychic seizure, of course. Explain that the killer was in the house all along, hiding in the flooded basement after rightly assuming that the cops wouldn't search there. He'd locked the doors and windows himself to throw investigators off the scent and, after they'd left, treated the house like it was his own. Finish with a dramatic flourish by adding the story of how bravely you fought the killer off, and promise them that they'll find the murder weapon in the flooded basement and the killer's fingerprints on the trash scattered on the floor.
After the killer is apprehended and you and Gus have returned to the Psych offices, write to the end of the chapter as you finally finish your game of paper basketball.
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