The Mystery of Locked Rooms

Sarah Greene is trying to get out of an escape room with her friends West and Hannah. The three of them call themselves the Deltas because of their shared love of math, riddles, and escape rooms. They eventually find the solution to the final clue and the exit door opens. The three friends are proud and excited because they just beat the Lasers and Lava game, a particularly challenging escape room that only a small number of people have completed successfully.

When Sarah goes home, she finds a foreclosure notice on the front door. Her mother comes home from her job as a dental assistant and gets dinner ready before going to her second job at a candy store. Her father is sleeping upstairs because he has chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Sarah also has an older brother, Sean, who is preparing to go to college. She loves her family but feels helpless about their situation and becomes even more worried when her mother starts crying about the foreclosure notice.