Turn

39

Virginia banged on the door of Room 310 and leaned on the doorjamb, waiting. A minute later, when there was no response, she knocked again. There was a noise from inside and she stepped back. Quinn threw open the door, glaring.

"What are you doing here?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Neither of you were answering your phones," she shrugged.

"Yeah," came Greyson's voice from the room. "Because it's eight a.m. on a Saturday!"

Virginia rolled her eyes. "You guys aren't even alive! Why do you need sleep?"

Quinn ran his hand through his short, dark hair. "What do you need, Virginia?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you think? We've got adventuring to do, mysteries to solve. Come on, Watson? Where's your spirit of adventure?"

"It doesn't come on until ten o'clock," he shrugged.

Frowning, Virginia looked back to see Greyson clambering down from his bed. "Really guys? You aren't going come try and figure this out with me?"

"Figure what out?" Greyson came to stand next to Quinn.

"Why we can't get from Eaton Hall to the Piers plantation," shrugged Virginia.

"Who says we can't?" Greyson shrugged back.

"We do," Virginia glanced over to Quinn. "The fact that both times we've tried to go through those tunnels, we've come out in the same place we went in."

"I don't think that's exactly evidence," Greyson said.

Virginia disagreed. "Come if you want. I've got a compass and a photocopy of that map, and after I grab a cup of coffee, I'm leaving. Stop by my room in the next half an hour if you want, and if not, I'm leaving without you."

And she turned, fairly bouncing away. Quinn turned to look at Greyson.

"We should probably go with her," he said quietly.

"I know, I know," Greyson groaned inwardly. "She's quite the firecracker lately."

"You're the one who wanted to get to know her," shrugged Quinn.

Greyson sighed. "Yes, I know that too. But she seemed so quiet and easy to get along with. If she was though, we wouldn't like her half so much."

As Greyson clapped Quinn on the shoulder, Quinn nodded. Virginia was surprisingly stubborn, self-confident, and ambitious, for a girl who came across as somewhat introverted, if opinionated. And a half an hour later, they showed up at the door to her room.

"Glad you guys could make it," she was wearing old, beaten-up sneakers that neither of the boys had seen before. They were her only pair she was willing to sacrifice to dirt.

"Wouldn't miss it," Greyson said, and Virginia eyed him, almost sure he was being sarcastic.

"You headed out, Ginny?" asked Catherine from her desk.

"Yeah, we're just going to go for a little hike," Virginia smiled at her.

"Oh, okay," said Catherine quietly with a small smile.

"We'll get dinner, okay?" asked Virginia to her roommate, and Catherine nodded. "See you later."

And she shut the door behind her.