landslide

vi.

「six」

NANCY HAD DEVISED SUCH a brilliant plan, and so thorough, Eliza was shocked they were able to carry it out within twenty-four hours. 

The girls rendezvoused at the house of one of Nancy's editors at nine the next morning. Convincing them to help create fraudulent college student memoirs and identification was one challenge; one Eliza and Robin had sat in one late that last night. Setting up a meeting with the director of Pennhurst was another. 

They denied the girls' first request to have an immediate audience with Victor Creel. It was no letdown. They didn't expect to receive an audience in the first place. 

But between driving back and forth to the editors and helping the others research Victor Creel, Eliza got her winks of sleep during car rides to and from the Wheeler household. Nancy insisted that she didn't need their help. But she wasn't the only one working the case, as Robin liked to remind her time and time again. It was work and time well spent two parts of the trio were sure would pay off in the end. 

It was difficult and tedious work to go under the noses of an entire mental boarding house's nose. It was one Eliza was riding a constant up-and-down wave of belief and doubt about whether or not the plan would actually work. 

Their plan was fully set in action when the meeting with Dr. Hatch - the director of Pennhurst - was scheduled a meeting at three that afternoon. 

The others were stationed in the Wheeler's house to watch over Max and do their own Creel research in one place. There was about as much for them to go on as there was for the girls; nothing the girls hadn't already checked out for themselves. But it was something for them to do, and a way to keep a careful eye on Max without seeming overbearing. 

The girls marched into the basement. The boys looked up at them and the folders they held. 

Nancy wore a wide smile. "We have a plan," she announced. "We have a way to speak with Victor Creel and hear his testimony. It seems like a solid plan. I mean, there are several ways it could go wrong... but we'll try not to focus on that before we cross the bridge."

"Please, she's being modest! It's brilliant!" Eliza exclaimed, handing her folder to Lucas. "Look."

The girls sat down and handed out their papers for the boys to inspect. "Do they look realistic? Plausible by a professor's standards?" Nancy asked, gauging their reactions. 

Dustin stared at her. "We don't know what to be looking for..."

Robin grinned and nudged Nancy's leg with her knee. "Thanks to Nancy's newspaper minions, we are now rockstar psychology students at the University of Notre Dame," Robin explained. 

The boys studied their manuscripts, impressed at how quickly they were able to create such believable statuses. They each had 3.9 GPAs and were each double majoring in some field of science. Eliza worked hers out to include law as a minor; didn't want to be too suspicious. 

Dustin whistled at Eliza's new papers and gave her a thumbs up. "Thanks. I worked my ass off for that GPA," she muttered, making Robin laugh. 

"I am now Ruth," said Nancy. 

"And I'm Rose," said Robin. 

"And I'm Diana," said Eliza. 

"Ruth?" Steve asked, cocking an eyebrow. Nancy shrugged, a mischievous glint in the corner of her eyes. 

Nancy began explaining their long and tedious process. "So we called Pennhurst Asylum and explained how we were writing a paper on paranoid schizophrenics and requested to speak with Victor-"