After a few hours of scanning all around campus, there wasn't a single beep from the metal detector. I didn't believe that for a second. It was a college campus with countless old bottle caps and other lost trinkets, yet I didn't find anything? Not possible.
I probably forgot to turn it on. That had to be the problem.
But was I really that stupid? Stupid enough to forget to check and make sure that I wasn't stupid, yes.
Whether I was a complete idiot or not, it still didn't fix the fact that I had wasted hours on a pre-survey with no results, and when Jack and I finally got the chance to search on Friday, I had no leads on where to go.
Maybe that was for the best, though. It would probably feel more satisfying when we came across an unexpected beep, Jack got really excited, and we dug up something that altered history as we knew it together.
Although I had found a little bit of optimism, the next day, the disappointment was still fresh in my mind, and instead of getting my hopes up again for the same reason, dampening my spirits in an old new way seemed like a better use of my time: American Sign Language class.
It sounded easy, but apparently, there were more signs than just the alphabet, and all I knew from that were the letters in my name. Either by a miracle from cramming signs right before the final or from God himself, I had made it to the intermediate level despite not knowing a thing.
There were plenty of people who had a clue, and the guy who sat in the back of the class was one of them. His dark hair was just long enough to cover his ears all the way, and with the way his clothes hugged his slim but not particularly muscular frame, it was clear he thought he really was something special.
Before I even had the chance to sit down a couple of rows away, he put his feet up on the chair in front of him (not that I wanted to sit there anyway) and looked over at me. "Welcome back."
"Thank you." I set my backpack on the floor and took my seat.
The best part was that I seemed to irritate him a lot more than he irritated me. At least I got to live in his mind for free.
In the front of the room, there was a whiteboard with homework assignments and other messages written on it, as well as a tiny little doodle of a penis, like this was high school or something. One of the messages read, Signing only! and I let out a sigh. I picked the wrong day to make my triumphant return.
"I didn't mean it literally. Where have you been the past couple weeks?" he asked.
"I got sick, didn't feel like coming, got abducted by aliens, or had other more important things to do. You can pick whichever one you want," I said.
The professor walked into the room, and I also didn't remember his name. I grimaced. Not my finest moment as a student, but was it really that important? He made a couple signs and pointed to the board. So he was serious about no verbal talking. I probably should have known that he meant business, especially since the man had a Ph.D. in Sign Language or something along the lines.
He finally looked at me and smiled. He signed something and ended it with Lindsey, but I didn't correct him that I spelled it with an A. That felt inappropriate given that I had skipped his class four times in a row and he still remembered my name.
The guy from the back of the class signed something back at him, and the professor laughed.
"Aliens?" he asked out loud. "At least she was missing my class with good reason, right Dominic?"
Indeed I was.
Dominic nodded and signed something else that I couldn't understand, and the professor laughed again.
Were they still talking about me? They had to be.
"Are you just trying to make me look and feel dumb? Because it's not working," I said.
Dominic. pointed to the board. Signing only!
I bit down on my cheek. Then I wasn't going to say anything.
"Okay, so before class begins, I just wanted to take a moment to explain the assignment for Tuesday so I know you all understand. You'll be composing a short skit from two to five minutes to incorporate what we have learned from the last two chapters instead of an exam. You can pick your partners, but Lindsay and Dominic have to work together just because I think it would be funny," the professor said.
While I agreed that it would probably be funny, it would have been a lot funnier if Dominic wasn't directly involved.
"You can't do that. I don't want her to kill my grade," Dominic said.
I smiled. "Do you really think I would do something like that just to spite you? That sounds like a lot of unnecessary work."
"Yeah, that's the problem." Dominic looked over at me and stuck his middle finger in the air. "Do you know that sign?"
I nodded. "That one's pretty standard."
The professor laughed. "Since she's been abducted by aliens, I need one of my most trusted students to make sure she can pass this presentation. It wouldn't be fair to her probed brain otherwise."
Dominic sat up a little straighter in his seat, but he still didn't smile. "What kind of socialist grading system is that?"
I smiled though. "Sounds great to me."
I really needed to look at my syllabus to find out this professor's name. He seemed like a cool dude.
We started the class, and just like the sign said, there was no verbal talking at all in the room. I kept my hands and thoughts to myself though. It wasn't my fault that the aliens somehow stole all of my sign language knowledge and replaced it with an interest in finding buried history.
Out of everywhere on campus, I didn't get a single beep from the metal detector the day before. It had to be defective, or I somehow messed it up. Either way, with Jack on Friday, we would find out which one it was. Hopefully I was just an idiot.
Before long, the class finished up, and before I could escape, Dominic called my name.
Dammit.
"So let's just get this over with. Are you free right now?" Dominic asked me as he put his textbook and notebook back into his bag. Both were green, and he seemed like the type to color-coordinate everything on purpose like someone who took class too seriously.
Well, it wasn't like my week could get any worse. I still had no money and no ideas on where to search for gold or old stuff.
"Yeah. We can probably get through this pretty quickly if we just focus on the skit," I said.
"Let's just go somewhere quiet," Dominic said.
That pretty much ruled out everywhere I liked to go to not study, but the sooner we started, the sooner we would finish. "We could probably find an empty classroom somewhere in the building."
"Nah, I'd rather go somewhere else. You look like you can handle it."
I looked down at myself. There wasn't an ounce of muscle packed in my skinny jeans and combat boots, and although my blonde hair was up in a ponytail, I spent time curling it that morning, and any sort of activity would ruin the volume it gave me. But he wouldn't understand that. "What's that supposed to mean? Do we have to walk far?"
Maybe he was going to kill me so someone else could dig me up one day. I couldn't hurt his grade if I was dead.
"Not far, but there's this pond nearby that I like. You can't tell anyone about it, though, because that'll ruin it for a while. People ruin everything," Dominic said.
Dump my body into the pond. Smart.
"Alright. I won't tell anyone," I said. Not that I had too many people to tell anyway.
He probably wasn't going to murder me, and there was no sense in wasting any time arguing with him about where to go. An A was an A regardless of where it was put together, and I could use it, especially since I hated that class.
Neither one of us really had anything to say, and I followed his lead to this pond he enjoyed so much. Fortunately, it wasn't far and the ground was grassy and flat, and my hair survived the trip.
With a closer look at him, even as we walked, his jaw was tense, and it was pretty easy to tell that he really didn't care for me. He was probably just reading me all wrong, but as soon as we finished up our work, I wouldn't have to give him any more of my attention.
"Here we go," he said, and he stopped right as we came upon his favorite place.
I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting, but the pond was surrounded by cattails and grass, and it wasn't any larger than an average-sized room. The sun glimmered on the surface of the water, and when I dipped my fingers in, the image diffracted and was a little murky.
It seemed fairly out in the open, so how had I not discovered it myself?
"So how come you're the only person who knows about this place if it's not far from campus?" I asked.
"Oh, people know, but the mosquitoes eventually chase them off," he said.
At least I had a jacket on.
"That's nice, but I'm not in the mood to get eaten alive, so let's—" I stopped. If people didn't like coming around thanks to the bug problem, maybe no one would notice if I searched up and down to find something shiny or old. I hadn't exactly researched where it was legal to use a metal detector in Oregon, but that wasn't a big deal if no one was around.
Dr. Reed had taught me ethics well.
Even though I felt the mosquitoes buzzing around in my bones, there was something inviting about that water. Just like when I clicked buy now to get my metal detector, a similar sense of knowing ran through my veins.
This was it. This was where my life-changing discovery was. It had to be.
"Why are you smiling?" Dominic asked.
I hesitated. "Why aren't you smiling?"
"Because I have to do this stupid skit with you, and it'll probably ruin my grade in the one class I really like. I feel like that's a good reason to be pissed," he said.
"One bad presentation score won't ruin your grade, and I'm not mean enough to tank your grade for fun anyway," I said.
Unlike me, he probably was mean enough to steal my idea of hunting for artifacts around the pond, and how I spent my Friday wasn't his business anyway. As soon as we finished our presentation, I wouldn't go back to that class until the next skit.
Although I told him that I wouldn't tell anyone else about it, everyone knew that best friends didn't count. I had to tell Jack that I found the perfect spot to start our search as soon as I got back to the dorm.
"It'll absolutely ruin my grade and sanity if we don't get started right now. I assume you don't have your book with you," he said.
I smiled. "I do have it, actually."
He handed his book over to me without another word, and I stared at it before accepting it anyway.
Fine.
"Chapters four and five," he said, and I turned the page.
The topic was shopping, and the quick skit had to take place in a store between a customer and an employee. It seemed like an unrealistic setting for a sign language conversation, but I didn't make the rules.
Besides, I had a little bit of motivation to finish this up as quickly as possible. Maybe I could convince Jack to help me search a day early.
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Hello! I'm so sorry this is late, but writing is difficult, I was tired, and I didn't want to do anything. But thank you so much for your patience, and thank you for reading!
So what do you think of the characters so far? How do you think this is going to play out?