Although I had a few resources available for sneaky use, there wasn't anything that could help me figure out my talisman specifically. Unfortunately, there wasn't a user manual buried right next to it (or maybe we just didn't find it because it wasn't metal).

From what I had read, since I was the one who picked it up and took care of it, it was supposed to be under my control, but that clearly wasn't the case. I didn't ask it to slam the door in Dominic's face when he found me talking to Dr. Reed or to make it start raining any time Sierra got too close to the place we found it. There was something else going on.

When I got back to my dorm, I put the talisman back where it belonged and sat down on my bed. With my new inner circle, it was important to make sure that none of that information got out.

A few days had gone by, but I didn't mention our date to Jack when he stopped by on his way to practice with the rest of his band. I didn't care if he wanted to bring it up, especially since we needed an excuse to get away from Sierra any chance we could, but I wasn't going to be the one to do it.

I was pretty sure he knew that he meant a lot to me. But there was something that also meant a lot to me, and that was figuring out my talisman.

The next Monday, I still hadn't read the script that Dominic wrote and sent me for our presentation on Tuesday. He thought I was stupid anyway, so what did it matter? Instead, I headed into Dr. Reed's office after class with the books I got from the library.

"You're really into this, huh?" Dr. Reed said with a chuckle.

I nodded and put the book on her desk. "This might make me sound a little crazy, but it's pretty much all I can think about anymore."

She gave me a small smile. "I remember when I had that kind of enthusiasm."

"Where'd it go?"

"Magic wears off real fast, Lindsay."

She still seemed to enjoy her work at Titris Hoyuk, but it wasn't difficult to see that she wasn't made to teach. If I had to teach a bunch of morons like us, I'd probably drink until I passed out by myself too.

But she didn't know that we knew that.

"So I think that Jack and I are going to try to figure this out in the next few days. I mean, someone has to be controlling it, and it sure isn't me, unless I just don't understand what I'm doing," I said.

"Well, we didn't even know what it was for a while, so how could you? You have to start small and build your way up to something big." She paused for a moment. "You're the one who's controlling it, Lindsay. Who else would it be?"

"Well, it could be Jack's subconscious. He was there when we dug it up out of the ground."

I wasn't sure if she believed me, but she nodded anyway. "And no one else knows about this, right? It's just you, me, and him?"

"Right, but I'm starting to get a little worried Sierra and Dominic might figure out that something fishy is going on."

"They won't." She laughed. "They can come up with a million different explanations, and they'll never come up with the real one."

"Okay, but suspicion is going to mess up a lot for us."

"So? Look, Lindsay, I teach punk-ass kids like you guys for a living, and they're not that smart as a general rule."

I chuckled. "Trust me, we're aware."

"All I'm saying is that you'll be fine. Just do whatever you need to do to convince yourself that you're the one in control, and we'll figure out where to go from there."

"But I'm not—"

"Yes, you are." She shook her head. "Make that your homework for the week."

"That's not gonna work on me. I don't remember the last time I did a homework assignment."

"Then try to find out who is the one who's using the talisman if it isn't you."

"That's what I was going to do anyway," I said.

"Then quit wasting my time. I have papers I need to grade," she said, even though I was fairly certain she handed out grades based on if she liked a student or not.

I nodded anyway and headed for the door. She didn't have the whole story, and I wasn't quite sure why she thought she knew it all. It took her weeks to figure out that the talisman wasn't normal, after all.

"It's you, Lindsay. You're the one who's in control. That's the way that works," Dr. Reed said as I shut the door behind me.

Then maybe I just had the world's worst talisman that did the exact opposite of what I wanted. But how likely was that? Not at all.

***

Out by the pond where we found our treasure, Jack and I sat on a blanket on the ground so the mud wouldn't get us dirty. It was still squishy and gross to sit on, though, but maybe the talisman would be more receptive to someone who understood where it came from.

"Dr. Reed seems to think that I'm the one in charge of this thing, but I don't buy it. It's more of my bad luck charm than anything good." I laughed.

"Come on, Lindsay. It's not bad luck. You just need to figure out how to utilize it properly," Jack said.

"So you think all this is happening because of me too?"

He nodded. "It's certainly not because of me, so who else would it be?"

"Maybe it's haunted."

His eyes widened. "What if it is?"

"What? I was joking."

"Think about it. As crazy as it sounds, if it's doing the exact opposite of what you want, maybe it really is cursed."

Maybe my joking nature was right.

I nodded slowly. "That's the only explanation. Here, let's see if we can find anything about that in this book."

Charms and Curses. Who would have thought I picked that one out of all the books for a reason? It sure seemed l was doing that a lot lately, so it only made sense.

A haunted talisman was pretty far off from our original guess of a coin. I smiled. Anthropology was a lot more fun in the field than in the classroom.

Jack flipped to the section on curses, then turned page by page to scan each one.

"What does it say?" I asked.

He shushed me. "I'm reading."

"Right." I scooted a little closer and tried to read over his shoulder.

Haunting occurs when the individual did not accomplish all that they were destined in their life, and it acts as a way to keep their spirit tied to the tangible world.

Creepy.

Awesome.

"So what kind of unfinished business do you think the person has?" I asked.

"Maybe in their life, they didn't spoil enough stuff for people who haven't read that far yet," Jack said.

I laughed. "It's not like it wasn't obvious. Everyone knows that."

"It's just weird. Why would you haunt something that was meant to bring you good luck?"

"Because it didn't and now you want revenge."

He set down the book. "Take out the talisman. We have to test this."

I took it out of my pocket, and I held it out to him.

"It's only gonna work if you do this, Lindsay. Try to drown yourself in the pond, and if you die, then the talisman is obviously haunted," Jack said.

"What? What kind of witch trials logic is that?"

He laughed. "Just think about something you really want to happen. Something simple and small."

I shut my eyes and went over the options in my head. As much as I wanted to try to manifest the school burning down, I decided to pick something small like Jack asked.

Talisman, if I'm really the one in charge here, it would be super excellent if you could make it warmer here. I'm not ready for the temperature to drop for the cooler months. It's not quite October yet.

"Now we wait," I said and put the talisman back in my pocket.

"What'd you wish for?" Jack asked.

I gave him a small smile. "That makes it sound like it's my birthday or there was a shooting star. This is a little more serious than that."

"What could be more serious than your birthday?"

"I think you got more excited for my birthday last year than I did."

He smiled. "I probably did. I take it upon myself to get excited on your behalf since you're usually focused on doing everything that you're not supposed to."

I leaned back on our blanket, and even though the ground squished beneath me, I ignored it and let myself laugh. There wasn't a cloud in the sky overhead, and it looked like it should have been much warmer than it actually was. But on the bright side, there were no mosquitoes to bother us.

"What do you want for your birthday?" Jack asked.

"It's not for another month, Jack. I definitely have more important concerns right now, like proving to you and Dr. Reed that I'm not the one who keeps making weird things happen."

"What day is that? October twenty-fifth?"

I smiled and shook my head. "Yep, that's the date of my birth. A tragic day, really."

He laughed. "If this talisman is what we think it is, it'll be a national holiday one—" He was cut off by the sound of a twig snapping.

I looked over my shoulder to see where it came from, and a person was walking toward us.

Dominic?

I tucked the book under my jacket before he could see what we were up to. I was more okay with Sierra finding out than him, and I was zero percent okay with Sierra discovering the truth about the talisman.

"Oh my god," I mumbled. How the hell did he keep finding me?

At first, I was concerned that he was going to murder me, but at this point, I had no choice but to assume that he wanted to stalk me and then murder me.

Of course, I was also at his favorite spot on campus, but that didn't matter. He already told me that he wasn't the library type, and he still found me there.

"Lindsay?" Dominic said.

"If you're wondering, I haven't even looked at the script for tomorrow. I probably won't until tomorrow. You can go now," I said.

"I wasn't-" He shook his head. "What are you doing here?"

"Don't act surprised. I'd really appreciate it if you could save me some time and effort and stop stalking me. I'm really not in the mood to get in another investigation. My hands are tied with the tal-" I paused, "coin."

"Is that what you think? You think I'm stalking you?"

I nodded.

"Your hair dye is seeping into your brain again, fake blonde." And with that, he left just as quickly as he showed up.

I didn't say anything else. I just watched him as he headed back to the rest of campus.

"Your hair isn't naturally that color?" Jack asked.

"Dominic is stalking me, and that's what you're concerned about?"

He glanced back over at me, and I forced out a laugh.

What could I say? The dude was nuts, and he somehow always knew where to find me. "This is fine."

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