"You look absolutely horrible today, Lindsay," Dr. Reed said as I took my seat in class.

Just what every girl wanted to hear at nine in the morning.

"Well, I was busy working on something all last night, and I was hoping you'd cancel," I said.

"Why'd you even bother to show up then?"

"Because I like this class. If this was ASL, you know I'd be sleeping right now." I chuckled.

"I'll try to make this reading of someone else's PowerPoint extra special, then." She gave me a smile.

Dr. Cora Reed had a reputation of being the worst professor at Tillamook College, one that I didn't think was quite deserved. Sure, she didn't exactly grade quizzes and exams in a timely fashion or have engaging teaching skills, but she knew what she was talking about in the Theory of Socio-Cultural Anthropology class, at least.

Her brown hair was beginning to grey, and although her mostly unwrinkled face seemed like she was a little too young for that, she never bothered to color those strands away. At first glance, one could easily see her as a cold, analytical mind with the way she only smiled by choice. I had spent a little bit of time chatting with her after class over the beginning of the semester, and she was much more captivating in conversation when she didn't have to talk about her work.

She opened up the PowerPoint lecture on ethics in anthropology, which seemed like a very skippable topic. Like any normal person, I cared more about who we used to be as a species, not laws about excavations or whatever, but the past needed to be preserved and appreciated for what it was, and ethical decisions were required for that.

Dr. Reed stood up at her podium. "It looks like we're missing students in this class. Was last night some party for anthro students? But hey, when the material from this lecture is the only thing on the exam and they don't know a damn thing, I give you my permission to laugh at them."

I smiled. Okay, maybe at second and third glance, one could easily see her as cold as well.

As best as I could, I copied the slides of the presentation, but even though there were several ethical concerns surrounding excavation practices, my mind drifted back to the metal detector. Obviously, those rules only applied to actual archaeology and such, not my newest hobby that I spent all night studying.

Dr. Reed practically just read the bullet points, but it wasn't like it was a thrilling topic like Easter Island or Stonehenge. Keep your information organized and meticulous, destroy as little of the site as possible, and don't steal anything. If that was what the exam was going to be, I could get an A with just common sense.

Maybe that'd be enough to keep my GPA afloat.

***

After class, I headed back to my dorm until my next one began. Sierra was probably in a class of her own, which was perfectly fine with me. She loved to kibitz while I was trying to focus on literally anything, and although she was asleep for most of my research the night before, her nasal voice still rang in my ears.

I really didn't need to spend all that time watching other people waving a metal detector over the surface of the ground, but that time was over and there wasn't anything I could do about it.

I also probably didn't need to skip my American Sign Language class, but Jack wanted to chat before his jam session of a practice, and there was absolutely nothing to like in that class. There were some days we couldn't speak verbally at all, and what was it for? I wasn't learning a thing, not with that professor and the annoying jerk who sat in the back of the class. Although we were several weeks into the semester, I still didn't know his name, but I was fairly certain he cared enough to know mine and wondered why the hell I didn't show up most of the time.

Fortunately, that class was a Tuesday and Thursday problem, not a Wednesday one.

With the Pacific Northwest autumn came rain, and although I had no idea when it would finally stop for a second, as soon as it did, whatever was buried around campus would be mine. The metal detector still sat in its box, but it had been upgraded to a seat on the desk instead of the floor.

Someone knocked at the door. "Lindsay, are you in there?"

Jack.

I opened up the door for him and took a seat on my bed. "What's up?"

"So did you figure out how to use this thing yet?" He gestured over to my metal detector. Although his first reaction was that it was a stupid buy, he certainly seemed interested in it. And I wasn't going to complain about that. There really wasn't much muscle in my body, and it wouldn't hurt to have him do all of the digging. Plus, I did like having him around usually.

I nodded. "Once it stops raining and the ground dries, I'll try it out."

"Wouldn't it be easier to dig if the ground's wet? Or did you find out while you were researching that's the best way to do it?"

"I don't know. They mostly just went over what buttons I'm supposed to push."

Jack chuckled. "You and your half-assed efforts."

"Well, you're going to be the one digging all of my buried treasure out of the ground, so this seems like it's something you should figure out, not me," I said.

"How did I win that lottery?"

"If we find anything, you're going to have to help if you want to reap any of the benefits. That's life, buddy."

He paused. "Lindsay, be honest with me. Do you really expect to find anything besides bottle caps and nickels?"

"I believe that I was overcome with a sense of desire for this metal detector as soon as I laid my eyes upon it for a reason, so yes." I hesitated. That sounded stupid. "Well, that's what I'm hoping."

"There's a difference between hoping and believing," Jack said.

I knew better than to get my hopes up over a small chance, but even though I wasn't expecting to find anything major either, there had to be a reason that I fell in love with it and bought it without a second thought.

My parents still hadn't sent the money they always did for my education, and although I believed they were eventually going to send it, I dropped a few hundred dollars on something I didn't really need. What more proof could I ask for that this was meant to happen?

"Jack, I don't believe it. I know it. There's something somewhere around here, so why shouldn't I be the one to find it?" I said. "And I'm an anthropology major, so I've seen what kind of old stuff people find from our past."

Jack didn't respond to that, and instead, he looked over at the metal detector.

"Is it waterproof?" he asked.

"It can tolerate a little bit of precipitation, but you can't submerge the thing in a lake without ruining it. Why?"

"Do you have a shovel?"

"Yeah, I keep it in the closet, obviously," I said. "Why would I just have a shovel, Jack? I'm not a psychopath or worse, a gardener."

"Well, lucky for you, I do have one. And you can thank geology for that since you're always making fun of my rock collections," Jack said.

"I only make fun of them because for someone cool enough to play in a band, majoring in geology is so dorky." I laughed.

"Digging up dead people and their things is so goth, but I never say anything about it to you."

"You probably do, but I just don't care, because rocks aren't worth as much as gold."

"Where do you think gold comes from?" He nodded toward the door. "Come on. If you're destined to find this treasure like you hope, we've got to start searching sooner rather than later."

I liked the sound of that. Treasure.

His gaze lingered on me for a moment as I went to pick up the box with the metal detector, but I pretended I didn't notice. It was easier if I never addressed it.

"Am I going to have your undivided attention during this for the entire rest of the day, or are you practicing for that gig coming up with your band?" I asked.

"That doesn't start until after your class, so I won't have to interrupt at all," he said.

I smiled. "Why would I go to that when I could potentially be making a history-altering discovery?"

Perspective: not everyone had it.

"Lindsay, you have to go to class. I think this metal detector is cool too, but you already dug yourself a hole for this semester, and it's going to take effort to get out of it."

"I think you care more about how I'm doing in school than anyone who's actually involved in my education," I said.

"That's not true. I know you care, but you shut down sometimes because caring hurts."

I laughed. "That's funny. Come on, let's get that shovel of yours so we can get started on changing our futures and humanity's past."

"Look, I'll make a deal with you. If you go to class today, we'll see what we can find on Friday. Sound good?"

"What? What about now?"

"I just thought that maybe this could be a rewarding hobby, and it can't take over everything else that you're supposed to be focusing on right now. So Friday?"

I nodded. "That's fine, I guess. I should probably review my notes right now anyway. Dr. Reed said that the only material that's going to be on the first exam is what we learned in class today. She got upset that there weren't that many people in class today."

"See? That's why you shouldn't miss classes if you can help it. Professors can be petty as hell sometimes." He headed over to the door, then turned back. "I'll leave you alone so you can study."

I gave him a smile. "Thanks. I may suck at ASL, but I actually want to do well in Dr. Reed's class. The fact that she cares less than me is kind of motivating."

"That's weird, but I'm not gonna judge as long as it means that you're keeping your grades high enough to stay here," Jack said.

I probably wasn't dumb enough to fail out of college, and he didn't give me quite enough credit for that. He left me alone, and as soon as the sound of his footsteps drowned out in the rest of the background noise, I slunk out the door as well with the metal detector in my hands.

After all, he did just tell me that if I was destined to find anything, it was better to begin my search as soon as I possibly could. For once, his advice was kind of good, and I was gonna take advantage.

And even though I didn't have any help from another person or a shovel, Jack promised that we'd go hunting for treasure in the near future, and I was just conducting a pre-survey of the land to save time later. It certainly wasn't an uncommon practice during real excavations. Ground-penetrating radar, drone footage, they were all important steps to take before actually digging anything. I was just being a good, ethical anthropologist.

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Hello! I hope you're doing well, and thank you so much for reading!

Right now, I'm kind of liking Thursdays for updating since I'm working on other books at the same time, but I'm absolutely open to changing it when I wrap up the others or someone feels incredibly passionate about updates on a certain day! 

So how do you think this is going to pan out? Is Lindsay going to find anything on her pre-survey?