Toni contemplated returning the medallion to the museum, but something in her wanted to keep it a while longer. After all, there was no list of the contents of the box, so no one would realize it was missing. Anyway, if she discovered it was something special, she could always pretend to find it in the storeroom and pretend it had fallen out of a crate without anyone noticing. Satisfied with the excuses she made to her self, Toni hurriedly got dressed for class.
Trotting across campus with her books in hand, Toni didn't really pay attention to the other students. She had enough on her mind, what with class and her thesis, but her mind kept wandering off to the medallion. It was there, safe, underneath her shirt. She was so distracted that she didn't even hear someone calling her name.
"Hey, Toni!" Darren sprinted up and got in front of her, even though that didn't prevent her from nearly crashing into him. As it was, she dropped her books in surprise.
"Oh, sorry..." Toni muttered as she squatted down to get her books. Darren crouched down to help her, but she couldn't help but hear the titters coming from the direction from which Darren had approached. She didn't even have to look up to see who it was. Darren being as cute as he was, it was obviously the sorority crowd that followed him around. However, they were as clueless as to why Darren kept trying to ingratiate himself with Toni as Toni was herself. She didn't mind hanging out with him, since he was a relatively intelligent fellow and a good conversationalist, but sometimes his attention caused her more problems than he realized.
"Nah, it was my bad," Darron smiled as he handed her her books and helped her to her feet. "You seemed really lost in thought. The thesis must be coming along well, then."
"Huh? Oh yeah, pretty good," Toni replied unconvincingly, pushing her glasses back up her nose and ignoring the death stares from the sorority girls as they stalked off.
"That's great!" Darren responded. "How about you take a break tonight and we go get something to eat after classes?"
"Sorry, I got another shift at the museum," Toni quickly said, then worked her way around him to head towards class.
"Next time, then?" Darren called as she ran off.
The afternoon passed uneventfully, although throughout her classes Toni unconsciously kept reaching up to where the medallion lay against her skin, touching it through her shirt. By the time she started her shift at the museum, it was the only thing on her mind. Myron, as usual, was engrossed in some artifact or another, and largely left her to her own devices to finish her assignments. When Myron finally left to gather some papers he left in another building, Toni could curb her curiousity no longer.
Sneaking back into the storeroom, Toni pried the lid off the crate where she had found the medallion. Hoping there would be some clue as to the origin of the medallion inside the crate, Toni began to sift through the packing straw.