The Crown of Alabaster
- The next day, Frankie cuts all her classes Ferris Bueller-style.
- Okay, not exactly. Really, our girl just goes to the library and starts searching for a hidden door. It's all part of her quest to find the written history of the Basset Hounds.
- She spends a whole lot of time "looking west" as the chant tells her to do and trying to figure out what the next clue us.
- Desperate, she calls Zada, but Zada doesn't remember anyone telling her anything about where the history of the Basset Hounds is hidden.
- Zada also tells her that she shouldn't worry about joining an institution of male supremacy anyway, however bummed she may be that the Basset Hounds are closed to her.
- But Frankie wouldn't be Frankie if she didn't ignore that advice. So she goes poking around the Founder's House, and just as she's looking to the west, she sees that Alpha is there already.
Look to the West, Boys
- Frankie's pretty sure that this unexpected run-in is due to the fact that they're both looking for the same thing—the history of the Basset Hounds.
- She plays it super cool, though, and tells Alpha that she's just doing a project for her Cities class.
- To distract Alpha from looking towards the west (wouldn't want him to beat her, after all), she points out a path in the grass that people have been taking even though there's a sign telling them to keep off the grass.
- They get into a little debate about whether little things like the grass sign make you want to break the smaller rules. In Frankie's humble opinion, there are bigger things to be rebelling against than that.
- Matthew comes upon them and they start to walk back, but then Frankie runs back to the Founder's House to collect her book bag.
- She overhears Alpha ask Matthew about why Frankie was at the walkway, and Matthew assures him that Frankie is harmless.