Gretchen's box had remained stubbornly unopened for centuries. Museum's had displayed it, universities had studied, it had been shipped around four continents and kept in dozens of private collections, passed around from hand to hand to hand. Everyone was curious "What was inside Nicholas Flamel's Box?" Was it the Philosopher's Stone? The deep secrets of immortality? Perhaps it was the coffin of the alchemist himself! Still, all attempts to open or peer inside it yielded only failure and frustration, the mightiest tools refused to make a dent, the most advance scanners could not penetrate its depths, and all manner of stimulus was used in an attempt to evoke some small response. Still nothing worked. Knocking, music, explosives, even the warning sirens of alien invasion failed to phase the thing.<br/><br/>That morning, the frustrating and enigmatic box had found its way to the local High School, shipping error with the post office and  the local museum. (The box they believed to contain an ancient alchemical artifact actually held sixty copies of the most recent committee-approved history textbooks). There it sat, preparing to gather dust for another six centuries until it resonated with a sound no one had ever thought to try: The bell marking the beginning of classes.<br/><br/>And no one had considered the box could be opened from the inside.<br/><br/>With a single mighty kick the lid of the coffin-like lid flew open as the girlish figure interred within rose to a sitting position, coughing out dust before offering her first words in six hundred years to the darkness.<br/><br/>"<span style="color: darkorchid">I'm late for school!!"</span><br/><br/>She lunged out of the box, only to pause and reach back in, she pulled ten vials taken from larger flasks that had been stuffed in with her (Glassware can ride up all kinds of places in six centuries, some less pleasant than other) and slid them into her skirt. Always pays to be prepared.<br/><br/>Some time later she was moving furtively through the now-empty halls of the school. She'd missed quite a bit of time finding a uniform (Some poor girl in gym class was in for a nasty surprise when she got back to her locker) and now she needed to find a classroom to sneak into or an alibi to occupy her time.<br/><br/>Such an alibi presented itself in the form of a plume of curly red hair atop a girl she nearly plowed into as she rounded a corner.<i>Brilliant!</i>she thought to herself.<i>Cover.</i><br/><br/>"<span style="color: darkorchid">Hi there!</span>" She said cheerily, eyes bright as the sun as she gave her an overly-friendly greeting of grabbing the girl's upper arms briefly before releasing them, as if fearing her voice would make the girl flee like a jackrabbit (Which given her shivering she very well might).<br/><br/>"<span style="color: darkorchid">The name's Gretchen and wow you look a fright! Running somewhere? From something? I'll run with you!!.</span>"<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>