The Fortune

 Alice dug through an old chest and coughed as a cloud of dust rose from within. Her LOADED great grandfather passed away a month ago and she had been tasked with cleaning out his mansion, with help of course.

      No one else in her family had been interested in driving three hours to clean an old house for the weekend. Alice had been worried she would have to do it herself but James, Quinn, and Sarah came to her rescue.

    The house had five stories and a lot of rooms. Quinn would have come up with some excuse to get out of it if her two best friends and girlfriend weren't the ones asking for help. The four teens divided up on different levels of the house.

    Alice was helping Quinn on the second floor and James and Sarah worked on the first floor. The second floor was really boring, filled with bedrooms and a study. Most of the things were garbage, covered in dust or broken. Quinn did find an old fashioned table cloth that she loved. Alice got bored of all the decaying mattresses and moved onto the study.

    He had only died a month ago but he had lived in a nursing home for the past twenty years, and before that he lived with my grandmother, his daughter. The house hadn't been touched in at least 27 years. In the study was a bunch of papers, some faded paintings, and several ornate looking chests and boxes all locked.

    Quinn came in after labeling all the boxes in the bedroom trash. Alice jumped as Quinn stepped on a creaky floorboard. “You just jumped five feet in the air” she laughed. Alice stood up. “I think we finished the second floor, let's go to the fourth floor”. “Yay the library,” Quinn sighed. “It’ll be fun!” Alice ran up the stairs.

    The fourth floor was a large library, most of the shelves were empty but there were a few filled. Alice was hoping to find a rare or old book that maybe she could sell on Ebay. Quinn grabbed a big box and started pushing the books in from the shelves. Alice was more careful.

    Eventually there was one book left. Alice grabbed it but it didn't budge. She pulled a little harder and suddenly the bookshelf spun. It pushed Alice into a secret tunnel, she fell to the ground. “AHhHHhH!” 

Quinn looked up. “Alice?”. 

“Quinn, HELP!”

“OMG, why are you in the wall?” 

Alice looked around, “I pulled the book, like in the movies” 

Quinn walked over to the bookshelf. “Ok imma pull it”. Before Alice could respond the bookshelf turned, pushing Quinn. Alice stepped out of the way as Quinn fell. 

“That bookshelf moves at an unsafe speed” Quinn glared at the back of the bookshelf.

    Alice helped Quinn up and they both looked around. The secret room was cramped, with a desk squished at the back of it. Several keys hung from the walls. Quinn reached out and grabbed one. “Hey, these are the keys for those chests in your great, great, great, great Grandpa's  fake office.” 

      “He's not THAT old” Alice glared. Quinn put all the keys in her pocket. Alice went to the desk.

    She gasped. On the desk was a will and testament. Quinn came over. “Hey didn’t the lawyer dude say he didn't have a will?” Alice didn’t answer.  Instead she picked it up. Quinn didn’t ask anymore questions. They both searched for a button or lever to get them out. Eventually Quinn found a small lever under the desk. She pulled it and the bookshelf turned at a surprisingly slow pace and the two girls walked out.

    They went back to James and Sarah. “Let’s go to the Hotel,” Quinn said.  When they got back Alice told her friends everything. Sarah said she should take the will to their lawyer, when nobody disagreed Alice called the lawyer.

     James couldn’t go to bed. He knew what was in the will even though Alice never opened it. His grandma had been the maid of Dr. Brown, Alice’s great grandfather.  For years she plotted a way to get his money. She never even thought for a moment that she would be in the Will, so she had to think of other ways. Most of them were taking money from his coat pockets when he was asleep.

    Eventually she was fired when Dr. Brown moved to his daughters house. James wanted justice. He thought his grandma deserved part of his fortune, so at the darkest part of the night James snuck out of bed. He found the will and opened it carefully.

    After reading it James was taken aback. He stared at it for a few more seconds, then woke up Sarah. “Don’t be too loud, I read the will, you won’t believe what's in it!”. You WHAT??”. “Shhh, it doesn't matter, just READ it”.

    Sarah took the will carefully. After reading it she looked at James, then woke Quinn up. “Read the will Quinn”. “Umm ok”. Quinn read it and gasped. She shook Alice awake. “ Call your lawyer!”. “It's two in the morning WHY?” Quinn looked at James and Sarah. “We might have read the will..”. “Oh- thats not that ba-”. “READ IT” James interrupted. Alice grabbed the will and read it. She was silent.

    They all sat up until 7, then Alice called her family’s lawyer. Alice explained she found the will, on the phone the lawyer sighed. About 15 minutes later Alice hung up. She looked at her friends. “We gotta go to his office”

    A long car drive later Quinn and Alice showed up at the office. James and Sarah stayed behind to check the house for more secrets. Quinn hopped out of the car. Alice grabbed the will and they both walked inside. 

     The lawyer was waiting for them in his office. He took the will and read it. Then he took a letter from his desk and read it. He handed it to the girls. Then looked at both of them from across the desk. “Can you keep a secret?”