I found a picture of "Virginia" the other day, so I thought I'd post a little character sketch on Virginia Foster, my (Andi's) "thorn in the flesh" from Dangerous Decision.

As probably most of you know, Virginia Foster is the younger of our schoolmaster's daughters. Her older sister, Grace, is Melinda's age, and she and Melinda get along just fine. I'm afraid I can't say the same for Virginia and me. It's not like I haven't tried! It didn't help that she found Cory's snake in her desk the first day of school, but really! It wasn't my fault! But since then she has done nothing but find fault in everything I do. I think she picked up that attitude from her father, our schoolmaster. He hasn't liked me much from the day I nearly (accidentally) trampled him with Taffy.

I do feel sorry for Virginia, so that's why I've at least tried to be friendly. I guess her family moved out West to help her regain her strength from being ill all the time. She really is a sickly-looking girl. Pale hair; pale skin--she hardly ever goes outside. And she faints. She hasn't got much "sand" in her, as we say it out here, or "grit" would be another word. And she's scared of bugs and snakes and boys and loud noises. And she can't ride a horse, either. (I learned that the hard way, when she insisted she could, but it was all a big, fat lie).

Virginia sort of softened up a bit after our class's run-in with an escaped convict. We've been on better terms since then, but I'm still cautious. I used to think she was just showing off in front of our class with how smart she is (she really is the smartest scholar in the school) and it made me mad, but now I'm all right with it. I mean, how would you like to have your father teaching your entire class and always expecting you to know all the answers?

It's possible (but not very probable) that we could one day be better friends.