(Untitled)

[az_from_the_oz]

Az knew she shouldn't have been interested, but she was despite herself. She had come to the bookshelf with the definite purpose of finding more books on advanced chemistry because the ones she had received with her gift in the beginning of the year were now woefully inadequate. But on her way to choosing something heavy and scientific her eye

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[polly_okeefe]

"Who is 'him'?" I asked. "Depending on the answer of _that_ question, the response could be a hug, a kiss, a slap across the face, or a nod and a smile."

I stood there, a dish towel in my hand, and smiled at the woman, hoping I'd been helpful.

[az_from_the_oz]

"What?" Az looked up, momentarily confused. "Oh. It wasn't really a question. Well, not one like that. It was a question from a quiz." She held up the magazine as proof, just to be sure the other girl was understanding her.

[polly_okeefe]

"Oh," I said. "One of those. So 'him' would be a potential lover, or something, I guess. I think 'hello' might work best, but I don't have much experience in these matters." I notice the pile of magazines around her and I frown a little. There's a 50-50 chance that _I'll_ be the one who has to clean these up, but I still feel mostly good natured about it. "Researching something, are we?"

[az_from_the_oz]

"I suppose you could call it that." It really was a fairly accurate description of what she was doing. After all, she had plunged into the stack of magazines with very little understanding of the culture behind them and was now going over them as thoroughly as an archaeologist in the newly discovered library of some long-lost civilization.

[polly_okeefe]

"So, what can the magazines tell you?" I asked. I'm noticing, after first glance, that she's being remarkably thorough in piling these around her, and they cover a range of dates across at least two decades. "I'm Polly, by the way. Polly O'Keefe."

[az_from_the_oz]

"I'm just Azkadellia." Well, not only just, but most of the time it was easier to leave off the princess part. "I think that they must be guides for teenagers living in the Other Side and it's just interesting to see all of these little things I've never heard of before. History books don't tell you about cheerleading and summer camp." And Az still wasn't sure she knew what they meant.

[polly_okeefe]

"Just Askadellia," I repeated. "Nice name." And unusual. I wondered where she hailed from. This was confirmed when she referred to the "other side".

I nodded at her observation. "Yeah, the history books can be a bit stuffy. Some of them, anyway. There's a reason libraries keep many of these magazines on file, or on microfilm. Whereabouts were you before you came here?"