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Bella brings two blank notebooks to school the next day. Her old one is safely computerized and boxed up with its predecessors.
At lunch, she sits with Angela; Jessica and Eric and Lauren sit at the same table but mostly talk to each other, and Mike is nowhere to be seen.
Bella is just about on time to gym, thanks to an overnight icing that means she has to pick her way with extreme care across the slippery grass or the slick sidewalks. The second time she falls down, she gives up on attempting any dignity at all, and, cradling her thwacked elbow, scoots the rest of the way to the gym on her rear. This leaves her with damp jeans but no further injuries, and they were a little damp anyway from the falls.
She doesn't have time to do more than smile and wave at Alice on her way to get her mat and get out of the way of careening balls. She spends the class doing the subset of her safe activities that won't stress her elbow.
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self_composed
self_composed
Bella picks up her backpack and starts counting the coins. She has one pentagon, and three of the squares and two of the triangles. She wonders if she can get heaps of the triangles just by putting a lot of pepper in her food.
Just to see if it would work, she tries wishing for her invisible and invisibling chain on a square. It remains where it is. "Okay, so that is going to take a pentagon," she says.
Just to see if it would work, she tries wishing for her invisible and invisibling chain on a square. It remains where it is. "Okay, so that is going to take a pentagon," she says.
self_composed
"Yes. I don't doubt I could make a plain chain with a square, but the permanent invisibility power is apparently a big deal."
edgeofyourseat
"It would be," he says, shrugging.
...A thought strikes, and he giggles.
"Does the book say anything about what kind of coin you'd need to wish for, like, a bunch of small things at once?"
...A thought strikes, and he giggles.
"Does the book say anything about what kind of coin you'd need to wish for, like, a bunch of small things at once?"
self_composed
Bella flips to the Helpful Charts section and scans it.
"Elias seems to prefer a strategy of handling small things one at a time with small coins, like his rat bites," she says. "But if you need to do a lot lot of small things, you probably want to cover that with a permanent skill or power from a pentagon or hexagon. And if they're really small, you might be able to handle a bunch in one shot with a square. Why?"
"Elias seems to prefer a strategy of handling small things one at a time with small coins, like his rat bites," she says. "But if you need to do a lot lot of small things, you probably want to cover that with a permanent skill or power from a pentagon or hexagon. And if they're really small, you might be able to handle a bunch in one shot with a square. Why?"
edgeofyourseat
"Read the book first," he says. "I don't wanna spoil it. You'll know when you get there."
self_composed
"Are you aware," Bella says, "that I don't like mysteries?"
edgeofyourseat
"It's a really short book," he says. "You could probably get to the right part before the cake's even done."
self_composed
Bella looks at him, and then puts the magic book away and pulls out Alice's favorite instead. She opens it up again and begins to read.
edgeofyourseat
Alice tilts his head back and watches her upside-down.
This is a poor long-term strategy, though, so after a minute he turns all the way around.
This is a poor long-term strategy, though, so after a minute he turns all the way around.
self_composed
It is a short book, and Bella does read fast.
"Well," she says. "I think Harlan Ellison was terribly annoyed with being hurried along - and I think he would have written a different story if his circumstances were instead prone to leaving him waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for someone who didn't care about his wasted time."
"Well," she says. "I think Harlan Ellison was terribly annoyed with being hurried along - and I think he would have written a different story if his circumstances were instead prone to leaving him waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for someone who didn't care about his wasted time."
edgeofyourseat
"Probably, yeah. But I like the way he wrote it," he says cheerfully. "So yeah, I wanna make a rain of jelly beans."
self_composed
"Property damage," Bella says. "Possibly injury or death, if there are too many of them. Certainly disruptions of schedules, some of which are actually important - there is a reason ambulances are allowed to speed. Gosh, with results like that, who wouldn't want a rain of jellybeans?"
edgeofyourseat
He sticks out his tongue. "Ruin all my fun, why don'tcha. Well, it doesn't matter that much to me if I rain jelly beans on people or not. I could rain jelly beans in the middle of nowhere and confuse the hell out of the next hiker."
self_composed
"You'd probably do some damage to the local ecosystem, but at that point I'm just nitpicking," shrugs Bella. "But... The combination of you having this kind of idea and how impulsive I have seen you be doesn't add up to 'this person definitely needs magic powers'. I don't think raining the jelly beans in the woods was your first idea. I might want to extract some kind of agreement that if I give you a hex to turn into coinmaking abilities you run anything pentagon-sized and up by me first."
edgeofyourseat
"...Okay, but we'd better make some kind of magic instant checking-my-stupid-ideas-with-Bella system, because if I'm off in Nevada or whatever and I have an idea I like that much, I'm not waiting for you to answer your phone. I'm just not."
self_composed
"Sure, you can make us some hexes and bam, instant telepathy," Bella says lightly.
self_composed
"Purely communicative telepathy," Bella says. "At least as concerns the contents of my brain departing it. Select notebook contents are it in that department; my thoughts are mine."
edgeofyourseat
He waves a hand in a gesture of agreement/dismissal. "Sure, but you'd be okay with you reading my mind, right?"
self_composed
She blinks at him.
"If that's something you want to hand me, I'm not going to complain about it," she says slowly. "Provided you word it in such a way that we don't wind up creepily sharing dreams or anything - I want to be able to put that sort of thing on pause, is what I'm saying."
"If that's something you want to hand me, I'm not going to complain about it," she says slowly. "Provided you word it in such a way that we don't wind up creepily sharing dreams or anything - I want to be able to put that sort of thing on pause, is what I'm saying."
edgeofyourseat
Alice laughs.
"No shit," he agrees. "My brain is definitely a place you'd wanna be able to back out of in a hurry. But I mean, it's the same as the notebook thing," he lifts his up and wiggles it a little, "but better."
"No shit," he agrees. "My brain is definitely a place you'd wanna be able to back out of in a hurry. But I mean, it's the same as the notebook thing," he lifts his up and wiggles it a little, "but better."
self_composed
Bella nods cheerfully. She taps her own notebook with her pen and starts writing Charts of her own, for ways to quickly use up any coins that are in danger of being stolen, and depleting excessively tempting stashes. Me able to read pinball wizard's mind, is one of the items under "hexagon", along with "flight" and "no need for sleep" and "todo: look up list of X-Men".
