"Maybe people will be less surprised by it when I am older."

"They probably will," she says. "But it might take a while."

"And there are probably no rules at all for how cynical immortal people are supposed to be."

"Depends. If you were ten years old forever, I bet you'd just keep getting trouble over it."

"I could look ten years old forever, but I couldn't be ten years old forever," says Bella. "I suppose my brain could quit growing, which would be bad, but as long as I could still learn things it wouldn't be all that bad. And I would have forever to figure out how to not look ten, if that was a drawback of however I was immortal that needed to be fixed."

"I mean 'be' as in physically, not chronologically. Looking ten years old would be the thing that'd confuse people, but only because they'd be assuming that you'd only lived for ten years and your brain and body worked like a ten-year-old's. Probably if your brain and body worked like a ten-year-old's forever, people would want you to keep being all cute and innocent and stuff even when they found out how old you really were; I don't know how they'd feel about it if you were an adult who just looked ten."

"I don't think anyone really knows how much of ten year old brains working different is because they need to physically grow more and how much of it is because the people who live in them have all only been around for ten years," says Bella thoughtfully. "I mean - how would you check?"

"There are developmental differences and stuff. But yeah, I don't think there's a way to get adults with ten-year-old brains and ten-year-olds with adult brains, at least not ethically."

"Yeah. How would you do it unethically?" muses Bella.

"Science can do some pretty weird stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if somebody at some point figured out how to change how fast people's brains develop."

"I suppose. People sometimes talk about 'mental age' but I don't think that's the same thing really."

"I don't think so either."

"I am looking forward to being grown up. My parents know I'm pretty responsible but they don't always act like it, and other people don't even know as much as they do."

"Chris is good about that, and everybody else I can pretty much work around."

"Do you have any good tips on working around people?"

"Not generally applicable ones. Why, who do you need to work around?"

"Nobody in particular right now. Teachers sometimes, unless I get good ones next year."

"I can probably help you work around teachers, but I don't think I can tell you how without knowing who. It's not the kind of thing where there are general principles you can talk about easily."

"Oh. And I go to school in Phoenix so you couldn't meet them really."

"You can meet them, and I'm sure your observations won't be completely worthless."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"You're welcome!"

Bella sticks out her tongue.

"What kind of information? Maybe I can practice before I go home, so you can check my work."