That's not all that's in her locker!

… Huh.

She's pretty sure that she didn't put that in there. She definitely doesn't remember seeing it two days ago when she tidied her locker.

She remembers that the math teacher did pass out notebooks on the first day of class, way back in August. She remembers that she didn't have any particular use for hers, since she came to school prepared. But she's pretty sure she remembers that the one she received had a different cover.

She smiles to herself. It doesn't matter who put it here or how. It's hers now. If the person who first got it wanted it back, they should have thought better than to put it in someone else's locker.

The notebook evinces no objection to being put into Sara's bag!

And Sara doesn't spare it any more thought until she gets home and unpacks.

Well.

She's gonna be making a summer to-do list anyway.

She flips through the notebook, is pleased to find all the pages blank, and begins her list on the first page.

Hi there!

Hi?

It's nice to meet you!

It's… nice to meet you too. Whoever you are.

If this is a Ginny Weasley And Tom Riddle's Diary situation, she's going to have to change some of her summer plans.

I'm a notebook! More specifically, I'm a messenger sent by the Spirit of Youthful Femininity to offer you some of its power.

… Yeah, whoever put this in her locker is definitely not getting it back. And is possibly getting lied to if they want to know if she's seen it.

Really. You can do that?

She gets out the notebook she'd used for class this past school year and flips to a blank page.

Testing, testing.

I sure can! Sorry if anything I said already was confusing; I'm not always very good at starting conversations.

(The other notebook does nothing.)

No need to apologize. It's just that "the spirit of youthful femininity (what is that, by the way?) sent me a notebook to offer me power" is probably one of the least expectable things that could happen to me, I think.

In the other notebook:

Hey, Sparkly Magic Powers Notebook. Can you hear me if I write in a different notebook?

The Spirit is… well, it's a spirit. A kind of powerful magical entity that embodies a specific idea! The idea that drives the Spirit is too big to really explain with words, but a good approximation is "girls should get to be beautiful and special and powerful." Like Marceline the Vampire Queen, or Elsa, or Poison Ivy! It isn't very good at communicating with people whose minds work like yours on its own, so it sends messengers like me to make things easier.

Did that help at all?

Well, I think I've got a better idea of what the Spirit is now. I guess I'm still not sure why it sent you to me. Does it send messengers to every young girl and they're all sworn to secrecy?

"Your paper is really nice, by the way," she says out loud. "And your handwriting."

Well that last thing was kind of dumb to say, even if it can't hear her. It probably doesn't have hands.

Unfortunately, the Spirit can't send messengers or power to everyone it would like to do that for. I don't get any particular insight into why it chooses any of its vessels (that's what you'll be if and when you accept its power!) but I do know that a lot of them are clever, or creative, or in a situation that isn't very good for them that the Spirit's powers would help them improve. It's okay if you don't think any of those describe you; they aren't hard requirements.

… There's something kind of funny about how it phrased that last sentence. She wonders if it gets girls with low self-esteem a lot. Or ones who delude themselves about being in better situations than they are.

Well, I'm flattered either way. You seem very polite and thoughtful and your handwriting is pretty.

For some reason she feels less stupid writing that out than saying it aloud. Huh.

The regular notebook seems pretty safe to write in unobserved:

figure out ways to tell if it's Tom Riddle-ing me

kinda vague? could be good, could be bad

• probably isn't spying on me (see if it knows my name?)
• might be doing the horoscope thing

Thanks! I feel silly accepting that last compliment, since I don't have to do anything to make my writing look the way it does. But it's nice of you to offer it!

Sara chuckles.

I mean, it's not really unusual for people to compliment each other on things outside their control, like their bodies.

Or to be mean about those things.

Oh no, being mean to someone about something outside their control sounds pretty bad! I guess it makes sense that a lot of people's bodies are outside their control. Mine isn't and, if you accept the Spirit's power, yours won't be either!

… Oh, right, the reason she's been trying to figure out how trustworthy the notebook is in the first place. Oops.

Really? That sounds pretty amazing. How do I accept the Spirit's power?

She scribbles "freeform body control??" in the other notebook.

The Spirit has a bunch of different abilities it can offer you! I have a non-exhaustive list designed to give you a good sense of what sorts of powers are available; you accept the Spirit's power by picking the powers you want and telling me when you're ready for them.

Do you want to see the list now?

She's still got a couple tests in mind.

Maybe in a minute. I have some dishes to clean. If I talk to you out loud, can you hear me?

Unfortunately I can't hear you, answer out loud, or perceive or affect anything other than my pages. If you'd like, though, I can write out the list while you clean your dishes. Then it'll be here when you get back.