So her suspicions were confirmed. Both of them. He was writing a swords-and-sorcery thing, Which happened to be something that a lot of new writers defaulted to (or so Kara was told) She'd had another suspicion confirmed, but she ignored it for now.

As best as she could, anyways...

"How about you? What are you writing about?"

'Bless you and your perfect timing, Carter!'

"It's...um..." That was when she realized: she was using him as a muse. How exactly would he feel about that? If he was anything like her, he'd panic. (He was nothing like her, but it's good to be careful)

So she kept it as vague as possible. "Um...it's...about this g-guy...whose mom was, like...missing...you know. And then she dies...and no one'll...like...let him see her." She turned red with embarrassment. "That's all I've got."

Then she thought about his little story, and the most obvious problem. "And...why not, like, let them have computers? In your story, I--I mean. Like...its whatever you want it to be...right? That's fa--fantasy? So why make it...like...the same old thing that everyone does? I mean..." Realizing she was going on a bit of a rant, she slumped into her chair and muttered, "S--sorry, I'll...shut up..."

Miles listened to the synopsis of her story. A guy whose mother was missing, then she dies and he can't see her. Huh. So she was like... writing drama?

BOOORING!

Where was the excitement in it? Where were the aliens or the mechas or the bad guys with their big guns? No explosions? And this poor, pathetic guy who couldn't see his mother... what a patsy! Miles, however, nodded in understanding at her story idea and mentioned nothing about it. He thought she needed to spice things up a little and if she couldn't think of anything, hey, she could always do what he did and get herself a muse.

She then went ahead and did her muse-y thing. She was suggesting... magical computers? That was the most ridiculous thing ever! He had never heard anyone writing about magical computers! Magic was always this mystical, non-sensical... hey, wait a minute... that was the whole point, wasn't it? It was an original concept! Not a hacked up formula, but something you didn't see all the time. It was brilliant! SHE was brilliant!

His fingers immediately went to the keyboard, but then she got all shy and stuttery and threatened to shut up.

"No, no, no! Don't shut up!" he said as his fingers now tapped all over the keys. "Keep it coming, then I'll help you with your stuff. You clearly need a robot or two in your story."

The ancient, magical library in the magical kingdom of Ashiangurl was half full, as magic students pored over their magic scrolls, some doing magic research and others reading ancient magic manga to kill time. Then someone magically teleported into the magic room. Her name was Rainbow Lightbringer and she rarely ever spoke because she had a magical stuttering problem. She was a stickler for the rules and that's why she liked the magical library, because no one talked while in it.

She loved building magical computers until the day she got a magic ring.

Man, writing magic stuff was easy-peasy and just lets you throw logic out the window.

Kara laughed softly at the thought of adding robots to her story. Boys...why did they always have to make everything so...exciting? Why couldn't quiet drama be enough?

Carter began machine-gunning his keyboard, presumably making something that was between Rambo and artistic poetry. So...Carragail joined him.

A young man pulled into the parking lot of the Mayfield Regional Hospital. Getting slowly out of the beat-up Camry, he walked straight through the doors and up to the front desk.

"Can I help you?" the receptionist asked. She was bright and perky. She countered the young man's mood perfectly.

"Carson Phillips. I'm here to visit a...erm...I think she's a patient."

"Okay. Can you tell me her name?"

"Louise Trawley."

The receptionist tapped halfheartedly on her keyboard. "No, I don't see her."

"She'd be in the morgue."

The receptionist stopped typing and simply stared at Carter. His face was expressionless, but hers was on the border of shock. "I'm...I'm sorry..."

"Don't be. We weren't exactly close."

She nodded. "Um...yeah. Now I see her. She's on the list."

"What room?"

"Um..." her voice faded out. The receptionist began nervously glancing between her computer and Carter's neck. His short brown hair. Anywhere but his eyes.

"Is there a problem?" Concern was drawing into Carter's voice.

"Um...would you be able to provide proof of your relationship to her?"

"What? Why?"

"Well, you're...um...not listed as a relative of hers."

"I'm...not?"

"No...no you're not. It's fine, though. I can fix it. Do you...have a...um...a birth certificate on you?"

Kara stopped.

Wouldn't that...fix the whole problem?

Damn...it would, wouldn't it? She mentally swore a few times. Had she really just resolved her main conflict before it had even started?

Kara glanced up at Miles, who was still typing madly away. Maybe he knew some contrived excuse out of this connundrum she'd accidentally dragged herself into?

Se decided to check.

Nervously raising her hand, she squeaked, "U--Um...d--do you...know...any reason someone...wouldn't have a...um...a birth certificate?"

For once, Miles was not the one asking questions but the one being asked a question. His fingers were all over the keyboard but the moment she finished her stutters, he stopped and let his brain juices try and come up with an answer to her question.

No one ever carried a birth certificate on their person. This was probably regarding the bloke who couldn't see his mother, but even if he's not carrying it, it could be tracked down and found, right? Hmm... that's the real issue here, how do you solve that tiny snag?

"Moving" he suggested, since a person could simply move out of their home and leave the birth certificate behind or mixed up somewhere he can't find it. But no, moving was so boring and obvious, it could always use a little more 'oomph!' to it.

"Oooh! How about fire? Fire always solves everything" he said, then realized that might have made him look like a pyromaniac in her eyes, so he quickly added "In fiction at least."

Moving AND Fire. The birth certificate got burnt down. But wait! Just because his birth certificate no longer exists, it doesn't mean it can't be found on some hospital computer, unless the hospital burnt down as well. It was a whole city wide fire. Or maybe his house was right next to the hospital where he had been born, so it was just a two building fire. What a coincidence, huh? But if neither of those two worked, there was always the staple of fiction writing...

"I got it! Amnesia!" he said, as if he had delivered a stroke of brilliance. "He doesn't remember where he keeps his birth certificate or if anyone has it."

His eyes then went as wide as plates as an even better idea now spewed forward.

"OOh! How about all three? He first moved, then the hospital he lived in burnt down, then he got amnesia. And if you leave the amnesia unexplained, it could always work as a lead-in to an alien abduction background."

Then his hands went to both sides of his head as he got the mother of all ideas.

"He moved! His house got burnt down! He has amnesia! And you know why? Because he's a robot! THAT'S why he doesn't have a birth certificate!"

His fingers moved back to the keyboard, but stopped as the last gem of sudden inspiration was dropped at the girl's feet for her to pick up and do as she wished.

"He's a robot built by aliens to spy on us humans and he burnt down his house, deleted his databanks and he's now looking for his mother to eradicate all evidence of his robot-ness"

Surely the girl could see brilliance when it shone so brightly. Hell, his own ideas had inspired him as well.

She loved building magical computers until the day she got a magic ring. It was a magic ring with the spells of moving, amnesia and fire! It was such a special magic ring built by magic aliens who named it...

He frowned. Then leaned a bit to ask his muse.

"That nugget of help I just gave you comes at a price. What's a cool name for a magic ring?"

She just stared at him, her face somewhere between disbelief and humor.

An alien robot...trying to be human?

She hated to credit anyone who came up with the idea by madly groping through everything "exciting", but...that wasn't half-bad.

"Um...th--thanks. For the help...I mean." 'I'll stick with fire for now,' she silently added.

"No...no you're not. It's fine, though. I can fix it. Do you...have a...um...a birth certificate on you?"

"No. I don't have one period. The...town hall caught fire."

"Well...um...then..."

"That nugget of help I just gave you comes at a price. What's a cool name for a magic ring?"

She jumped slightly at the sound of Carter's voice, more out of surprise than anything. She...really needed to learn his actual name, now that she thought about it. Unless Carter was his real name...in which case...she really needed a Psychic Test.

Wait...what was the question? Cool name for a magic ring?

"Ne--Nesloga. It's the...um...Croatian word for...um...discord...I think. That...w-work?"

"Actually... yeah, I think it does" he said as he heard the word his muse had come up with. He then raised his hand, moved it from left to right and tried to visualize the word, hanging there in mid air.

"Nenesloga... Yeah, it has a nice ring to it. Hah! Pun!" Miles said smiling and trying to keep his voice down, but sometimes it wasn't easy. He then went back to his keyboard to continue adding the newest bits in and making edits as he went.

She loved building magical computers until the day she got a magic ring. It was a magic ring with the spells of moving, amnesia and fire! It was such a special magic ring built by magic aliens croatian extraterrestrial beings who named it Nenesloga, the ring of discord.

All right, now came the hard part: Rainbow had to talk.

Writing dialogue wasn't that hard and in fact, it was even fun sometimes, the only problem was... Rainbow was a girl with a magical stutter. Not just that, she lived in a magical kingdom where things like football, skateboarding, videogames or any other things Miles knew and talked about every day were pretty much non-existant. So, what does a wizard girl like Rainbow talk about? Miles tried to think like a girl and bring his character to life.

A friend of Rainbow magically teleported into the magical library and Rainbow greeted her.

"Hihi! OMG how are youuuu!!!?"

No. There was something wrong with it. Something didn't click or sound right. He felt there was something amiss in that sentence...

Crap! He forgot about the magical stutter!

"H-Hihi! O-O-OM-G H-how are y-youu-uuu!!-!?

There was still something wrong with it! Girls spoke like this but he seriously doubted a wizard girl in a magical kingdom would say stuff like that.

"B-By the go-goddess, greet-tings t-to you f-fellow sister of the m-mystical arts, how f-fare thou t-this morning?"

If he had to write such a huge sentence just to say 'Hi!' this story was going to take forever.

"Yo. S-sup?"

Drrrrumm-Drrrrumm-Drrrrumm...

He felt he was going to wear his muse down if he kept asking her questions every time he hit a roadblock. She'd likely just grab his laptop and finish his homework for him just to get him off her hair, but he figured if he started a conversation, he could imitate her speech somehow and put it on his story without her being the wiser. He'd have to be sneaky about it though, make it all seem like polite talk instead of just nagging her with question after question...

Leaning his head to where she was again, he tried to be very nonchalant about it.

"Hi. I'm Miles. How are you?"

"Um...no...i-it's..." She gave up and returned to her computer.

And thought...

Aaaaaaaaand thooooooooought.....

Lightly tapping the "j" key, not hard enough for a keystroke, but enough to make a little series of tapping noises, like a tiny metronome was embedded in the sparkly pink laptop.

Did she really run out of ideas that fast?

Yes. Evidently, she did.

To be fair, this wasn't even the story she'd been intending to write. She glanced down at her Composition Notebook, still sitting there, untouched.

"Hi. I'm Miles. How are you?"

Miles?

Like...per hour?

Not Carter?

She mentally gasped in terror. His name wasn't Carter? But...now that she knew his name, she'd never be able to dissociate the two, and she'd keep referring to Carter as Miles and Miles as Carter and nothing could ever be straightened out and...

'Kara, stop making mountains out of molehills and answer the stupid question.'

"U-um......I'm K-Kara. Hi..."

She turned back to her computer, trying to decide what to do about the serious name problem.

"Oh...a-and...I'm alright."

"Good" he said, his fingers now taking a life of their own as he went ahead and tried to incorporate Kara's reply into his story.

Oh... wait a minute, he couldn't just have 'a friend' pop into the story and talk to Rainbow without an identity of its own. This friend needed a name and a description, preferably someone similar to him, a teenage boy, so the conversation wouldn't skew off with too many gender differences.

Miles looked at his screen and his screen looked back at him with his own reflection. He smiled.

A teenager magically teleported into the magical library. He had brown hair and eyes, was good looking astoundingly handsome, his muscular frame made that wolf guy from Twilight look like a deformed camel, his pearly whites made real pearls feel jealous and he was tall. Much taller than five measly feet, he was really tall, had large hands, large feet, large legs and arms and a large torso.

Hmmm... Should he go there?

Yup! He should!

Rumors in the boys bathroom confirmed that he was 'large' all around and a source of massive inferiority complexes among his peers.

Now to think of a name. He couldn't just go and name him 'Miles', no. He had to be very sneaky and subtle. Maybe name him in such a way that they'd need a decryption expert to figure out there were any similarities between him and his creation.

His name was Selim.

Selim Kered Notxah.

Selim approached Rainbow and talked to her.

"Hey there, girl. You may call me Selim. How you doooin'?"

"U-um......I'm K-Kara R-Rainbow. Hi..."

She stared at him in awe and excitement, not really knowing how to think or behave. He was the epitome of perfection.

"Oh...a-and...I'm alright."

Now THIS was starting to look gooood!

She was right.

It was all over.

Every time she kept trying to write something about Carter's harrowing journey, she kept replacing her mopey teen with the Sassypants who was sitting across from her.

'Isn't that the point of a muse? To get inspiration?'

'Yes, but I want, 'Inspired by,' not 'Copied from'.'

With a loud groan of pain and disappointment, she flopped down onto the table, missing slightly so that her head landed smack in the middle of the keyboard. Immediately, she felt it, all the tiny little pinpricks of the corners of keys making her forehead feel almost numb.

"No...no you're not. It's fine, though. I can fix it. Do you...have a...um...a birth certificate on you?"

"No. I don't have one period. The...town hall caught fire."

"Well...um...then..."

"hjglbnsvifjdn ilfglndtljknakjxbckljvjhdkl

That's it!

Carter had a variation of Tourettes Syndrome, where he spouted gibberish whenever he got upset!

It was so perfect! Why hadn't she thought of it sooner?!

"Well...um...then..."

"hjglbnsvifjdn ilfglndtljknakjxbckljvjhdkl!!!" Carter suddenly interrupted.

The receptionist was rightfully perplexed. "I'm...sorry...?"

"Sorry, sorry...it's...a congenital thing. Can I see my mom now?"

Perfection.

All right, so now that we finally have character interaction, what's next? Selim said hi, Rainbow said hi, so now the protagonist has finally met... the antagonist? HAH! Beautiful! Let's get that right out of the way!

So what does an antagonist tell a protagonist?

"You're Rainbow? Oh. We're supposed to meet at the magic deathmatch arena tonight. Sucks to be you" Selim said, his ice cold blue eyes giving her a deathly stare and Rainbow simply...

Simply what? How would Rainbow react to being challenged in such a way? Only one person could know, so Miles took his eyes off his screen and just when he was about to bother Kara again, she smacked her head on her keyboard.

...

Brilliant! She was a genius giving him answers before he asked the questions!

Rainbow simply fainted. She fell like a wooden plank, her head smacking the floor and making a noise that sounded almost... keyboardish. Selim looked at her with an evil glint in his green eyes. He then started walking away...

Okay, now he was making his protagonist seem like a wuss. That wouldn't do.

Rainbow quickly got up, anger and fury coming out of her as she looked deep into Selim's black eyes and said...

Right. What would she say? His muse didn't magically answer this one without being questioned first, so he leaned forward and was pretty blunt about it.

"So tell me, if some random guy came over to you and challenged you for a duel to the death, how would you snap back at him?"

"So tell me, if some random guy came over to you and challenged you for a duel to the death, how would you snap back at him?"

Kara glanced up from her work, completely and utterly surprised at Miles asking a question at all. He seemed to be as caught up in his story as she was in hers. So the fact that he'd even spoken was...

Wait...

What was the question?

'How would you respond if challenged to a duel to the death?' She figured it was close enough.

"Probably...um...like...r--run. Or...die. Or...maybe...um...both. A--are those...options?"

From a couple tables over, some strange guy let out a quick little, "Shhhh!"

Kara instantly shrank down behind her laptop screen, issuing a tiny little, "Sorry," before staring at the blinking cursor.

Miles fingers immediately went back to the keyboard and... typed nothing.

She was the hero in his story and she was being challenged! How could she just run or die? No, no... that wasn't an option. Rainbow was not a wuss! This was frustrating. Maybe if he...

>>Shhhh!

Miles turned his head to the offending shusher and mouthed the words "Bite me!" without making a sound. This was important! He needed this grade. Luckily, he had written a lot already and using double spaces he had managed to push the whole thing into second page territory and he was close to reaching page three. When he turned back, Kara was pretty much hiding behind her keyboard apologizing. To whom? That guy? Come ooon! They had to talk, it's not like he could ask her questions using sign language, but at least Miles realized he may have been pushing her a little too much, too often. He made a 'zipping' motion with two fingers over his mouth just to bring her some peace of mind. Boy, she was really shy.

He tried to use what she gave him to work with, but maybe he could give it a little spin. He needed this to be wordy, so he could separate the dialogue lines with double spaces.

Selim looked at her with an evil glint in his green eyes. He then started walking away. Rainbow quickly got up, anger and fury coming out of her as she looked deep into Selim's black eyes and said:

"Are you running away from me? Or are you ready to die!? Because those are your two options!"

Miles nodded and smiled contentedly as he realized his muse had come through one more time, whether she had wanted it or not. Rainbow was ready to kick ass!

Selim looked at Rainbow and boasted his superior knowledge in the magical combat arts.

"You have no hope of defeating me! You will rue the day you faced me in the arena! Ha ha ha...!"

Of course the antagonist needed to have a villainous laughter even if what he was saying wasn't remotely funny. It was a staple in these sort of stories and... Wait a minute! Oh boy! He needed more dialogue and he could exploit this beautifully!

"You have no hope of defeating me! You will rue the day you faced me in the arena! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...!"

Welcome page three!

The assignment was supposed to be three pages long, but no one said it had to be three WHOLE pages, so maybe after a few lines in, he could just call it a day. Now all he needed was those few lines. What would Rainbow do after she had been laughed at like that? She'd probably come up with a cool phrase, like a motto or something meaningful that made people think.

He was about to ask... whoa! Wait, no. He had been loud enough to annoy some people OTHER than his muse and she was very shy, so if he wanted to ask her something again, maybe he should try and be a little more respectful. But how could he ask her for a cool phrase if he couldn't talk to her?

The boy remembered a schoolmate had passed him a note in the middle of class earlier in the day and he had tucked it in his pocket. He pulled it out, crossed over what had been written on it and wrote something underneath. He then slipped the note to Kara.

Kara stared hard at Carter, careful not to do anything that might upset anyone else (in other words, sitting perfectly still and hidden by her laptop). She had a pretty serious issue here. After all, Carter was originally supposed to be a sassy, mopey, rebellious teenage boy. She had rebellious, and now she had sassy. She also had teenage boy, or as close as she could get barring a world-changing psychic event where that entire species suddenly made a tiny bit of sense.

But she didn't quite have mopey...

The trick was to subtly weave it into the dialogue so that it became a barely-noticeable undertone.

"Sorry, sorry...it's...a congenital thing. Can i see my mom now?"

"Y--You're...sure it's not...contagious?"

He stared at her with a visual facepalm. "I just said it's congenital."

"Well...if you say so..."

"You didn't answer my question."

"Actually, I did. The answer is no." The phone rang suddenly, making the receptionist jump slightly. Then, picking up the reviever, she softly said to Carter, "If you'll excuse me..."

Carter got the message. He left the hospital, wandered back to his dad's '91 Camry, and fell more than sat in the driver's seat. After a few minutes, he turned the radio on, found the saddest song he could find, and began softly singing along as the tears started

'So much for subtlety,' Kara thought, stopping herself to read back over the rather absurd level of mopery.

The only question was, how to make it more subtle...

She awoke from her thoughts to the sound of paper sliding across the table. Miles had apparently decided that in the spirit of silence, passing notes was the best move. To be fair, he was probably right. And to be honest, she was in a bit of a bind, so as quick as she could without looking like she was in a hurry, she grabbed the note and began unfolding it, eager to have a piece of the wisdom contained in--...

...--side...

Bright red blush began to creep up her neck.

It wasn't the bottom note that bothered her. It was the note that had been crossed out that she didn't know how to react to. Was it a note that he'd intended for her, but chickened out on? Or was it just something from a previous time, left behind? In the second case, she couldn't help but imagine the context. And in the first...

Kara glanced briefly around the library. There were only three girls who were immediately visible, and of the three, the only one who was particularly...erm...well-endowed...happened to be the librarian.

The blush was getting farther and farther up her neck.

She flipped the paper over and started scrawling a reply, before erasing and re-writing it with the handwriting significantly improved. Passing the note back, Kara glanced at her reply, which read: "No I don't. Sorry. And I'm not into girls."

Boy, 'Rainbow' turned out to be quite an appropriate name for his character, judging by how his muse changed color, specifically into the 'red' hues. Was she angry or something? Embarrassed, maybe? He had taken all the precautions not to embarrass her with the rest of the library folks by slipping a note instead of talking, so surely that wasn't the reason...

Kara slipped the note back and Miles hoped to find something cool Confucius or Sun Tzu had said. Instead, he only found her denial, an apology and...

... She was not into girls?

Wait, what? That was clearly not a motto but... why was she telling him this? Did he even ask if she was? Was this some sort of indirect clue for him? A clue for what? What did she mean by this?

She was not into girls.

Huh. So she's into boys, of course. She was telling Miles that she liked boys. Why? She probably thought HE thought she was into girls for some reason and she was confirming that was not the case. Why? Because she wanted him to KNOW she liked boys. Why!?

Waaaait a minute.... she's shy. Was this... Was this some sort of awkward, weird, shy way of hers to politely nudge him into...

... Asking her out?

Hi, Miles! I like boys! *nudge, nudge, wink wink*?

Miles eyes widened as he thought out his conclusion a wee bit longer. He started to read the note again as he whispered.

"Well, I AM into girls, but I'm actually seeing someone else and I don't think we should date because..." he started, then stopped when his eyes fixed themselves on the crossed over part of the note she MUST have read through and probably thought was meant for her.

Oh.

OH!

His reaction to his confusion was imminent.

And loud.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAAA!"

There was a chorus of "SHHHHH!"s and "Quiet!" as some of the students craned their necks to look and stare at them. Others huffed impatiently, urging the librarian to do something about it. Miles ducked his head and managed to quickly type something into his laptop

...ha ha ha ha ha ha...!

Rainbow's neck grew bright red as she raised her arm and pointed a finger at something behind Selim.

"Holy Crap! Look at the boobs on that girl!"

Selim turned around and as he did, Rainbow hit him on the head with a magical shovel.

THE END!

At that moment, he felt the hand of the librarian grabbing and pulling at his arm, forcing him to get up and leading him out the door. Miles stumbled up and barely managed to close his laptop as he was being pushed into leaving.

"Thanks for everything!" he said as he was being encouraged to move forward. The librarian opened the door, shoved Miles outside and closed it behind him, to the sighs of relief from several of the students in the room.

The door suddenly opened again and Miles poked his head back in.

"I'LL SEE YOU AROUND!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, quickly closing the door behind him and running away from the library.

After passing the note, Kara quickly deleted the last paragraph. But instead of brainstorming, she took a quick peek over her computer in the general direction of Miles. He was writing something down, but then he stopped...

...and burst out laughing, at a volume that would shame most whales.

Everyone turned to stare. And shush them. And even the librarian was walking over purposefully.

Being unable to flee the planet, Kara simply shrunk down lower and lower into her seat.

Miles madly began typing as the librarian approached more and more ominously, before finally, Kara watched him get forcibly dragged out of the library. But he just couldn't leave well enough alone, could he? Apparently, he couldn't, because the first thing he did after getting dragged out of a quiet room for being loud, he stuck his head back through the door and yelled, "I'll see you around!"

The librarian was by the door in what seemed like a millisecond, but apparently, it was enough time for Miles to flee. After that, she calmly walked back to her desk, and (along with several other people) began to simply stare at Carragail, as if to say, "Try me, little Miss Smartypants."

Kara's list of safe havens shrank to zero. After all, how likely was she to get past the Kuiper Belt?

She tried to shove those people out of her mind and return to her work. But then, something caught her eye. On the table...was that...

The blush came back.

The note.

Was still.

Sitting. Right. There.

As quietly as she possibly could, she started reaching across the table to grab it. A quick glance around, though, let her know that the librarian was still watching very intently. Her eyes were like laser beams boring into Kara's skull. It was among the scariest things Kara had ever seen, second only to that one Youtube Video whose name she couldn't place.

She quickly grabbed the note, and sat back in her seat. But the librarians eyes were still there, still boring into her mind. She was about to read the note, but then simply crumpled it up, packed up her things, and fled the library, tossing the note into the recycle bin as she went.

She could only hope that Central Park would be far enough.

And that she'd never meet Miles again.

[END]