Chapter ten


Jamie had never met anyone like Susan before, and it wasn't just how she looked, that didn't really bother him, it was the way she talked and acted. It was like she was from some kind of old movie or something, not to mention the fact that her voice always had a clipped, no nonsense tone. And when she introduced herself she said somethings that made no sense at all, "Hi, my name is Susan Sto Helit, Jack said you have history books and the like, where are they?" After shooting a very confused look to Jack who just nodded and gave him an apologetic smile. Jamie just nodded warily and said,
"There's some in my room, I can show you if you'd-" she cut him off bruskly saying,
"I'll find my own way thank you." Then without so much as another glance in their direction she brushed past him and went inside. Jamie looked at Jack inquiringly.
"Is she-" he started asking exasperatedly only to once again be cut off.
"Yes" Jack stated sounding slightly exhausted.

Susan found the boy, Jamie apparently,'s room without much difficulty. Though finding his book took a bit of doing. Before she had even had time to open it however she already knew something was very wrong. The cover of the book had a sphere on it, this she assumed was the planet judging by the coloring and striking similarity to the Disc. But the problems really started after she had sat at his desk and started reading, the second she layed eyes on the chapter titles like: the American revolution, and the race to the moon she started feeling uneasy. After reading for about ten minutes she snapped the book shut and took a trembling breath. They did it.... The Auditors actually went and did it..... She thought numbly as sadness and heated rage began to fill her. She had known for a very long time that The Auditors had wanted the Discworld to be more logical, to be a rock floating in space and rotating on its axis, and at some point while her grandfather was away they had gone and done it, they had broken The Rules and rewrote reality, destroying every bit of wonder, every speck of magic, and changed the Discworld into a rather boring old place. But this wasn't her problem, her problem was the fact that Sto Helit, Anhk-Morpork, and every other wonderful-well wonderful-ish- place had been wiped clean from existence. Every place on the Disc was gone, and she no longer had any home to return to once her grandfather got back, that was her concern. And that concern continued to grow by the minute as she read all the way through the history book and moved onto a book of myths. The similarities were clear but certain things didn't fit, such as the Easter Bunny and the lack of mentions of Old Man Trouble. Along with that, no matter where she looked the name Bilious anywhere.
"No wonder Violet changed her look so much.... She lost him....." Susan found herself murmuring, feeling a sudden and complete sense of empathy for the poor fairy. Unfortunately she didn't seem to feel the tears that had begun dripping onto her cheeks until she heard a soft gasp from the hall outside Jamie's bedroom. A tall woman with brown hair rushed in and knelt in front of Susan, taking her hands and exclaiming,
"Oh my God! Are you alright dear? You're crying! Did Jamie say something? Because if he did-" Susan cut her off with a wry chuckle and stated,
"No, this isn't your son's doing, I was just looking through these books and I remembered something sad." Jamie's mother nodded sympathetically and said,
"If there's anything I can do to make you feel better go ahead and let me know um....." Susan immediately recognized the look in the poor woman's eyes, it was a look that clearly said: 'I know that this girl has always been around and yet I don't even know the first letter of her name...'. Susan sighed before snapping her fingers surreptitiously to stop time and, just to save time, used her Voice to state,
"THAT'S RIGHT, HER NAME IS SUSAN SHE'S CLASSMATES WITH MY SON." Before snapping again and allowing the words to settle into the woman's mind.
"...Susan." She mumbled looking slightly bemused. Susan smiled and wiped away her tears.
"Thank you for the offer, this may sound odd but do you by chance have any books on logic?" Jamie's mother blinked before nodding.
"Yes I...think I might, how about you go wait in the kitchen while I try to find it." Susan nodded in thanks and headed downstairs to find where the kitchen was.

"Dude, she's not gonna want to come." Jack said trying to convince his best friend not to invite Susan to join the three of them at the park.
"How do you know man, have you tried doing it?" Jamie asked teasingly. Jack sighed, knowing that there would be no arguing with him.
"Fine, fine, but don't blame me when she doesn't let you down gently." He stated holding his arms up in defeat. It came to an incredible shock to both of them to see Susan accepting a book from Mrs. Bennett.
"Um... Mom? What are you doing?" Jamie asked, barely trying to control his confusion.
"Susan here was looking for a book on logic so I thought I'd loan her this one."she responded smiling. The boys blinked at the two women in utter disbelief before Jamie responded with the old classic for situations where you never quite know how to respond:
"Oh." Susan rolled her eyes slightly and opened her book just as Sophie came bounding in and called,
"Did you ask her, did you ask her?!" And caused their mother to look between Jamie and her daughter and ask, "Asked who, what?" This earned an embarrassed chuckle from Jamie who responded,
"I was gonna ask Susan if she wanted to come to the park with us." There are certain things you never say in front of your mother: you never tell her if you're about to go do something illegal, and you never say that you're going to invite anyone pretty who your mother barely knows to go do anything. Knowing this, and knowing that Susan knew it, Jack couldn't help but flinch at the look that she shot Jamie as she looked over the edge of her book at them. Mrs. Bennett naturally reacted the way most moms would by making a short, but nonetheless big, deal of the invitation and forced them all out of the house with what she thought was a conspiratorial smile. Under most circumstances Jack would have seen the look on that was on Susan's face and thought something along the lines of 'if looks could kill' but then, as he recalled whose face exactly it was making that look he gently grabbed Jamie's arm and began to walk faster.

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