xp_logs | Operation: Shaboom: Homework

Illyana stops by the library to try and get something useful out of Mandy. Strangely enough, she does.

Life would be a dream, if I could take you to Paradise up above...

Mandy hummed softly to herself as she sorted the returned books, running her pen through the stamped date on each. The library was warm and dim in the wintry afternoon, only a few of the older townsfolk sitting quietly reading.

Illyana was cold. It was a result of wearing an idiotic short skirt in the middle of winter, and she hoped that whoever was responsible for all of this (she was still vaguely suspicious of Amanda, but nobody seemed to listen to her, which was irritating) would die a horrible, horrible death. Relief and warmth flooded her as she walked into the library, temporarily sinking her into the psychic miasma of "Anna", who, as far as she could tell, would be useful only as cat food. She surfaced in a much worse mood halfway across the floor, and fairly slammed her stack of yearbooks down on Amanda's desk.

Mandy looked up, frowning until she noticed who it was. "Anna," she said with a smile. "What can I do for you, hon?"

It would be wrong to strangle Amanda. Academically, Illyana was aware of this, but her hands still itched a little. "You have to do your job," she said as pleasantly as she could. "Which, in this case, involves looking at these pictures that I have circled in black - " black for her mood, and also the colour of death which she hoped would seep into the very lifestream of this hellhole and kill every living person so they would never speak to her again - no, wait, focus - "and figuring out which of these people graduated from high school and stayed here."

"Oh, you're doing a school project?" Mandy beamed. "Sure I'd like to help! I'm still in touch with most of my old class, you know." She pored over the first year book, running her finger along the pictures. "Hmm, Shep married Susie and they're still here, out in the old Steinbeck place . They've got kids now, twins, you could just eat them up, they're the cutest things. Mary moved to... Cleveland, I think it was? She has family there. Carrie works at the drugstore, but you know that already."

"Um," Illyana said, repressing a strong desire to run, get her mother (who was not actually her mother), and have her do something appropriately violent to make Amanda herself again. "That's great. For my school project. Yes. Mostly I just need to know who stayed. Maybe you could make a list?"

"Of course, hon. When do you need it by?" Mandy reached for a stenographer's notepad, sitting on the desk. "When's your project due?"

"Um. As fast as possible?" Illyana racked her brain for an appropriate reason for this. "Because my boyfriend, um, you know, that guy? He came to visit? And I had this cheerleading game, and there was this accident in domestic arts where this guy got burnt, so I've been really busy."

"Anna, you know you shouldn't leave things until the last minute. Being pretty will get you a long way, but it's not so bad being smart as well." Mandy wagged her finger at Illyana in gentle admonishment. "I'll help you out this time. But only once, mind. I wouldn't want your teachers getting mad at me for helping you."

Illyana developed a sudden migraine as one half of her wanted to unleash the darkest forces of hell on earth and reign supreme as their despotic harbinger of death, and the other wanted to take Mandy's advice and learn to be a better person. "Right, yes," she said. "I will do better . . . next time. But." She ran through her vocabulary of how to make people help her. "Please?"

Mandy patted her hand. "Sure, hon. Come by first thing in the morning, I'll have the list for you."

"Great, that's great. My - uh - my stepmom. She'll bake you some cookies. She bakes great cookies." Illyana hoped by this time tomorrow they would all be dead, and her lie never uncovered. "So, I'm going to go. Cheerlead. I have to lead some cheers. It's very important. Apparently they can't do without a leader. But thanks!"

"Any time, hon. I love to research, I always have." As she said it, Mandy had an image, small and fuzzy, of a girl very much like herself but dressed very strangely, surrounded by books. She shook it off as momentary woolgathering. "Run along, sweetie. Have fun. Say hi to that boyfriend of yours for me."

"I sure will." Secretly, Illyana resolved to push Doug off a cliff. "Bye!"