Excerpt: Riverside Magicks

"Well, this is different."

She sounded so calm, and Liza wanted to know how she did it. It seemed as though she had been through so many strange experiences that she took almost everything new in stride because new didn't necessarily mean bad, and as of yet, she wasn't out of her depth.

As for whether they would be or not, she would evaluate that at a later time.

Liza would really like to have Anne's ease and confort with any situation one of these days. For now, for her, she'd jumped and let out a sound embarrassingly lie a squeak when something moved in the alleyway they were standing in. Once she'd recovered from the intital startlement, Liza could see that it was nothing more threatening than a bunny hopping its way across the alleyway toward the dumpster.

"Calm down," Anne suggested. "We'll be fine."

"Are you always this calm and optimistic when you get thrown into strange situations?"

While it could have been a base accusation, Liza was genuinely curious, so it came out as a question instead. Initially, she was annoyed at herself for not really snapping, but it didn't take long for that initial annoyance to fade. Once that faded, however, she would have been mortified that she had taken the original tone with Anne Shea, so it was really for the best that things had come out the way they had. After all, like everyone else, Anne was more likely to answer a genuine question than an accusation.

Anne smiled in response, and Liza got the impression that she would have laughed but for an attempt to preserve what remained of Liza's teenage dignity. Liza, for her part, wanted to tell her not to even bother; after everything that had happened so far during this task, she had no dignity left to preserve.