Free The Wizard's Dilemma, New Millennium Edition by Diane Duane Page A

principal hasn’t been sending people home for wearing skirts this short? Really? ”
    “Really.”
    “You wouldn’t be bending the truth in the service of fashion, here?”
    Nita had to laugh at that. “If I was gonna lie to you about anything, Mom, don’t you think I would have done it when it was about much bigger stuff? Great white sharks? Saving the world?” And she grinned.
    “I begin to wonder,” her mom said, putting the skirt back on the rack, “exactly how much you aren’t telling me that I ought to know about”
    “Tons of things,” Nita said. “Where should I start? Did I tell you about the dinosaurs in Central Park?”
    Her mother looked over her shoulder with one of those expressions that suggested she wasn’t sure whether Nita was joking. But the expression shaded into one that meant her mom had realized this wasn’t a joke and she didn’t like the idea. “Is this something recent?”
    “Uh, kind of. Except we made it so it never happened, and maybe recent isn’t the right word.”
    Nita’s mother frowned, perplexed. Nita ignored this; the translation of what she’d said was bothering her. “Potentially recent?” Nita said, to see how the substitution sounded. Unfortunately English lacked the right kind of verb tenses to describe a problem that could be easily expressed in the Speech. “No, it can’t happen anymore, I don’t think. At least, not that time, it can’t. Formerly recent?”
    “Stop now,” Nita’s mother said, “before this takes you, me, and the dinosaurs many places that none of us wants to go. Let’s get back to the skirt.” She picked it up again. “Honey, your poor old mom tries hard not to live entirely in the last century, but this thing’s hardly more than a wide belt.”
    “Mom, remember when you trusted me about the shark?”
    “Yeeees…” her mother said, sounding dubious.
    “So trust me about the skirt!”
    Her mother gave her a cockeyed look. “It’s not the sharks I’m worried about,” she said. “It’s the wolves.”
    “Mom, I promise you, none of the ‘wolves’ are going to touch me. I just want to look normal. If I can’t be normal, let me at least simulate the effect!”
    Her mother looked at her with mild surprise. “You’re not having problems at school, are you?”
    “No, I’m fine.”
    “The homework—”
    “It’s no big deal. There’s more than there used to be, and it’s different, but so far I’m not overloaded.”
    “You are having problems, though.”
    “Mom—” Nita sighed. “Nobody beats me up anymore, if that’s what you’re worried about. They can’t. But a lot of the kids still think I’m some kind of nerd princess.” She grimaced. Once Nita had thought that when she got into junior high, reading would be seen as normal behavior for someone her age. She was still waiting for this idea to occur to some of her classmates. “It’s nothing wizardry’ll cure. Just believe me when I tell you that dressing enough in style to blend in a little would be a help. I know I didn’t care much about clothes in grade school, but now it’s more of an issue. As for the length, if you’re worried that moral rot will set in, I’ll promise to let you know if I see any early warning signs.”
    Her mother smiled slightly. “Okay,” she said, put back the skirt she’d been holding, and reached out to take the one Nita was carrying. “Moral rot hasn’t been much of a problem with you. So this is an experiment. But if I hear anything from your principal, I’m going to make you wear flour sacks down to your ankles until you graduate. You and the dinosaurs better make a note.”
    “Noted and logged, Mom,” Nita said. “Thanks.” She went off to put the other two skirts back where she’d found them. This one’s a start. She’ll soften up in a couple of weeks, and we can come back for the other ones.
    They went to the cash register and paid for the skirt. Then Nita’s mom drove them to the supermarket, and