She took it and ran along without question, loving the thought of a friend closer to her own age who would actually want to have fun, to explore, not to just lurk around outside record stores and navel gaze while trying to bum cloves off of older teenagers. New York had been good for baby goth Lydia to get her feet wet, but really, she had a feeling she cared a little more than the average goth, and they would have all outed her eventually.

"My two best friends at home are ghosts," she grinned as they pelted toward New Orleans Square. "Adam and Barbara. They owned the house before my Dad bought it, but they died in a car accident, so now they haunt it. They're both really nice. Kind of like having ghosts for an aunt and uncle. Adam makes these really amazing detailed models of stuff - they have a giant one of their whole town in the attic. I bet he'd love to try making a model of this place. I've only really done one magic thing, and that was kind of a big mistake. But not really. I was trying to help them, and ... it's a long story. But I think this magic is a lot different than what was in the Handbook, anyway."

She was so happy to have someone to talk to that she hadn't really realized it was the most she'd said at once to anyone in weeks.