[Izulde]

Despite the faint, foolish hope that it might be my favorite waitress walking in, it wasn't.

No, destiny took the form of a boy who I assumed was a teenager. I can never tell ages. Judging from his bowl haircut, pockmarked face, and glasses that were thick rather than thicc, though... I had this kid marked out for a nerd. Not unlike me in school, actually.

"Hi. Do you have any RPG books? Mr. Winchester never let me see them. He said I was too young."

As it turned out, I did. They'd been oddly screened off behind a red, plastic divider that was marked Adult Only. On their right side was erotica and on their left was New Age books. The erotica I kept there, but moved the gaming books and New Age ones to remote corners of the store.

While I walked the kid over to the gaming section, newly printed in green marker in my horrible handwriting, I asked why he'd been blockaded before.

"Because Mrs. Cherryham said they were satanic and corrupted young minds. I think the only reason Mr. Winchester listened to her was because she has big hooters."

"...I see. Anything else I should know about outraged parents?"

The kid shrugged as he picked up one of the books and began thumbing through it.

"Dunno. Probably. Adults are weird. No offense."

"None taken. It's how these towns go, I suppose."

Another shrug and more book-paging. I was starting to feel awkward so I told him I'd be behind the counter if he needed anything.

Twenty minutes later, he came up with two books whose subject matter was Live-Action Role-playing.

"You LARP?"

"Not really. But I want to join the group that does. They're starting a new campaign soon. I hear there's actually girls that play."

I wanted to tell the kid he was going to be mighty disappointed. It didn't look like he was joining a Vampire LARP, where hot goth chicks, big-tittied or small, could at least be found. But why ruin it for him and risk losing a sale?

"That's cool. You know any of them?" I asked as I rung up his purchases.

"Probably."

"Any you like?"

"Don't know. I haven't played yet."

Fair point, I thought. We exchanged money and books now nestled in a plastic shopping bag from the local grocery store.

As he reached the door, he turned around.

"You should come play, too. Or at least watch."

"...Um... why?"

"So we can say we had an adult supervising. Nobody else will, and you're new, so it's not like you have a reputation to ruin yet."

...Little snot.

"I'll think about it."