Retrovertigo [Riley]

[grey xavier slater]

@riley

The future of the school newspaper was always at the forefront of his mind as the term was beginning to come to a close. There were positions in the paper that he needed to fill, such as the new editor-in-chief and junior editor, as well as a new person to take over for the advice column. He had known that people were going to drop out of the club as finals neared, but not this many all at the same time. There weren’t a lot of younger students in the club that he felt were capable of taking over any of those roles. There was however a boy, a Ravenclaw from what Grey figured out, that seemed to be perfect when it came to taking over as the advice column. Obviously he didn’t know if the guy was any good at giving out advice, but the way he studied people was definitely interesting.

Grey wasn’t even sure when he first noticed the kid’s odd habits, but the constant watching eventually lead to him discovering that things were written down and noted on. In his last few years of working with the newspaper, this was more journalistic than the majority of the club members. And he was only doing it for fun. Either that or he was the Gossip Witch that Grey had been trying to hunt down for months on end. That would be a little anti-climactic if he were to be honest, but there was only one way to really find out.

The goal the Gryffindor had set himself was to approach the Ravenclaw the next time he saw him in the library. Finals were only a few months away, and it was easier to track people down in the crowded library than one would normally think. Grey liked to think that he had found a lot of the ins and outs of the library, only ever running into cross Ravenclaws and Slytherins every so often. They took their work a little too seriously sometimes. There was even one girl who was in the library constantly, always writing and re-writing notes like her life depended on it. Her social life was clearly damned for an eternity.

Luckily there wasn’t much waiting, because the first time after coming up with his plan, Grey found the boy sitting at a table. That was the easy part. The next step was convincing him to join, or at the most, planting a seed. Discerning whether or not he was the Gossip Witch would fit somewhere in all of that as well, but getting a new member was slightly more important right now. Setting his bag down on the table across from the boy, Grey took a seat. How was he going to initiate this conversation? Usually members came to him and not the other way around. Seeing as he had no idea who this guy was, and vice versa, it was a little bit different from normal. To add to that, recruiting someone so late in the game when he himself was about to be out of it was strange. It was all for the greater good in the end. "You have a minute?"

[Deleted]

Riley was in the library studying as he often did, however, he wasn't studying for finals. He had a book regarding teenage psychiatry development and communication on the table in front of him and he was jotting down a few notes in his black, hardcover notebook sat on the table with a blue pen in-between the pages, making his place. He would never leave it open unless he was currently writing, and he had secured it with charms to ensure that he would be the only one able to gain access to it (or any of it's many twins) content.

How many times had people questioned his motives when it came to his self-taught abilities? Often enough. He got a lot of mixed opinions when people found out what he was doing while he was watching their hands or subtly asking leading questions. He never let anyone see that he was taking notes on them, that was a little too creepy than he cared to let on, but he didn't really do it because of the person in particular, he took notes on things that people did in order to look them up later to further his skills and advance his abilities. It wasn't that he kept a specific log of specific people, but he had the information to do so.

Do you have a minute? A Gryffindor man approached him in the library. Riley didn't know the student, he was positive they weren't in the same year, likely the Gryffindor was a year older than Riley was. "uh... sure... take a seat." Riley nodded to the chair across the table from him. He closed his book and set it on top of his notebook, wondering what the Gryffindor wanted with him. 

grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

@riley

Well, sitting down was half the battle. At least the guy didn’t tell him off immediately for interfering with studying, or whatever it was that Ravenclaws did in the library. Grey knew that he didn’t have the time nor the patience to try and slog through every class the way that they did. He had more important things, more important people that took up most of his time. At this point, what was done was done when it came to classes. If he was to receive bad marks, he’d gladly take them to be over with it all. Glancing across the table, he noticed that the book the boy was reading wasn’t anything from school. Good. That meant he wasn’t interrupting anything too important. Whatever that book, and the notebook underneath it for that matter, were about, they could wait. Recruitment was more important right now.

“I have a proposition for you,” Grey started, wondering how he was going to explain how he had noticed the Ravenclaw’s quirks and how that would play into the job he wanted the boy to do. “I’m the Editor-In-Chief of the school newspaper, Grey Slater.” If the table wasn’t between them, he probably would have extended his arm for a handshake, but there wasn’t time for that right now. “And I want you to take over as the advice columnist in the paper.” Grey paused to let the boy mull it over for a few seconds. He knew that asking someone to give other people advice in a newspaper was kind of a strange thing, but lately it had been relatively popular. The Yule Ball had made sure of that. “The reason I’m asking you, is because I noticed that little habit of yours of watching other people and figuring out about them. I think that could be a pretty good skill to have if you were to, let’s say, follow someone around to get all the details on their questions and then accurately answer them in the paper. All under the guise of writing for the paper,” Grey shrugged and leaned back in his chair. He had to throw the line out there and bait the Ravenclaw in. “What do you think?”

[Deleted]

The Gryffindor extended Riley a very strange offer and he wasn't exactly sure how to respond to it. He wasn't upset that the man noticed his skills in action, he wasn't always subtle about it, however, he was a little impressed that someone else was interested enough to notice something about him. It was rare that the observer became the observed. Riley also admired the guy for being so blunt and not beating around the bush when it came to making his intentions known. Grey Slater, Editor-In-Chief of the school newspaper, wanted him to write an advice column for the newspaper. He asked if Riley could follow people around to get the accurate scoop on their questions in order to answer them honestly. Riley had never used his skills of reading people for personal gain, he always used them for academic advancement, for inspiration and testing for his studies. 

"Look, I'm not a stalker, alright? I don't follow people around to figure them out..." he admitted. He had been made to feel like a creep before, but honestly, people watching was the best way to put the theories he studied into real context. "And I'm really not much of a writer." he added. "I don't think i would be comfortable with everyone knowing i was answering their questions and offering advice, enough people already think I'm weird..." He really couldn't see how this would work out, but he was curious to hear what the man had to say. 

grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

@riley

Grey desperately wanted to give the boy a cheesy grin when he started going on about not being a stalker and his other qualms. Luckily there were answers to all of those problems that he seemingly thought would spring up. Reporting and stalking already had a fine line, no thanks to tabloids and overly aggressive media coverage of everything. The Gryffindor liked to think that his paper wasn’t like that. That also didn’t mean that he couldn’t have a few of his club members be the type to do that. This boy already had a pretty unique talent, one that barely anyone noticed. “But you could, right? Follow them around to figure them out. Understand their questions better?” He could care less if someone saw that as stalking. If the kid was going to do it regardless, than having a reason was better than not. Obviously Grey didn’t want him getting caught on every assignment and having to explain that he was doing it for the newspaper, because then it would come back to him. The advice columnist was supposed to be a secret for a reason. “The writing is the easiest part. The former columnist didn’t have any experience either.”

He leaned back in his chair slightly so that he could observe the Ravenclaw a little more. Grey understood the problems that the boy had with it. There were a lot of questions to be answered, and having it all brought up in this abrupt of a manner was a little strange. That was how it worked though. He had managed to get Lyla the same way. At the mention of being uncomfortable of people knowing who he was, Grey grinned. “Don’t worry about that. Only I and the professor that advises the club would know you were a member. We’d conduct our weekly meetings somewhere away from the rest of the club, and then you would write everything up for the weekend edition. So only two to three questions a week. Gives you something to do in between classes.” Grey was unsure if that was enticing enough though. The boy seemed hesitant from the start, and whether his identity was a secret or not wouldn’t matter if his mind was already made. "Up to you though. I have plenty of other people lined up. Didn’t think I would ever get to them,” Grey shrugged, pushing his chair back, as if to stand up. While it was technically a bluff, he knew the boy would be able to easily see through it. Guilt trips didn't work on people like him.

[Deleted]

He could, thought he wasn't sure how his morals would feel about it. However, if he were being honest with himself, it didn't sound worse than some of the stuff that he already did. He did follow people sometimes, he had followed Cara Bainbridge and figured her out after a fairly short conversation, people like her were easy to figure out they, they were reaching to the extremes to hide something, there was obviously something they were hiding. Most students were a little less extreme about it. However, most of the time he just observed from happening to be in the right place at the right time. "I could..." Riley agreed, giving the Gryffindor a single nod. Grey said that writing the reply was the easy part and the previous student hadn't had experience either, he didn't really worry too much about the writing, but he was another excuse not to do it.

Riley couldn't say that he didn't have the time. He often finished his homework during class and spent the rest of his free time with his personal studies or with his new girlfriend. It would be another thing that he'd have to keep from her, and she was someone who also read people, so he wasn't sure how well that world work. "No one would know?" he asked again, just for the confirmation. The Gryffindor then began to play out a manipulation tactic that Riley was sure he used to get people to agree quickly, however, being who he was, of course the Ravenclaw saw through it. Grey pushed his chair back as if he were going to stand up and leave, and Riley was curious how far he'd let it get, he was sure that there really weren't any other candidates and that was why Grey was playing so hard to get him. "You really think those mind tricks would work?" he asked, raising one eyebrow at the guy. The he sighed, "as it so happens, I might be interested in some practical experience..." he admitted. 

grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

@riley

The gears were turning. Grey didn’t need the boy to voice everything he was thinking. That much was obvious just from sitting across from him. There were valid concerns in the whole ‘stalking’ and answering personal questions for people; he understood that part of it. Grey had spent an entire year vehemently fighting to not have the advice column added to the weekend publication. He lost in the end, and now that he saw what was possible through it, he was content with what it had become. That didn’t meant it couldn’t be abused. Seeing the letters sent in, and the things people wanted help with was scary. A lot of things should be questions for counselors or adults, not students running a newspaper for fun. And yet they still came. Having this guy follow people around and figure out the whole story was what made it more interesting. That couldn’t be done with the prior columnist, and if she had done something similar, Grey was unaware of it. She was a Slytherin though, and they tended to have their feelers stretched all over the school. She had connections to all sorts of people, enough so, that a harmful comment or question here or there would produce an answer that she was looking for. The Ravenclaw boy sitting across from him didn’t necessarily have to do that. As far as Grey could tell, he could figure things out from a distance. Not many people could do that. “You could.” Grey affirmed. That had been the right thing for him to say. It was exactly what the Gryffindor had wanted to hear. One hurdle was cleared.

Grey found himself grinning again at the question about others finding out. “No one. At least, that’s up to you. I’m not telling anyone who you are, and neither is the advisor. It seems to be easier if you stay anonymous,” he paused to let that sink in once again. “You wouldn’t be required to show up to club meetings either, which means no one else associated with the paper would know.” The only person that would probably ever figure out who the advice columnist was, would be the new editor-in-chief, once Grey decided to get around and nominate someone for that. There weren’t that many great candidates at the moment. The boy went on about how his little mind trick wouldn’t work, but then followed up that he was interested in getting some kind of experience. “Like I said, I didn’t think I would ever get the other people I had in mind.” Grey pointed out, sitting back down again. Both of them were acutely aware that he had said that for a reason. But he still said that he was interested. Didn’t that mean that somewhere in their conversation that Grey had managed to convince him, despite all of the negatives of the job that had been brought up? That was a victory for the Gryffindor. “So if you are interested, all I need is your name and year. Already know you’re a Ravenclaw…” He realized then that it was a little strange that he had studied this kid and figured so much about him without even knowing his name.

[Deleted]

Riley had to admit, he still had his doubts about the whole thing. He had never really seen a career as a journalist and never had the desire to write for the paper or anything like that. However, he had to give it to the guy, he was the right person for the job and even if he didn't want to admit it, he knew it to be true. He planed on opening a private practice as a physiologist for Wizards only. He knew his parents would be extremely upset if he chose to dedicate his life working with muggles, so opening a practice for wizards only was a fair compromise, or so he thought. He hadn't actually told his parents about his plans yet. He had told Kinsey once and she seemed to like the idea, but that was as far as it got. He had no idea what kind of degree or certification was required to go into professional psychology, but maybe as a private practice he didn't have to jump through too many hoops. He also figured that wizards might not be as particular as muggles when it came to those certifications. And he had to admit, this column seemed like a good way to get some practical experience analyzing people who have asked him to help them figure out an answer to a question in the lives. 

"Anonymity would be the best." he agreed. The only person he could see himself telling was Kinsey, but by not telling her he wouldn't really be lying to her. And it wasn't as if it was a big lie that would effect either of them personally, she wouldn't loose anything from him not telling her that he was the new advice columnist. Riley had made up his mind. He'd give it a trial run at the very least. "Riley Fudge." he introduced himself, reaching his hand across the table to initiate a handshake. He knew he was slightly being played, but, Grey's tactics impressed him, he meant business and would do whatever he needed to do it get it done. "I'll take it on as a test-run." he decided. "If it doesn't work out, you can contact one of your many back-up options." he said, teasing a little. Riley didn't believe for a second that he had got so far as to think of back-up options. 

grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

@riley

“The anonymous bit was my doing,” Grey admitted. “There’s too much personal information being tossed around in the letters you’ll be reading, that people knowing who you are will keep them away.” That and it was proven that anonymous columnists had a decent track record. Muggles had been doing it for years with rotating casts of writers. If Riley (Grey now knowing his name) took him up on the offer, then the only other thing he would have to do was mimic the writing style of the previous columnist. Keeping everything as close as possible was the key to it all. Obviously his own overhead of it all would be finished in a few months, but the least he could do was establish everything before graduating. He didn’t think there was anything wrong with that.

Grey reached across the table and shook Riley’s hand. “Nice to meet you Riley,” he responded. Now there was a name to the face that he had been watching. He figured that was basically a sure deal, and the next thing the Ravenclaw said all but confirmed it. A test-run. Lyla had done a test-run too, and she became hooked immediately after the first column was published. Learning people’s secrets was too hard to pass up for a lot of people. Grey was lucky enough to find two potentials in the same year that were of the same opinion, but for different reasons. “A test-run is fine. Do as many test-runs as you need. No skin off my back.” Again, he was gone in a few months. If Riley wasn’t the next advice columnist the following year, then the new editor-in-chief was responsible for finding one. It was as simple as that. “I’m telling you, some of the back-ups have potential. You were just better,” Grey stated as he stood up once again. “Meetings for the column are typically Friday afternoons in the Room of Requirement. Know the place? Just make sure you’re there before I am so that you can get it to give you a room you can work comfortably in. Anything that comes out of my head is usually pretty bland.” Or nothing at all. He couldn’t activate the room on his own unless he was looking for a room with someone already in it.

[Deleted]

"And the people requesting advice, are they anonymous too? Or do they write in with their real names?" he asked. It didn't really make sense that his identity got to be kept a secret where as the people who were asking for advice were on full blast in his responses. However, Grey had asked Riley if he would be willing to follow people around and figure out their problem on a more personal level, something that he wasn't really planning on doing, but it did have to mean that on some level the two of them at least got to know who was asking. It gave him a leg up on people, something that was appealing to the Ravenclaw who loved to have the upper hand in most situations.

Grey insisted that a test run like Riley had requested was just fine and so the Ravenclaw nodded. It was a pretty done deal as far as Riley was concerned. And if it didn't end up working out, it was no skin off Riley's back either. The Gryffindor guy kept insisting that he had back-up options, and Riley was glad regardless of whether or not the man actually did. Riley could bow out gracefully and not have the pressure of it all on him if it ended up being something that he really didn't like. The man stood up and told Riley that meetings were Friday afternoon in the Room of Requirement. A place that Riley knew well. "Fridays are good." the man nodded to the other. "I'll be there." he decided. 

---

Friday Afternoon 

Room of Requirement

Once Riley was finished with his Friday classes he made his way to the room of requirement to meet with his new editor. Those words felt so weird to him. He was never much of a joiner. Not that he was ever much of a leader either. He was much more of a loner. He felt comfortable as a loner and felt like he did his best work when he was by himself. However, that part of his personality didn't mesh well with the very social and extroverted part of him. 

He came to the entrance and paced back and forth, as was required. While he did so, the Ravenclaw began to think about his ideal work space. The entrance materialized where had once just been solid wall and Riley opened the door. Upon stepping inside, he found an office with the walls made out of bookshelves and filled out books of all sorts. In the middle of the room was a rectangular table with 6 chairs around it, not they they needed that many, but it was nice to have some space to spread things out. Riley walked around to the head of the table and plopped his bag down. He got out his journal and a pen and wandered around the room while he waited, scanning the titles of the shelves. 

grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

@riley

“Even split,” Grey answered Riley’s final two questions with just as many words. That was a real concern to bring up though. From the ones that he had dug through over the last year, the ones that contained more sensitive material were anonymous, and the silly ones had names attached. It wasn’t extremely difficult to figure out who was asking what though. If there was enough information in the letter, house and year could be determined almost immediately. On top of that, the majority of the letters were sent by female students, so it was even easier to figure out which letter belonged to which student. Riley was smart though. Putting all of that together would take him less time than it did for Grey. “But we’ll never put their names in the paper. You’ll understand it a little better once you see the letters. Obviously using your own discretion to figure out which ones to answer and not to is the first step in the whole process. If someone asks something extremely personal that will give away who they are, we either want to answer in a way that will give them the answer that will hopefully help, or just flat out ignore it.” Of course, there was the other option; to write a letter back to them with the guidance they needed. Some things didn’t need to be kept strictly to the newspaper.

As Grey stood up, Riley finally agreed to meet on Friday. He wasn’t sure if that was due to his line that he had cast out, or if the Ravenclaw had wanted to do it the entire time and just made him explain the whole process just because. Either way, the meeting was set, and that was a victory in Grey’s mind.

---

Grey made sure to get to the room of requirement excessively late. If Riley was late by ten minutes, then the Gryffindor made sure he was another ten minutes past that. That was the only way he could make sure that his new columnist had the perfect working location, and that he could get into the room as well. Not being able to activate the damn thing on his own had become increasingly more annoying over the years. At least he was done after this. Arriving at the spot, Grey thought of finding Riley, and a door quickly appeared. It was amazing how simple it was to find a person in the room. Getting anything specific in terms of a room would have left him hanging, but locating who he needed to find was extremely easy for some reason. Grey pushed the door open and stepped in. It was far different from the one that Lyla had used, and the one the club occasionally used if they needed a room without distractions. This was more work-like; serious yet comfortable. That would work for him if it did for Riley.

“Not a bad looking room,” Grey commented as he took the weeks’ worth of letters out of his bad and tossed them next to where Riley had put his own bag down. “It makes the actual club room look like a joke.” Only one of the many problems that he had with their room. That and their printing methods were absolutely abysmal. If they only had access to muggle tech while on Hogwarts grounds…he would have been able to pump out newspapers like they were nothing. Grey snagged a spot a few seats away from where Riley was seemingly set up. They were going to need the space once the letters started coming out. For now, he’d let the Ravenclaw take everything in.

[Deleted]

Grey took a while to arrive and at one point Riley began to wonder whether all of this was some sort of elaborate joke. Very funny. If it was though, he did really have to hand it to Grey. He seemed very sincere in his offer and Riley truly had no reason to be suspicious of it. After pacing and and browsing the titles of the books around the small study, Riley went back to the conference table in the center and pulled his journal out of his messenger bag and flipped through his pages, seeing the various names of some of his fellow students flash across his vision and then back out if sight with the next turn of the page. He never thought he would use this book and all of his collected information for anything but case logs and examples. He wasn't keeping logs of people to be used against them, he was doing so in order to keep a log of things to research, things that came up frequently within people and things that he needed to make sure he was well prepared to handle. This book falling into the wrong hands could cause catastrophic damages to everyone listed within. He had charmed it and was pretty confident that if anyone should find it they wouldn't be able to open it, but, it didn't stop him from worrying if he ever misplaced it. 

Finally, the door opened again and the Gryffindor stepped in. It wasn't a prank. Riley was relieved to say the least. He knew the Gryffindor had said that he would be there late, but that didn't make Riley any less anxious about something he was already anxious about. "Hey. Thanks." Riley both greeted the man and acknowledged his complement about the room. "I'm an academic, I work better around books." Riley admitted with a bit of humor, just because it was the truth didn't mean he couldn't make a little jab at himself with the truth. Grey tossed something, which Riley assumed were the letters of advice onto the table and the Ravenclaw was impressed by how many there were. "So what, we just sit here and read them and then think of what to say? Or do I have time once I read them to do some research before I have to draft a reply?" he should have brought some of his books. The entire area under his bed was stacked with books. 

grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

@riley

An academic…he supposed Riley was right on that. Grey wasn’t one to say otherwise. All he did was yell at club members to write articles that looked halfway decent and that could be read by a dolt of a first year, should they find a paper in their hands during breakfast. There were plenty of questions Grey had for the Ravenclaw on why he supposed that he was an academic, but he figured that was a question for a later date. The house said it all on its own. There was no way that he would ever understand exactly how a Ravenclaw worked and why they found learning about things interesting. “Whatever gets you to write works for me,” he stated as he shuffled a portion of the letters that were on the table towards where he assumed Riley would be sitting. “I do better under pressure, but also hate being kept waiting on articles. Not that you’ll have to deal with me for too long since I’ll be gone in a few months.” That was, if Riley even stuck with this thing throughout the next school year. It all depended on who was named the next editor-in-chief. Grey still didn’t know who he wanted to take up the helm. The decision was too difficult to make for something that wouldn’t matter to him in a month.

He snapped out of his pity party when Riley brought up another question. “Depends on how you want to go about it. I like figuring out which ones are going to be written about first, and then leaving the rest up to you. That way I have a little overhead on what is chosen but not complete control. This is your column to write.” Grey had figured that was the best way to go about this kind of writing. There needed to be some control, but not complete. He preferred his writers to do what they felt was right when it came to taking on an article, but the average article that was going to be used had a formula; Riley’s column did not need that.

[Deleted]

Riley supposed that his interest in learning came from a need to be different and stand out from his siblings. His older brother was the tough one, the independent, strong one, though he had a bit of a temper. And Lydia was the perfect, respectful pureblood daughter, who, while a bit materialistic, was the apple of their mother's eye. He needed something that made him The Golden Boy. He discovered his interest in people at a very young age and began reading about them. Once he got to Hogwarts, he just transferred his love of learning about people to learning about magic. He found magic a lot more boring than people and psychology. “I’m fine on a deadline.” Riley promised, he wasn’t someone who ever turned something in late and most of the time, even tried to get things turned in early if he could. It was easier not to have to worry about remembering to turn an assignment in.

He explained that he normally stayed and helped figure out which letters would get replies and then would leave Riley to answer them on his own. He nodded as the man explained the desired process. “Alright, that sounds pretty good. Should we get started then?” he asked, moving his bag onto the floor and taking a seat at the table. “Have you already gone through any of these? Any caught your eye?” he picked up one envelope from the stack and glanced it over before opening it.

grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

@riley

Deadline it was then. That would certainly get things moving along. Grey knew it depended on who took over for him next year though. He had been strict when it came to getting articles written on time. Keeping things timely and efficient meant having very little room for error. He wouldn’t exactly call it micromanaging more so that he was organizing the club to get things done on time. It was his job as the editor-in-chief to keep track of those things. Without the engine well-oiled and running, the rest of the cogs in the machine wouldn’t go either. The Gryffindor liked to think that even with his faults elsewhere, the school newspaper ran cleanly and they did turn out rather effective articles when it came down to it. “Perfect. I can work with a deadline,” Grey nodded his head. “Obviously if you need extensions I’ll grant them. School first and all that.” He had a hard time not cringing from that. He was starting to sound like the professor that observed the newspaper. The idea that you could be removed from club activities due to poor grades was nonsense and only happened when it came to Quidditch.

Riley took a seat and seemed ready to look over the letters. Grey couldn’t blame him. They were interesting objects. Students spilled their guts out in these things. The Ravenclaw took his first letter and Grey watched him look it over. He could only imagine what was going through his head right now. It always got better once the letter was out in the open though. “I try to leave them until now. Obviously if I get one that looks interesting I’ll occasionally open it earlier, but I’ve found it to be more entertaining reading them to an audience,” he explained, now with his own envelope in hand and motioning to Riley that he was the audience. Quickly tearing it open, Grey slid the letter out and gave it a fast read. He rolled his eyes as he recognized the hand writing. The third year girl that was always hopelessly in love with a seventh year boy. “Here’s a good lesson,” Grey said as he passed the letter over to Riley. “These ones? These we don’t talk about in your article. They come a dime a dozen. Plus you’ll learn that sometimes we have repeat writers.” He leaned across the table to point at the writing on the letter. “This girl has written every month or so for the last year. Each time about a different guy. Eventually we’ll answer her question in a roundabout way and receive a letter thanking us, but never respond to these ones directly.” He didn’t think that was too cold. It was just a simple fact that those kinds of letters were a waste of time and resources. If Riley was going to be observing and following these people around, and then writing articles for them, it needed to be about something interesting. A love-stricken third year girl was not interesting. There were other readers who needed to be satisfied as well.