Your Princess is in Another Castle Read Free Page A

the tactic, as it prevents Sabrina from ask ing me if I need help with anything or, perish the thought, attempting to begin an actual conversation about comics and such.  Had the owner simply hired a male, it would all be so much simpler.     
    Flanked by the many more than six-s ided die and the back issues stretching back to the Golden Age, I’m able to relax a little.  Browsing the store will not only eat up some time I likely would have spent pacing back and forth in my dorm room, it serves a function regarding tonight.  I can take solace that my girl problems are rather trivial compared to what’s been endured by the likes of characters such as Scott Summers, Peter Parker, Kyle Rayner, and the two tortured souls who share the first name Bruce.   
    In fact, s olidarity with Mr. Wayne seems like a good idea, and having recently read The Long Halloween, I decide to pick up its sequel, Dark Victory.  A backup plan, I’ll have something to do in the likely event that things go south with Sonya.  Not being an absolute pessimist however, I’ll place it in my trunk lest Sonya spot it if she should get into my car for any after-dinner sojourn we may embark upon.
    After some browsing of the discount bins, I make my way up to the counter and Sabrina.  She is cute, slightly shorter than Jessica and with a shade darker hair.  If she were to cosplay, she’d make a great Kitty Pryde.  But our relationship needs to be all business, so I’m aiming to make this brief.                    
    “ Hello, again I guess, since I greeted you when you came in,” says Sabrina.  “Did you find what you were looking for?  You looked like you headed to the back with something specific in mind.”  She doesn’t immediately begin to scan my book. 
    I remember the day I asked out Molly, and how I’d had to wait so long for some sweaty kid to decide whether he or not he was going to buy a poster of Hermione Granger that I’d actually started skimming a trade paperback of Aquaman just so I could be alone with her.  (Never having really given Aquaman a chance before, I was pleasantly surprised to find out he’s not as lame as he’s made out to be, that he could even become a character to read occasionally.)  Perhaps that will be Sonya’s appraisal of me: Yeah, I went out with him.  He’s really not as lame as you’d think once you give him a chance .  But what I wouldn’t give for that sweaty kid to be behind me right now, anxiously waiting to purchase his latest Hermione paraphernalia so Sabrina would let me be. 
    “Yeah, I wanted to pick up Dark Victory,” I say, picking up the book and turning it over to display its bar code.
    “I totally have this book.  Have you read The Long Halloween?” she asks, taking it from my hands and flipping through it.
    “Yeah, I just finished it.  That’s why I’m picking this up.”
    “That’s cool.  He’s my favorite superhero,” Sabrina says, tapping on the cover image of Batman.  “Who’s your fav?”  She looks at me expectantly, as if she will judge me by my answer. 
    “I don’ t know.”  Be civil .  “I mean, I used to be really into Marvel with Spider-Man and X-Men.  I haven’t really read anything new from Marvel in a long time, though.  Disillusioned, I guess.  Still read a lot of classic stuff.  But lately I’ve been reading Batman because of Batman Begins.  I’m just a poser because of the movie.  I was never really that big into DC in my younger glory days.”
    “Yeah, there’s been a lot of newbies in here because of the movie over the past year.  But that’s a good thing.  More bat-fans, right?  But you’re not really a newbie, just a defector.  Did yo u watch the nineties animated series?”
    “Of course.”
    “Then I can forgive you, Marvel-Boy.”
    “That’s good.  I’d hate to think that we have to be like the Capulets and Montagues.” 
    “Well, I won’t tell if you won’t.  And it was a great