[XiaolinLilith]

"Ian, what's got into you?" Lydia asked politely, over the phone. She looped the curly black telephone wire around one finger and sighed. She had been seeing less and less of her 15-year-old, redheaded sweetheart, Ian, as of late, and she was beginning to worry.

Lydia hoped he wasn't getting ready to break her heart. After all, she was just a lonely little British girl over in the States--and she was a little on the nerdy side at that. When she had met Ian, sweet and brainy, they had hit it off right away--he'd bring her issues of Popular Science home from his dad's work, smuggled under his gray wool coat. But even though he'd been incredibly loyal to bespectacled little Lydia at first, he was beginning to stay away more and more, avoiding her at school and in their neighborhood.

This was all fine and dandy when he'd first started. I suppose a boy needs his space...but later, Lydia was wondering if he needed that much space. And now, here she sat, in the parlor of their house, on the phone, hoping he wasn't going to leave for good...