This was unusual. She hadn't called him names yet, she hadn't acted as if he was disgusting somehow and she didn't laugh at the riddles. Instead she was giving him her pen? Giving him her pen and actually posing questions. This was unusual.

Even as he puzzled over this peculiarity, he was solving the problems, not even putting the pen down to think. They weren't very difficult, if a little bit random at times, so it wasn't as if he needed any longer to solve them than it took to jot the answers down.

"Your name is Leslie, right?" He had been listening. "Leslie Thompkins. It's a nice name. Leslie can be a name for a boy or a girl, that's curious."