I was completely and totally wrong and Melanie has adjusted well considering the circumstances. It's hard to tell if her general mood is morose or just quiet pre-teen. But apart from that first night she's been nothing but a blank slate on which to impress my own tastes. The minute she saw my bookshelf she was intrigued. I suppose most of what I've got is fairly low brow or whatever - old Star Wars novels I can't ever remember reading, some stuff from R.A. Salvatore, Weis & Hickman, the entire Shannara series (only half of which I've read). Also like half of the Animorphs books (which I inherited from Ash's older brother a few years ago when the other half had an unfortunate run-in with Hurricane Ike). She borrowed one of the prequel books (Andalite Chronicles I think?) since I don't have the start of the main series. I also convinced her to take the first book of the Cleric Quintet because god damn I need somebody who's both an avid reader and fantasy geek in my life. On other such fronts, she also loves Viva Pinata. Thank goodness for my eclectic game tastes because I don't think she'd take so well to a murder simulator.Unfortunately I don't have much in the way of two player games that aren't murder simulators, but oh well.
On a slightly less selfish front, the child therapist she's seeing seems to think things look pretty normal. Everybody handles grief differently and apparently Mel is the type to put on a strong face and keep things bottled up. I keep wanting not to type this because it just sounds batshit, but I have to say that occasionally she seems almost like... relaxed or relieved I'm not sure what to call it. I just want to have it on record so if there is some sort of problem I can reread this and think 'oh gee maybe I should do something about that'.
I'd better get to sleep. I had intended to talk more about Ashleigh but I guess I'll have to put that off. Try not to let the anticipation get to you, Internet.
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