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“Are apples a problem?” Colbie asked

“They sometimes look weird on the screen”

“No weirdness here,” she said “Just asnack It’s not even poisonous” She added a harmless smile

He didn’t return it, because he was staring at so to read on the plane “How to murder people by poison without detection,” he read aloud

The woasped in horror

“Okay,” Colbie said, pointing to them “That’s not what it looks like”

The wo a leopard-print cat carrier, had turned and was frantically whispering to the people behind her

“Really,” Colbie said “It’s a funny story, actually”

But the TSA guy was flipping through her notes, not even remotely interested in her funny story He didn’t need to read aloud what he was looking at, because she knew exactly as there—other Google searches, such as how to get aitha variety of different everyday products that weren’t considered weapons “It’s research,” she said to the room

“Yeah, that’s probably what I’d say too,” a guy said from somewhere behind her

Colbie didn’t look back; she just kept her gaze on the TSA agent, trying to look nonthreatening as she said so she rarely if ever said aloud “I’m a writer”

“Uh-huh” He pulled out his radio noith an oent, please”

“Oh, pluck it!” she snapped

The agent narrowed his gaze “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing bad,” she said “That’s the point See, we’ve got this swear jar at ho, so I say other stuff instead of bad words Stuff that sounds like bad words but isn’t I don’t lose any money that way, and—” She broke off because he didn’t appear impressed “Look, never mind that,” she said “Just believe ht?”

“Ma’a to need you to come with me”

“No, really! If you look in my purse, you’ll see it’s filled with scraps of paper, napkins, whatever, all with handwritten notes on them I write notes for my books all the tis, really For instance” She looked around and gestured to the woman behind her “ ‘Crazy cat lady with a leopard-print cat carrier—’ ”

“Hey,” the crazy cat lady with the leopard-print cat carrier said

Colbie ignored her “—or ‘friendly, sweet, kind TSA agent with a heart of gold’ ” she said, and added a flirty, hopefully innocent-looking smile “I use the notes in my books It adds color and heart to the story and all that”

The agent’s eyes were still suspicious, but at least he opened her purse to check her story And just as she’d said, it was filled hat probably looked like trash but were in fact little treasures to be revisited and added to her manuscript

“What do you write?” he asked, unraveling a s at the words she’d scribbled on it: Icicle—the perfect weapon It melts and vanishes!

The agent lifted his gaze and leveled it on her

“Cheese and rice!” she exclai breath It didn’t help “Okay, listen,” she said “It’s not what it looks like I write young adult action-adventure Postapocalyptic world” She was hoping to not have to go further than that, but the expression on his face told her she was on borrowed tiers with powers they acquired in the radioactive war,” she added

“And these teenagers, theykill people?”

“No,” she said “But the bad guys do And it’s fiction You know, made-up stuff” She pointed to her brain and shook her head, like, See? Harht It’s not like I’ve got a bo”

In hindsight, she probably shouldn’t have ht and al intients