“Gosh, I have, like, thirteen mosquito bites!”

“Gah! Don’t say that!”

”...What?”

“Th—thirteen...blegh…”

“Thirteen?”

“Gah, yes! Thirteen, don’t say that! Unlucky, unclean!”

“Um…okay. What’s so bad about thirteen?”

“Oh, so many things…consider the Apollo 13 mission. Launched on April 11th, 1970. Four plus eleven plus seventy equals eighty-five. Eight and five is thirteen. Launched from Pad 39 (thirty-nine divided by three equaling thirteen), at 13:13 local time. When did it explode? April 13th, why not?!?!“

“Talk about triskaidekaphobia…”

“Huh? Anyway, the Last Supper of Christ…thirteen people.”

“You know, the whole ‘thirteen’ superstition was made up by cavemen.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah. They, like, counted their fingers and number of feet, came up with twelve, and feared the unknown…thirteen.”

“Yeah right.”

“I read it in this Tell Me Why book or something…”

“Oh yeah, I remember that one. Thirteenth edition, right?”

“Yeah…”