The first option:

Lauren was still sorting out her thoughts and deciding to go over to say hi, and wondering what to say after that when she was saved the bother by the tall girl walking up to her and saying “Hi, I’m Salencia – you can call me Sally, if you prefer.  I’m new around here and … are you hungry?”

*****

Salencia didn’t care much for running, not really, she found it rather boring.  Still, she hated feeling out of shape even worse and it would be a few more days until her dad could help her hang her punching bag and before they could look into a place to stable Stardance; the downside of this move being nowhere big enough to keep a horse at the house.  That’d upset her, but her mother’s new job meant more money and more time with she and her father.  That made it forgivable that her horse was back in Colorado, if not great.

The alternative:

Lauren was still sorting out her thoughts and deciding to go over to say hi, and wondering what to say after that when she was saved the bother by the tall girl walking up to her and saying “Hi, I’m Salencia – you can call me Sally, if you prefer.  I’m new around here and … are you hungry?”

Salencia didn’t care much for running, not really, she found it rather boring.  Still, she hated feeling out of shape even worse and it would be a few more days until her dad could help her hang her punching bag and before they could look into a place to stable Stardance; the downside of this move being nowhere big enough to keep a horse at the house.  That’d upset her, but her mother’s new job meant more money and more time with she and her father.  That made it forgivable that her horse was back in Colorado, if not great.

It shouldn’t feel or seem so much like trying to decide if I should invade France or something, but that’s what it’s feeling like. That little graphic goes a long way toward adding a little visual excitement to the page, and this is one where things ought to display properly without much headache — the question becomes will it add up to a ridiculously sized document in the end? I honestly can’t say. I would hope that the image would be recognised as being the same repeated, saved once, and just referenced repeatedly — but I can’t say for sure that this is going to be the case.

I suppose I shall just have to experiment at some point and find out.