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 Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 9:54 pm
What a beautiful day! The sun was shining, the birds were singing. There was a slight breeze on the wind that ruffled the leaves of the green trees ever so slightly. It was absolutely perfect.
Too bad Talia was stuck in a big stuffy library.
Yes, the girl was busy searching through shelf upon shelf for a copy of Sense and Sensibility. Truthfully, Talia was never much into reading, even when she was little. It was hard for her to just sit still and focus on something that didn't even exist. She preferred activities that she could see and interact with. Fairytales were bullshit anyways, right?
Seems as though they were out of Sense and Sensibility. Well it was a small, local library, but if they didn't have that what were they supposed to have?
Talia sighed. Nothing to do but check the next book on the list.
A book of your own choosing, which you will write a four page essay on.
Now that was interesting. Any book eh? Talia debated going for a book like Harry Potter or The Hobbit, but those seemed too easy. No, she wanted a real challenge.
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Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 10:03 pm
Ainsley had stopped by the library again as one of the regular patrons and before she knew it she had been drawn into the wonderland that was the mountains of books and the fields of knowledge. She had decided on a book about the monarch butterfly and was on her way to a cozy spot to read it when she'd seen a familiar face enter the library. Did she know this person? Her curiosity loomed over her mind and before she knew it the child was no longer looking for that legendary perfect spot and instead she was following Talia through the opposite aisle.
The young woman had stopped and carefully the child peered through the books on the shelf. She looked familiar but where, where, where had she seen her before? It was hard to get a good look with all the books in the way so carefully the child began to pull them off the shelf and put them in a pile on the floor beside her until she could finally see Talia's face, well, not quite. She held onto the edge of the shelf and found her footing on her tippytoes, officially seeing Talia's face.
"Hello!" She announced when she realized it was the girl from the arcade. "Remember me?"
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Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 4:24 pm
Oh, Talia knew Ainsley was watching her. After all, it was pretty hard to ignore Ainsley's little braided head following her around, trying to be in cognito. Talia couldn't help but let out a giggle when the girl starting stacking books- as if that wasn't obvious enough. Still, Talia didn't acknowledge her. Not yet anyways. Talia wasn't really in the mood to entertain a kid at the moment (or any time for that matter).
Then Ainsley spoke up and she had no choice but to respond. "Hi there," she said flatly. She was so bad with kids, "You're from the arcade yeah?" Purposefully, Talia brushed away from hair from her shoulder. The way she held herself completely read "oh my god, get away from me," even if it wasn't intentional. Call it a forcive habit.
Talia played with one of her many black curls and said, "Sooo ... what brings you here?" She'd honestly forgotten the girl's name. What was it? Ashley?
Shaking her head, she continued combing through the books on the library shelves. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? No thanks. Racism was not something she wanted to write about when it came to a fun essay. She preferred more uplifting topics really.
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Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 10:02 pm
"I am," she replied, pleased to see that the older girl had remembered her from that day.
She observed Talia playing with her hair, her own hands reaching up to touch her hair that wasn't tied back in a braid. It was soft and silky, and the child wondered if Talia's black hair felt the same? Did it feel softer? Rougher? Was it course? What sort of effect did the curls have on it? These were questions that passed though her mind as she observed the older girl. The child was mostly just happy to see a familiar face in the library so she gave her a tiny smile.
"I'm here to learn," she nodded, pressing her chin against the shelf. "What are you doing here?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 5:48 pm
Talia gave the little girl a quizzical look. "Why would you want to learn? It's summer time. Shouldn't you be ... I don't know, playing with barbies or something?" Talia didn't like school in the bit, and the idea of doing it when she didn't have to was absolutely bizarre.
Wasn't there a kid on her block she could play with or something? Ever the "good sumaritan," Talia said, "Couldn't you play with some kids in your neighborhood or something?" Talia's neighborhood had one annoying brat that she knew of- Sam. Stupid twerp had deterred her from coming to the library earlier thanks to a little water gun stunt. Ugh she hated that kid.
Talia picked up another book from the same shelf. Tacitus? No thanks. With a laugh, Talia said, "You wouldn't happen to have a good book for summe reading, would you?" The girl probably just read picture books all day, definitely not something she could write an essay on.
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2011 10:44 pm
"I love learning though," she said with a smile, leaning in further into the shelf. She could be playing with some of the neighbourhood kids if she lived in a neighbourhood with more children. It was mostly filled with elderly people. There one boy a little down the way from her place, and although she loved to spend time with him, she also loved to spend time in the library. What was wrong with coming to the library to read anyways? She puffed up her cheeks lightly before swallowing the air so she could reply.
"I could play with Sam but there's no reason I can't learn too! Then I can tell him all about what I read!"
She seemed proud that she could tell Sam all about the things she learned, often surprising the older boy with her knowledge and facts. He wasn't like Peter who seemed to know even more than her, but he wasn't dumb either. He was really smart in those subjects the child seemed to have trouble with, always telling her stories about his class and what they were learning. It sounded so interesting and she couldn't wait to be able to experience it.
The child leaned back when Talia mentioned a book, quickly skimming over the pile of books she had piled beside her, the covers of several books catching her attention. She had read A Midsummer Night’s Dream recently, although she faced many struggles with his particular way of expressing his words and the larger words themselves. She loved to learn them though, keeping a large library dictionary beside her when she had read it. Maybe Talia would like it too? She picked it up and placed it on the shelf, sliding it over towards her.
"This was a good book," she said with a smile. What was there not to like about fairies? There was even a king named Oberon, although not just a king but the King of the Fairies. She certainly hadn't taken apart the book, word by word, and decrypted what the book meant on the most deepest levels but she had enjoyed the simple overlying plot and expressive way of words. Nor had she sped through the book like a firefly in the sky, and instead she took her time as she tried to understand words that were beyond her comprehension. She would most definitely enjoy to seeing it staged one day as a play.
"I had to look up a lot of the words, but it had fairies in it!"
Fairies were great, but not everyone loved fairies. Ainsley remembered Sailor Chibi Hug-Bell, recalling that she didn't seem to like the Great Golden Fairy the same way Sailor Chibi Hypnos had. So Ainsley dug around the pile until another cover caught her interest. She'd never read this book, but the cover looked pretty and it had a pretty title: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. She picked it up, and slid that over the shelf too.
"What about this one?"
Ainsley had seriously spent a little too much time in the library, having read all the children princess stories by now, she had expanded outward into the world of literature. If Talia didn't read that one, maybe she would.
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Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 12:29 am
As adorable as this kid was, she was weird. Liking learning? Spending her childhood days at the library? Playing with Sam on the street and spreading that knowledge?
Wait, Sam?
No, it was a common name. Couldn't be the same one. That was silly. Talia couldn't hold back her curiosity though. "Does the little boy ... Do you know his last name?" She hoped Ainsley was still little enough to not think her creepy for asking the last name of a little boy. She just had to know if it was the same Sam that lived right next door to her.
What would she do if it was the same one though? Rejoice? It wasn't exactly a triumph to have yet another kid on her block. It would've satisfied some inner craving she had for knowledge though. Not to mention a small part of her wanted to know just how Sam might've made friends with a girl.
Forgetting that Ainsley was just a child, if only for a moment, Talia answered monotonously, "Shakespeare? No thanks." When she realized her blunder, she said, "Ah ... that is ... I've read that already." Shakespeare wasn't a bad start though. She was going to need something easy to analyze, something that made her look impressive but lacked needing any actual work.
Now Ainsley had already bounced onto a different book. Why were children so ... so ... Nevermind. "Ah, what's that one about? A snow princess who ... I dunno owns a secret fan?" Talia was reminded of her own dancing fans and her expression softened a bit. "You know, I have fans of my own. Ones I dance with. They're pretty and red, and you'd totally never--"
Wait, was she having a coherent conversation with this kid? Talia stopped mid-sentence and rethought her battle plan. "Uhh ... nevermind. Thanks for your help kid, but I don't know how much these are going to help me." With that, she turned the corner of the shelf, and hoped that Ainsley wouldn't follow her.
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Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 5:36 am
Did she know Sam's last name? She thought about it, thinking back to the first day they met and all the times sense then. She knew his name and it was Sam Colt, son of Mr. and Mrs. Colt. Together they made the Colts, quite a happy family as far as Ainsley was concerned. A storybook family of a mother, father and a son in a quiet little neighbourhood.
"Sam Colt," she said with a smile, waiting for Talia to reply to her about her suggestions for books.
Talia turned down her first book and the child pouted a bit. She had suggested a book she had already read which wasn't any good. Well, not if she was looking for a new book she hadn't already read before. Perhaps her other book was a better suggestion? She certainly hadn't read it before so perhaps Talia hadn't either.
Good news was she wasn't turning it down and instead she was telling her about the fans she owned and the fact she danced! Ainsley's face completely lit up for a moment at the thought of dancing before then twisting into a frown. The expression the child held was complicated, constantly shifting between a positive and negative expression. Dancing brought such complicated emotions out, fluctuating between good and bad.
By the time the child had realized it, Talia had moved away from the shelf. She looked through the child, hoping to see her, but she was gone. The child's blue eyes began to search, looking around the library for a direction that Talia could have went to until one foot after another the child followed after her.
"You dance...?" She asked, hoping Talia could still hear her.
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Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 11:45 pm
Talia just about slapped her forehead on the shelf and killed herself right then and there. Great. Now there were TWO kids on her block- both of which were occasionally bearable and occasionally the most annoying things on the face of the Earth.
Now came the big decision though- should she tell Ainsley that she knew about Sam, and that she lived on the same street, or should she lie and say she'd never heard of him. The latter seemed like a safer option, but ... well the housewives on their street often talked. Lord knew how many of her secrets had slipped through the cracks to some of the neighboring ladies. They would eventually find out that they lived on the same street.
Besides, lying was never becoming. From down the aisle, only a few feet from the wandering Ainsley now, she said, "Really? Little tan boy with black hair right? I think he's my next door neighbor." She was smiling sweetly, but internally she was cursing the Colt name. He had ruined one of her perfectly good outings- she was out for revenge.
Talia leafed through another set of books. Due to her "escape" from Ainsley, she had ended up in a psychology section- definitely not what she wanted to read for fun. Titles like Depression and You and Is he the right one? littered the shelves.
It definitely wasn't a children's aisle. Talia didn't like the girl, but she wasn't about to subject an elementary student to the tortures of mid-life and beyond.
Instead, she steered Ainsley away from that section using her words. "Ah ... do you know any other books that might be ah ... useful?" Knowing how young the girl was, she was probably just going to hand Talia a bunch of Dr. Seuss books. Like that would help.
She had purposefully dodged the dancing question, perhaps until later. She wasn't really in the mood to explain the intricacies of her dancing to a child. Maybe if Ainsley persisted to the point of annoyance, but not now. For now she just skipped over it, like a puddle in the middle of the street. She might go back to jump in it with rain boots, but for the moment she was going to politely side-step it.
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Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 8:32 pm
There was a pause in Ainsley's step when Talia had mentioned tan skin and black hair, the immediate thought of Sam displaying itself in her mind. If she knew Sam and she lived next door to Sam then it meant Talia lived somewhere nearby to her, about the same distance away as Sam lived. How come she had never seen her before? It was a curious question that the child thought of when she stood there.
"That's him," she replied, beginning to walk into the aisle that Talia had gone into before she stopped when Talia asked her a question about other books that might be useful. There was a book she had started reading in the library the other day that might be useful. Where had it been though? Ainsley looked around curiously before she dashed down the aisle to where she remembered seeing it. She took a quick moment to find where she had stashed it, and then she ran back to Talia.
No running in the library? Oops.
"What about this book?" She said, holding up Northern Lights from the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman to Talia. It certainly wasn't Dr. Seuss by any scale. As far as Ainsley had read into it, it had little adorable animals that could shapeshift in it.
Ainsley was determined to help Talia find a book. If this wasn't any good, she could go find another book even if she had to just grab a bunch of the shelf until she found one that appealed to her.
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Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 7:05 pm
Craaaap. So this twerp really did live near her. Well that was disheartening to say the least. Talia already didn't like having that annoyance they called Sam living next to her, let alone having a second one. Well at least this one was cute.
Talia shifted her shoulderbag and adjusted her glasses, which she had worn just to look smart at the library. She nabbed the book out of Ainsley's hands and looked it over. Northern Lights? Quietly, she read the back of the book not saying a word to the small child just standing in front of her. She read it quickly, not spending any time more than was necessary. She'd read this book before, except it was called 'The Golden Compass' then. Perhaps it was a regional thing?
Well ... it did have a lot of symbolism behind it. She recalled taking with her mother once about how the book spurned a large religious debate over virtually nothing. Talia could work with that. There was a lot of debate over what the daemons symbolized too.
A thin smile creased itself on her face, and Talia looked at Ainsley with approval. "I think this book would do quite nicely," she said, awkwardly patting Ainsley on the head.
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Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 6:16 pm
Ainsley practically lit up like a lightbulb when Talia said she'd done a good job, that the book would do quite nicely, and then even proceeded to pat her on the head. She knew what that meant! Even without the words that came with it, Ainsley knew it meant she'd acceptably helped Talia and that alone was enough to bring a smile to her face.
"Oh, I'm so pleased to hear so," she said, leaning over to pick up some of the books she'd taken off the shelf and placed on the floor so she could put them back on the shelf where she'd found them. She really didn't want to make Mr. Darrow have to do any extra work because of her, so if she put them back where they belonged she would be helping two people!
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 9:31 pm
Dear God she was cute. Talia couldn't help but admire the kid. After all, she had just formed a full sentence. It wasn't even about having to go to the bathroom, or about some worm she ate! Talia definitely liked this one, though she'd never let on. Kids would be kids. Ainsley would inevitably let up sometime here.
Talia helped the girl pick up a few books in silence. Like Ainsley, she wanted to help the librarians, but for different reasons. She knew nothing of this "Tony"; all she wanted was to pick up her area as quickly and efficiently as possible. It felt like it would take forever.
Still, now Talia had a valid excuse to escape out the door. With faked enthusiasm, she gushed, "Thank you so much for helping me! You were so helpful. I don't think I could've done it without you." She began walking towards the librarian on duty, and rolling her eyes (she was faced away from Ainsley, so as to not hurt the little girl's feelings).
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