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This was the very first time Taji had been allowed to go anywhere by herself -- with her mother's knowledge and approval. Not that it mattered much to Taji, who had become, by this time, quite proficient in wreaking havoc no matter the company (or lack thereof); this did mean the addition of many rules however, which she had been drilled on before she was dropped off at the library.

The first rule was not to talk to any strangers, except the library workers and the person who was supposed to come to tutor her (Airy, Taji remembered proudly, she had blonde hair and green thingiemajigs; Taji was told and had chanted over and over in her head so as not to forget: blonde hair and green thingiemajigs, Airy!) The second was that she was to sit at the table and wait, and not go anywhere in the library without being accompanied by Airy who had blonde hair and green thingiemajigs. The third, and the most restricting and depressing, was that she had to be good.

Her lamp remained in her lap, as she had threatened to create a Loud and Noisy Fuss unless she could take it with her. She sat at a table near the windows in the childrens section, occupying herself by applying some crayons liberally to the pages of the coloring book, which was clearly not a canvas wide enough for her creativity. Currently the surface of the table was colored more than the actual coloring page, which was supposed to be some underwater scene that Taji had masterfully transformed into a nightmarish landscape of neon green water and purple kelp.

It took Taji a full minute to process all of Aure's arrival, freezing in place with her crayon hovering in mid-moustache embellishment on an unfortunate orange polkadotted starfish. "You are Airy," she began at last, somewhat questioningly, "With blonde hair and green thingiemajigs."

Yes, yes, she certainly did have blonde hair, and green thingiemajigs. Taji beamed at her own sleuthing and dropped the crayon to obediently pick up the ballpoint pen instead. She had been asked to write whatever. Whatever! W-wuh...

Very carefully, Taji drew a large, wobbly travesty of a 'w', one that looked as if it would collapse in on itself. It took her another moment before she accompanied it with a small curve that was probably supposed to be a 'u', and then a t (which were always the easiest letters for her.) Sounding out the word again in her head, she followed the three current letters with an 'e', and then a 'v', and finally an 'r'.

She leaned back in her chair and admired her work. Deciding that the final 'r' looked lonely, however, she reached forward to add another one: wutevrr, wrote Taji on the piece of paper.

"I need help with spelling and reading," she told Aure as if she didn't really believe it herself. In all honesty, much of her learning had been going well -- she learned all of her letters nicely, in both English and Awarian, and could read very basically; her brothers absolutely delighted in the wonders of a young and impressionable mind, however, so Taji quickly learned to spell simple words in terrible, awful ways, while being able to write the entire periodic table and the lyrics to most Nine Inch Nails songs perfectly. They had just begun to teach her to write in chatspeak ("Mother will never love you until you can,") when her parents stepped in and finally scheduled an intervention in the form of a more serious role model.

"I like the Magic School Bus," Taji continued obliviously, "An' Clifford the Bigreddog. Let's read Clifford! I like Clifford."

"Oar," Taji repeated obediantly, "Oaaaarrrr... Boart... Oat. Airy is prettier!" Concluding her auditory evaluation of her new teacher's name, she nodded for emphasis and eagerly accepted the proffered book.

"Ok!" Taji said happily, scanning the page quickly for a button she could press that would tell her what the words said. When there was none, she tilted her head up and looked expectantly at Aure. When no help arrived from that direction either, she kicked her legs out, looked down at the blocky letters, and squinted.

"C...Cl..." Was she anywhere close? 'Close' -- that started with 'cl' -- but the next letter was: "...ih. Clihff..." Wait, she knew that sound! "Clifford!" Taji proclaimed in relief, looking at Aure again for confirmation. See? See? She could read!

"Clifford--" thankfully the next few words were much smaller. Taji puzzled them for a while before finally announcing: "Clifford is a big red dog."

But this 't' that was part of the next word, what sound did that make? Otherwise the word was 'hat', she recognized 'hat', but what kind of hat? She glanced at the illustrations for help.

"Clifford is a big red dog who is not wearing a hat," Taji guessed.

Oh -- oh right! 'T'! The 't' made a 'tuh' sound; Taji amused herself by clicking her tongue under the guise of practicing her t's. T-h-a-t. Tee-hat. Tuh-hat? That?

"That," Taji wisely decided not to second-guess Aure, "L...lives," pronouncing the i long because of the presence of the 'e', "With... Emily --" She frowned and twisted in her seat; at least she had finally gotten to another character she knew. "Liiiives with Emily on.." She squinted. "On.. two long words."

This was hard. Wasn't it hard? It was haaard. "Reading is not very fun," Taji complained and kicked her legs, looking as though she might simply slide down and disappear.

Taji very eagerly sat up straight again with Aure's help, oblingingly glancing down at the row of words that her tutor was gesturing to. Short 'i'. Ih. Lihves.

"Clifford is a big red dog that lives with Emily Elizabeth on Birdwell Island." She beamed proudly up at Aure before a very sudden 'hunh?' clicked in her mind and registered in her expression as blank staring and a faint frown.

"Airy," Taji began, leaning forward in her seat to point to the word 'island', "Why is there an 's' here, in this island thing, if it is not actually in the word?"

Also: "What are those green things in your hair? I like them a lot!"

"Ohhh." Taji knew all about things that just were, like why babies came from cabbage patches and pirates never brushed their teeth and Rhine was always so grumpy. That the 's' in 'island' was invisible was a small allowance that she could very easily give.

"They are very nice ears," said Taji delicately to her tutor, vaguely aware of the fact that it appeared to be a touchy subject to her, the poor dear. "They are like little green flowers that sprout from your head. Do you get birds on your head sometimes? Hummingbirds? Or--or butterflies!"