"Hello there!" a motherly voice said to Samantha. The young girl turned around and came face-to-skirt with the librarian, Mrs. Finn.
"Hi, Mrs. Finn," Sam answered. The surprised look from Mrs. Finn told Sam of the mistake she had just made.
"Umm...you are Mrs. Finn, right? Your name tag says so." Sam quickly covered up her true reason for knowing her name. Mrs. Finn used to read to Sam when she actually was six years old.
"Yes, of course. I'm just not used to children calling me that so quickly after meeting me."
"I'm sorry."
"Oh, don't apologize! Such social skills are rare in kids these days. And now that you know my name, yours is...?"
"Samantha."
"Samantha, I'll bet you're a pretty good reader."
"Yeah, pretty good." The conversation was starting to make Samantha uncomfortable. She was trying to remember exactly how she acted as a kid. Most of it flowed naturally, probably due to her simply being in this body, but she couldn't just brush off the last fifteen years of memories and the way they influenced her attitude and speech.
"A pretty good reader, and I must say, a very pretty girl. I had braids almost like yours once."
Now that information was new. Samantha tried to picture a girl version of Mrs. Finn with two pigtail braids, but somehow she couldn't remove the wrinkled from her face.
"Are you looking for anything in particular?"
"No," Sam said. "Just looking. I'm here with my sister. She's over there," Sam nudged a shoulder in the direction that Trish departed. "I'm waiting for her to come back."
"Well you can certainly find a few ways to pass the time here." Mrs. Finn gently pressed a hand to Sam's back and led her to another bookshelf. "Do any of these catch your eye? This is the popular section. Kids just like you voted on what books to display here."
Sam was afraid she was going to have to play along with Mrs. Finn and pick a book to read, but as she was fretting over the decision of which silly-looking kid's story to subject herself to, she saw Trish walking back over.
"Hey, Sam. Oh...hello," Trish was a little startled to see Sam with the librarian, but she tried to put a nice face on.
"Hello," Mrs. Finn replied. She didn't recognize Trish, as Trish had stopped being a frequent patron of the library many years ago. "Is this beautiful girl your sister?"
"Yes. Isn't she just a doll?" Tricia said in a slightly mocking voice that only Sam would detect. She rubbed Sam's head.
"Can I help either of you today?"
"No, we're fine, thank you."
"All right," Mrs. Finn conceded. "Have a nice day."
"You too," Trish said.
"It was nice meeting you, Samantha."
"Nice to meet you too," Samantha replied. Mrs. Finn walked off to help a boy across the kid's section.
"Smooth," Trish winked to Sam. "How was it?"
"I never realized how patronizing adults are to kids," Sam whispered. "Still, it worked on me all those years ago."
Tricia guided Sam behind a bookshelf so they could have a little privacy. Her eyes fell on a book on a shelf above Sam's line of sight. "Hey, I think I've got your next 'assignment,'" she said. She took the book off the shelf and showed it to Sam.
It was "The ABCs of the Animal Kingdom." Each page had a letter, accompanied by a drawing of an animal whose name started with that letter. Standard educational reading for a three-year-old.
"Do you want to bore me to death?" Sam asked.
"Just close your eyes and pick out a page. Whatever animal that's on that page is what I'm going to turn you into."
"You're going to turn me into an animal?!" Sam said, aghast.
"Shh!" Tricia warned. "Not all the way. You won't be walking on all fours or anything. Just pick."
Sam sighed, remembering their 24-hour deal. She shut her eyes tight, holding out her hand and hoping she didn't pick out an elephant or a hyena.