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Katie settles in pretty well into the house, and later, when a bed has been obtained, into Lizbeth's room. She wears Lizbeth's hand-me-downs to start, then gets her own clothes; she doesn't have strong opinions about what she should be wearing, but the sizing on Lizbeth's old things isn't really right, and there aren't all that many still lying around anyway.
She has inexplicably tidy handwriting - inexplicably has handwriting at all; inexplicably can spell fifteen words in twenty instead of zero - which she uses, rather a lot. She makes a list of things that are food and magnetizes it to the fridge for reference, adding to it when she locates more things that are food, and when she is trying to tackle complex books she takes notes on who all the characters are so she doesn't have to page backward to remind herself, and she discovers journaling, even though she doesn't have that many events to record.
One day, the event she has to record is: Chris says to morrow she wil go to the DMV and shud not have us ther becas it may take six ours. We wil be baybe sat. If I hav ben baybe sat be for I do not remembre it.
She is curious about the imminent babysitter, and is up bright and early on the day when same may be expected.
"Okay!" says Katie, who doesn't know whether math homework makes a good spectator sport but is willing to try it on Lizbeth's say-so.
more-capable
Virginia laughs. She goes to sit on the couch, and lets Lizbeth sit on one side and Katie on the other while she opens her textbook and starts doing algebra.
Katie watches for about ten minutes, waiting for this to become interesting, then says, "I'm bored."
more-capable
"Yes, well, not everyone is a tiny mathematician," says Gina. "What do you want to do, Katie?"
Katie slides carefully off the couch, and makes her way to the toy box, which she starts sifting through. She picks up a long Y-shaped toy she hasn't investigated before. "What's this?" she asks.
Since Gina's lap is full of math, Lizbeth hops off the couch to demonstrate.
"You listen to things with it and it makes them louder," she explains. "Doctors use it to hear if something's wrong with somebody's heart."
"You listen to things with it and it makes them louder," she explains. "Doctors use it to hear if something's wrong with somebody's heart."
"Yeah," says Lizbeth, arranging the stethoscope in its proper configuration with her ears and then looking around for something to listen to. Virginia is still doing math and is therefore a stationary target!
"You can't hear them normally but you can hear them if you use this thing." She addresses Virginia. "Can I listen to your heart?"
"You can't hear them normally but you can hear them if you use this thing." She addresses Virginia. "Can I listen to your heart?"
She listens to Virginia's heartbeat thumping along for a while, then disentangles herself from the stethoscope and offers it to Katie. "Wanna try?"