"Yeah, I bet we can." She pulls up the wikipedia page and looks it over. "Hmm, one cylinder or two, do you think?"

"The electricity's the easy part to be honest. It seems like one would be more... Compact. Which is pretty handy for a phone charger."

"Yeah. I'm thinking first we get the cylinder and piston set up and make sure I can drive the piston reasonably, then we add the magnet and coil and see how much current I can get at the right voltage, then we add the adapter for a phone charge port."

"A reasonable order of operations. And the hardest part first. I wonder if I can get an engineering textbook about it on interlibrary loan..."

"Good idea. And my dad fixes cars for a living; I bet he'll lend us tools and advice for the piston part. Want to go ask about interlibrary loan while I start writing a list of parts we need to find?"

"Sure!"

"...Apparently there aren't a lot of great resources for college engineering type textbooks in the school library's loan network. Maybe the public library will have something. Or the internet, but that tends to not be in depth."

"Hmm. Think we have time to make it to the public library today, or should we wait and do it first thing after school tomorrow?"

"We've got time. If we can get them to order a good book on these on loan, we can just go there again when it gets in."

"Sounds good to me!" She looks up the next bus, switching her arms to scaly and back a few times as she does so.

There's no noticeable improvement since last time she checked unless she breaks out a ruler. The eye and cheek scales come with unless she deliberately does just the arms, though.

They can catch a bus to the public library in about 20 minutes.

She doesn't bother with a ruler, and she certainly doesn't bother with suppressing the eye and cheek scales. The question is, does doing this back and forth feel like exercising her magic? And does anybody on the bus seem to mind it?

The qualia don't quite match up to exercising a muscle. Doing this is tiring, but doesn't feel like it's getting her to grow like yesterday did more than a little bit.

It causes a few looks and mutters, but Teddy doesn't mind - he's doing homework along the ride.

If it's wearing her out without pushing her capacities, she should stop and follow Teddy's example. She has most of her French assignment done by the time they get to the library.

Once they get out near the library he comments, "Oh, we should go over all the tests you've done so far too - Maybe we can test how quickly you can heat up a big tub of water, if we want to measure energy output."

"I like that idea! We can go over my notes on the bus. Where do you want to go for a tub of water, I don't know what the SA has and my house probably has a metal bucket in the garage somewhere. Assuming my parents will let me blowtorch in the driveway, which they might not."

"Maybe the junkyard has an old bathtub. It's mostly for cars, though. And filling it would be a pain."

Into the library! Teddy heads for the bank of computers instead of a librarian.

She follows Teddy to the computers. "Yeah, the junkyard will definitely have containers, but I don't know if they have a hose."

"Buckets? But, yeah, a pain. Either way, let's see if there are any college textbooks in the catalog..."

It transpires that there are not any relevant and useful-seeming college engineering textbooks in the catalog. "...D'you think the librarians have a bigger catalog?"

"Librarians have all sorts of secrets. It can't hurt to ask one." She gets up and makes her way deskward.

"Excuse me please, do you have any way to get college textbooks here?"

"You can try checking in the catalog for interlibrary loans? I can show you how."

"Thanks, but we tried that first," says Teddy, "We didn't find anything that looked like what we were looking for - it's more the sort of thing an engineering college library might have than a usual textbook."

"Hmm. The catalog only shows books already in our library network, but I can call around and I might be able to get an interlibrary loan from another network if you give me a specific title or ISBN."

"I can do that, let me go back to the computer and look up titles, I'll be right back."

She's back in a minute or two with a request for "Stirling Cycle Engines: Inner Workings and Design".

"Okay, I'll have to make some calls. Come back tomorrow and I'll have an answer as to whether I can get it. Can I see you two's library cards?"

Margaret has hers in her cargo pants; she swaps out of raiment to get at her pocket and fishes it out.

This startles the librarian. "Oh! I didn't even realize you were-" He waves vaguely. "Never mind. Card?"

Teddy produces his, too. The librarian scans them and does something on the computer. "Okay, here you are. Looks like you both have emails attached to your accounts, I'll email you when I figure out if I can get a copy of that book for you. Is there anything else I can help with?"

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. I think that's all for today, thanks."