Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Beyond the End ❯ Is the moon made of cheese? ( Chapter 8 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter Eight

After nearly three hours of helping Livi learn the difference between the letters “a” and “o”, they had finally reached the ninth chapter of the book.

“How about we put it down for a little while and pick up with it again tomorrow?” Janis suggested.

“Aw, but I like this book!” Livi whined petulantly, his face turning down in a pout.

“Well, I still have to teach you how to write. We do a lot of that in school, after all, so it's rather important for you to learn how,” Janis told him, raising her eyebrows.

“Alrighty then,” Livi sighed, “Where do I start?”

“With the alphabet.”

“The what?”

“The alphabet. Y'know, letters and stuff.”

Livi looked confused.

“What are letters?”

Oh man, don't tell me I have to explain it any more…Janis groaned inwardly.

“Well, you know those books we were reading?”

“Yeah,” Livi said slowly.

“Well, each book is made up of words, which are made up of letters, which is the alphabet.”

Livi paused for a moment.

“I don't get it,” he finally said.

And this is why I should never be a teacher…kids like him.

“Okay…well, do you remember what I told you about `o' and `a'?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, those are two letters. There are twenty-six in all the English language, and I don't think we should start covering any other languages until you're ready, especially since I'm really bad with French, and it's the only foreign language I know.”

“Oh! So is this a letter?” Livi asked, pointing to the “g” of Gwenivere on the cover of Never Forgotten.

“Very good! Yes, that's the letter `g'. Listen, I'll go get you some paper and a pencil, and then I want you to go through Snow White again and write down all the letters—different letters, mind you—that you can find. Think of it as silent mimicracy.”

“Yay! My favorite activity!” Livi said, smiling broadly as Janis stood up and walked over to her printer to grab a few sheets of white paper and a pencil with a soccer ball design on it. Alyss had given it to her as a joke; Janis hated soccer with a passion. In fact, Janis hated almost anything athletic, with the exceptions of dodgeball and badminton.

“Okay Livi, let's get to work,” Janis said, walking back to the couch and handing Livi the pencil and paper. He opened up Snow White and began skimming through, writing down the letters as he went.

Half an hour passed with Livi copying out letter after letter and Janis watching him, admiring his concentration (at least, that's what she told herself she was watching him for). She noticed that he chewed his lower lip as he studied the pages, writing something every now and then. Finally, Livi closed the book and looked down at his paper.

“Are you done?” Janis asked.

“I think so. But there were more than twenty-six different letters. I thought you said that there were only twenty-six letters,” Livi said, confused.

“And this is where we get on to our next topic—capital and lower-case letters.”

“Oh...great heavens above,” Livi groaned, “It's all so…so…confusing!”

“Well, if you want to take a break, we can. I mean, I'm obviously over-stimulating your brain,” Janis said, teasingly sticking her tongue out at Livi.

“Hey!” he said indignantly, “I'm fine, we can keep going. I'm not stupid.”

“I know you're not, Livi. Okay, so lower-case letters…well, they're usually smaller than capital letters, and are also more commonly used. See that letter there?” Janis asked, pointing to the small `z' on Livi's paper, “That's a lower-case letter. I'll write each one out for you in alphabetical order.”

“There's an order?” Livi asked, eyes closed in mild frustration.

“Yeah, there is. Here, repeat after me,” Janis said, before singing softly, “A…B…C…”

“A…B…C…” Livi replied hesitatingly, morphing into the form of an eager schoolboy, little blue uniform and all.

“D…E…F…”

“G…H…I…”

“J…K…”

“J…K…wait, that's like the book there!” Livi exclaimed, looking at the four Harry Potter books on Janis's bookshelf, “J.K…erm…”

“Rowling, yes.”

“Rowling,” Livi said, rolling it around his mouth, eyebrows slightly lowered.

“Anyway…L…M…”

“L…M…like that book!” Livi was now pointing to the worn old copy of Anne of Green Gables, which was next to where he had pulled Never Forgotten from, “L.M. M…”

“Montgomery.”

“N…O…P…”

“Q…R…S…”

“T…U…V…”

“W…X…”

“Y…Z…”

“Y…Z…” Livi finished.

“Okay, see these letters?” Janis asked, pointing to the paper she had written the alphabet on in both capitals and lower-case.

“Yeah,” Livi replied.

“Well, they go in the order we just used, and you will always use that order for alphabetizing and stuff. English teachers all want their students to be able to put words in alphabetical order. It's stupid, I think, but that may just be me. Anyway, you see the letters are in pairs, yes?”

Livi nodded, still trying to take all of it in.

“Okay, well, each pair of letters are the same. The first is a capital letter, and the second is a lower-case letter. You'll use capital letters as the first letter of every sentence, names, named places, book titles, and other stuff like that. Also, if the letter `I' is by itself, it's capitalized. Or if there's an apostrophe, which looks like this,” Janis said, drawing it on the paper, “So, any questions?”

Any questions, she asks, Livi thought. His head was hurting, and all he wanted was a piece of cheese. Wait! That's it! I'll give her the idea to give me cheese.

“Just one,” he replied, taking on a slightly mocking thoughtful look.

“Okay, what is it?” Janis asked.

“Well…I've been wondering this for a while now…is the moon made of cheese?”