A place for everyone OOC - set a month or so after the midterm meet up with the Xaviers.
IC Raine stood across the street from the building, staring at it, wondering whether she could really do this. She had never thought she would miss the Sonora library, regarding it as she had done as something akin to a torture chamber - a place just waiting to suck out her soul and her self-confidence, as she struggled through endless volumes, drowning in all the things she did not know or understand. How different things seemed now. She could scarcely believe she wanted to know things as badly as she did, and yet here she was.
She had looked up the library's location long ago. She had even come past once or twice but had convinced herself she was in too much of a hurry to stop. And that she didn't need to, not really. That Summer just needed a few more weeks and she'd start doing all the things Dora Xavier had been doing. But she hadn't. Summer was past the age Dora had been when they had met up and she still wasn't like her. And for all that Professor Xavier had said that it didn't matter and that babies went at their own pace, Raine was worried. She didn't want Summer to be stupid. Life was hard when you were stupid, as she knew from firsthand experience, and it was frightening to think that might be happening already, and that Summer might already be falling behind before she could even crawl. Because she couldn't even crawl.
Raine was looking after her niece today, and the anxiety about Summer had pushed her to stick her in the sling and come down and face the library. The anxiety about the library had seemed like the smaller one when she had done that, though now she was standing here, she wasn't so sure. It was tempting to just go home and assume that Summer would start crawling and doing every other thing and be fine. Except, she knew she'd feel bad as soon as she got back, like she'd let her down. She had wanted to be in charge of Summer's education, and admittedly she had thought she had more time to be ready for that, but apparebtly she didn't, and how could she manage that if she kept backing down from the library?
She took a deep breath and crossed the street, entering the building. There was a middle aged lady behind the desk who offered her a smile as she went in.
"Hello," she said to Raine, "And hello to you too," she added kindly to Summer, even though the infant was tipping her head back staring at the light on the ceiling instead of looking at the lady. "Can I help you with anything?" she asked, switching her attention back to Raine.
"Um. I dunno. Maybe... I'm allowed to be here?" she clarified.
"Of course. The library is for everyone. You'd need to be a member if you want to take books away but you are welcome to come in and read."
"I'm not sure I'm supposed to be here. I don't read good and I'm sort of stupid," Raine blurted, feeling self-conscious. She could feel her face turning red - she hated admitting that she wasn't a good reader but she thought it was fair to let the lady know because she didn't want to be a time waster.
"Well. There's only way to get better, and it looks like you figured it out already. And the library is for everyone," she repeated.
"I'm not really here to get better at reading," Raine admitted, though she supposed it would be useful, and maybe it would happen by accident the more of it she did, "I wanted to learn about how she should do things at different ages, and maybe read some books to her," she gestured at Summer. So that things were better for her. So she didn't struggle as much as Raine had. So Raine could stop worrying about her.
"I'm sure we can find those for you," the librarian nodded with a smile.