After a wait that could have tested anyone's patience, the teacher stood up, signifying that she was done and ready to hand over the two books she picked out to Riley — meaning that the emotions could finally get a closer look at them.
The thicker book turned out to be a Mandarin–English bidirectional dictionary; the emotions could only surmise that it would have lots and lots of words in it, in both languages, even without any specific number listed, making for quite the useful offline resource.
"Well, this seems like it'll be useful for assignments. Especially since we don't know what else the Chinese Internet will block." Joy commented, but even she had to admit learning everything on the dictionary, let alone any possible assignments for "Mandarin" — hadn't the teacher just said "Putonghua" or something? Was this a different language? — might be out of Riley's reach.
Disgust, though, immediately realized a more pertinent issue. "Wait, how is the Chinese section even ordered? It's not like you can just put up all of those characters in a neat alphabet, can you?"
With their direction, complementing Fear's, at the console, Riley asked: "Hey, how would I look up a specific character?"
None of the emotions could say they understood the answer right away, even when it was phrased in English. All they got was something about radicals, something about how they were arranged, and some of "oh, don't worry, some radicals actually look like the thing they're talking about, like the tree or the mountains or the rice field".
Even Joy didn't know how to salvage the situation. Sure, she appreciated any time an aspect of nature was brought up, seeing it as just as beautiful as nature itself — but if there was anything looking like a tree or a rice field anywhere in Chinese writing, she would've noticed it. Already. It's not like she didn't have an entire day of experience with looking at Chinese, and deciding that Riley's best bet is just to get the entire thing automatically translated with the camera app on her favorite tablet.
"Anyway..." the teacher said, concluding an explanation that completely lost the emotions at "radicals". "I think that book is too heavy for you as of yet, it is certainly useful, don't get me wrong, but learning every single word when you just moved is like using wicker basket to draw water... Just look at the other one for now, won't you?"
"I... I see..." Riley responded before any of the emotions could, before moving to check out the second, thinner book — which turned out to be another one for Mandarin, this time a beginner's textbook for English speakers.
Understandably, not many books like it were on the library shelves; for the most part, it was English that needed to be taught in a fun and exciting way for the locals. That being said, the school did appear to get an international student every now and then, and though an arrival from as far as the United States didn't seem all that likely — even the teacher appeared to be confused by the presence of an American pupil at first — even for others, English served as a nice middle ground.
"You know, you will have to excuse for being not prepared... I tried to tell your father, she should be in an international school, but he was adamant... no, she should get the best chance she can to integrate into local society..."
"Wait, she... she handles admission, too? Does she think she's the vice-principal or something?" Anger commented.
"Are vice-principals even a thing? Anywhere, I mean." Fear asked in return.
"That does sound like Dad, though, I have to admit." Disgust added.
"Actually, can she go back to talking about radicals for a bit? I think I almost got it..." Joy wanted to add, but almost no one listened to her.
YOU ARE READING
Inside Out reImagined
FanfictionSmack dab in the middle of puberty, Riley Andersen often feels as though she can't control herself. To one's surprise, though, five emotions inside her mind think very much the same; they just can't pull their girl's strings like they used to. As lu...
