Overheard in the Library

I brought my little sister to the town library with me while our mom was out at the store buying groceries. My little sister has never been in the library. She has no interest in reading, not even picture books. I turned around the last corner to get to the library and took my little sister's hand. I walked into the library, intertwining my sister's fingers in mine. She was very jumpy. She'd heard that there were puzzles and building blocks in the children's section of the library. "Can we go over there? Please? I wanna see the blocks! I wanna play!" She exclaimed. "Shh!" I told her. I forgot she didn't understand the concept of using your "library voice" when in the library. I had to quiet her down, take her to the corner of the first room. The receptionist was staring at us, frowning. She was clearly mad about how loud my younger sister's voice had gotten. I turned away and back to my sister, getting down on her level. "Chloe," I started, "In the library, you have to use your inside voice. You need to whisper." I explained. She frowned. "But why?" She complained. "Well," I explained, "There's people studying here. And there's people trying to read and work. If you use your inside voice and whisper, I'll take you to the blocks." I finished. Her eyes lit up at the last sentence and she nodded frantically. I took her hand and started walking to the children's section. She was clearly distracted by the paintings around the library because every time we passed one, she made noises like 'Oooooh' and 'Ahhhh'. "Shh!" someone at the computers snapped. That sure shut her up. She wasn't expecting it. We got to the kid's section and my sister started running around like some crazy monkey. Most people in the room next to us turned to look through the glass to see what all the ruckus was. I looked away, embarrassed, and went to find my sister. When I found her, I grabbed both of her arms and pulled her to me. "Chloe!" I whispered, but my voice was stern. "You cannot just run around the library and make a loud commotion like that!" She stuck her tongue out at me. I took her wrist and pulled her to where the blocks were, in hopes she'd get distracted and be quieter. Her eyes shone when she sat the the table with the building blocks and puzzles on them. I walked away, to my favorite section of the library, the section where all the fiction books and fairy tails were. I was looking through the books, trying to decide which ones looked the most appealing and interesting to me, when I heard another loud commotion. I had no doubt it was my little sister, so I rushed over to where she was. And there she was, screaming and crying and throwing a tantrum because her block tower fell. She was throwing blocks around and wrecking puzzles. She had knocked books off of the shelves before anything, I assumed. I marched over to her and took her arm. Before I could say anything, I felt someone's presence behind me. I turned around and saw what looked like an employee for the library. My heart dropped. He pointed to the door. "Out." he demanded. I nodded and apologized under my breath. "Sorry." I took my sister's arm, my grip tight. She was still throwing a fit, not as loud though. We walked out of the library and I scolded her. "I told you not to be loud! I told you to use your inside voice and I told you to whisper!" I shouted. She looked away from me, refusing to listen. I was outraged. I grabbed her to make her look at me. "You just wait until mom hears about this." I let her go and started walking home. She followed, without saying a word.

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