Event Private merr' cribmas

An was pretty sure the answer to all those questions was a solid 'no', but she did her best anyway. She was also pretty sure that as a teacher, she wasn't allowed to give her kid any gag gifts. Or inappropriate things. Or hell, even vaguely-shaped objects that could be misconstrued as sex toys.

So what could she give Rice?

The wrapped gift sitting in front of her stared right back up at the teacher. Jia An was dressed in her usual sweater/shirt combo, brown flats planted squarely on the floor. By now she was nicely settled into the Academy; she hung out at the library practically all the time, and she felt at home. She was sat at a table somewhere near the front of the library -- wouldn't want to make Eilonwy walk too far, after all, and she might not even know who An was -- hands steepled beneath her chin, observing the passers-by.

Her wings were hidden, brown eyes placidly watching time go by. At her feet lay another gift -- also nicely wrapped, about the size of a pillow. What was it? Well.

Eilonwy was about to find out.

"I'm joking," she said almost immediately after. An waved over at the... floating mass of clothes? Well. At least that settled finding her gift buddy, even if the kid was invisible and small and very loud. From her dressing choice, it looked like Eilonwy was a girl with an unrivalled vivaciousness. An had no intention of challenging that enthusiasm, so she simply gave the floating clothes an encouraging smile.

Reclusive as she was, An had surprisingly practically perfected the art of appearing chiller than she was. Her lazy grin was turned on the clothes, eyeing them and their unseen owner. A hat floated above the shoulders of the dress, bells jangling with every step she took.

Seeing the effort Eilonwy put into her decoration, Jia An felt somewhat bad that her own packaging was rather plain. Both packages were wrapped in plain brown paper — the recycled kind, not the fancy kind — which she thought gave them a quaint, old-fashioned look. She’d written Eilonwy’s name in small, thin block letters with black ink on them. Still, it was what was inside that counted, right?

"Miss Rice, I presume." Straight and to the point. By this time she didn’t think much of the invisible girl; she’d seen enough weirdness in the Academy already. ”Have a seat.”

She lifted a brow as the bag floated onto the table. Up close, it was even more garish impressive. In return, she set her package on the table too. It was rectangular and book-sized. Because it was. A book. "Charmed," the teacher responded. "Li Jia An, but you already knew that." She excluded the bits about her degree, not wanting to sound like a pomp. It was better to go about unnoticed and casual, really; you learnt so much more that way.

"Shall we?"

An snapped her fingers. The smaller package was in her lap; the larger one appeared suddenly on the library table. It was probably bigger than Eilonwy's torso. It weighed 5kg -- An knew from intimate experience -- and it was wrapped in the same brown paper her smaller one was. She took great care to hide the small one from the kid, intending to give it to her...

...After she'd seen the first one.