If there was anything Cecilia had learned about the modern world, it was this: Doctor Jones was as boring as watching a weed grow. Which, by the way, Cecilia had tried back in Rome, so she could honestly relate the two. But he was blessedly more productive than a weed, and she did learn a lot about English. But that could be because Latin and English were so similar in so many ways, and she hadn't managed to learn that much math or science, so perhaps Doctor Jones wasn't productive after all…

But he did give a lot of homework for her to do, and he had forbidden her from using Latin unless it was necessary, claiming that she would learn English faster if she was fully submerged by it. Cecilia let out a low growl as she carried the four varyingly giant books he had given her to the living room. Perhaps one of the older children could help her with her work. If they were finished with training, that is.

Evidently, they were. The boys were gathered in the living room around the television as Robin and Wally sat on the ground, fiddling with some little black box that had string-like things attached to it. Neither of the older girls were to be seen, but Cecilia didn't think much of it. Kaldur was the first to notice her arrival and greeted, "Greetings, Cecilia. Here, let me help you."

"Hello," Cecilia replied after a moment, her English oddly accented but discernible nonetheless, surprising everyone in the room. Kaldur took three of her heavier books and laid them on the couch while Cecilia kept the last one, titled Aesop's Fables for Children, sat down beside Kaldur, and opened it up to a picture of a fox and a crow. It had exactly four words on the entire page, which she read aloud with some difficulty, "There… was a… fox."

"Are you really going to read that entire book?" Wally asked, abandoning the little black box for a moment. "We're going to watch a Disney movie, and Robin 'found' one with Latin subtitles, so if you would like to do that instead…"

Cecilia frowned as she tried to decipher all that Wally had said, but it was useless. She shrugged bashfully, "I do not understand."

"I think that it is important for Cecilia to do her schoolwork. If her tutor has assigned that book, then there must be a reason," Kaldur stated. Wally wouldn't have it, "Yeah, to bore her to death! Trust me, English is a stupid language, plus Robin keeps butchering it with the whole 'whelmed' thing, so there isn't much of a point studying it."

"I don't butcher-" Robin started defiantly. Wally interrupted him.

"Yes, you do."

"No, 'whelmed' is an actual word! Look it up!"

"Unless you're carrying a dictionary in that utility belt-"

Kaldur held up one of the books Doctor Jones had given Cecilia, "Actually, there is no need."

Cecilia watched in bewildered amusement as Wally, grumbling, took the large book from Kaldur and flipped through it. He stopped on a certain page, frowned, then tilted his head to the side, "Huh, it is a real word."

"Told you!" Robin gloated, smirking. Cecilia giggled as the two friends went back and forth, knowing somehow that whatever insults they threw at each other were insincere and playful. Connor was watching them from the other side of the room with a similar expression of interest, while Kaldur just shook his head and sighed.

"We're back!" M'gann's voice floated into the living room, effectively ending the teenagers' dispute. Cecilia turned to see Artemis and M'gann enter, each carrying a couple of large, white paper bags. They seemed surprised to see Cecilia, but their surprise was quickly replaced with general happiness as M'gann pulled something out of a bag, "We went shopping. I just hope that they all fit."

She was holding a light purple, short, sleeveless dress covered with tiny flowery patterns, complete with a darker purple ribbon around the waist. Cecilia instantly smiled. The shorts she had on were still incredibly uncomfortable.

Cecilia felt the mind link come back on, and she quickly shook her head and waved her hands to stop it, speaking carefully, "No Latin! English."

"Why?" Artemis questioned, exchanging a confused look with M'gann. Cecilia tried to remember words to explain, failed, and simply shrugged as an answer. Then she proudly held up the huge book she was trying to interpret, "I can read!"

"'Can' is a strong word," Wally muttered jokingly, earning a light glare from Kaldur. Wally threw his hands into the air in exasperation, "Everything I say is wrong."

M'gann and Cecilia both chuckled at that, even though the latter didn't understand all of the words Wally used. Artemis merely smiled, as if she had just witnessed something truly funny but not enough for her to fully reveal it. Wally gave all three girls a flirtatious smile at the attention, winking at M'gann, and Cecilia noticed that Connor shifted a bit from the other side of the room.

"So what are you reading?" M'gann asked, leaving the bags in the kitchen and sitting down beside Cecilia. Artemis did the same, gently taking the book from Cecilia, "Aesop's fables. I suppose that your tutoring went well? You spent at least six hours in there."

"I have work," Cecilia responded with a shrug, pointing to the three books piled beside Kaldur. Robin glanced at the books, then looked at her, "When do you have to finish all of that?"

Again, Cecilia didn't understand enough English to decipher what he had asked, so she simply shrugged again, "I do not know."

'Stop shrugging so much,' she reprimanded herself sheepishly as Connor abandoned the far wall in favor of sitting beside M'gann. She looked back down at her book, now in Artemis's hands, and continued to read, "The fox was hu- hun-gr-y."

"Is this the one where he tricks the crow into giving him some cheese?" Wally asked loudly. "Because I've never understood why the fox wanted cheese. I mean, don't they eat meat? Why didn't he just trick the crow into flying down, then he could have killed the crow and eaten both it and the cheese."

"Because this is supposed to be a children's book. Typically, they avoid violence," Kaldur answered pointedly. Wally shrugged and glanced over at Cecilia, "Sure, but she's a Roman. Y'know, gladiator fights, starved lions eating people; they practically invented recreational violence."

"What is… recrea- re- rec-" Cecilia tried to ask, stumbling over the word.

"Recreational?" Robin clarified. "It describes something that you do for fun."

"Like watching a movie, if we can get this DVD player hooked up to the TV," Wally grumbled, tapping the black box he was working on. Cecilia glanced down at her book, then to the black box, then to her two "sisters", then back to her book. She squinted at the next few words, then abruptly closed it in Artemis's lap, "This is hard."

"Ha! Told you English was stupid!" Wally announced triumphantly. "Science is much more interesting."

"No way! Without math, there wouldn't even be science."

"Says the mathlete who makes up words."

"You are so not feeling the aster."

"See!"

Artemis rolled her eyes at the two boys, "If they weren't best friends, they would be mortal enemies. But let's see if we can make this book a little more interesting, at least until they can get the movie set up."

Cecilia scooted a bit closer to the older girl as she opened the book back up and began to read. Cecilia was familiar with the story; it was a favorite of her brother's. But she could tell that Artemis hadn't heard it before. The older girl kept frowning at different parts, as if questioning something, but she generally kept going without asking anything out loud. By the time Robin and Wally had the DVD player figured out, Artemis was midway through the fourth tale, this one about how the crow was cleverly filling a water jug with stones.

"Okay, let's get this party started!" Wally proclaimed, jumping onto the couch beside M'gann. Connor gave him a sideways look, but shrugged off whatever he was thinking as Robin did a little flip onto the couch, landing neatly in between Wally and Cecilia. Wally gave his friend a light glare, "Show off."

"And you're not?" Robin smirked. Cecilia chuckled, busying herself with putting the storybook away to hide her amusement. Then she returned to her seat as Wally, in a blur of motion, turned the lights off and began the movie.