COUNTING ON NIA

"Nia is going to be staying here with us!" Thomas announced proudly, "I just need to speak to the Fat Controller." The Thin Controller looked puzzled.

"But… I thought he'd be with you." It was Thomas' turn to look puzzled.

"Me? Why me?"

"Because he went looking for you!" Percy explained. Thomas gulped.

"H-He did?"

"Yes! We thought he must've found you and was bringing you home again," Gordon added. A moment of silence fell upon the station as the engines shared horrified looks.

"So… if he's not with you…" Percy began.

"Then where in the world is-" Thomas got cut off by a very familiar voice indeed.

"THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE!" Thomas froze as Samson drew alongside him and Nia, a very worse for wear Fat Controller standing in his open cab. Thomas smiled sheepishly.

"Heh heh… hello, sir?"

Thomas grumpily bumped trucks about the yard, Nia watching curiously.

"It's not fair…" he complained bitterly, "Why did the Fat Controller have to take me off my line?"

"Maybe to teach you not to run away across the world, eh?" Nia remarked cheekily. Thomas spluttered.

"You went with me!"

"Yes, but I don't have a controller back in Kenya to give me grief for it." Thomas raised an eyebrow at this, but before he could reply, Gordon's voice bellowed out.

"My coaches, little Thomas!" Thomas snorted and rolled away to fetch them. Nia watched him leave, not noticing the Fat Controller walk up to her.

"Ah, hello, Nia. How are you settling in?"

"Oh! Just fine, sir. It's so pretty here, and everyone's been so nice."

"Glad to hear it," smiled the Fat Controller, "because I've made all the proper arrangements, and now you're an official member of the railway!" Nia gasped with joy.

"Really, sir? I'm staying? Oh, thank you!"

"Of course! I've been very impressed with your work so far, and you took care of Thomas while he was on his travels. Speaking of Thomas, since he's…" The Fat Controller cleared his throat.

"...having a lesson, I'd like you to take Annie and Clarabel for him. I know you're more of a goods engine, but I'd like you to be comfortable working with passengers too. They will be waiting for you at platform two." Nia's smile faltered, but she quickly tried to hide it.

"Alright, sir. I'll be on it right away." Nia whistled and rolled away, her smile morphing into a worried frown as soon as the Fat Controller couldn't see.

Nia rolled through the yard, scanning the sidings for Annie and Clarabel. She then noticed a carriage shed with two orange coaches sleeping inside.

"Ah, that must be them!" She rolled towards them, whistling as she rolled alongside. Annie and Clarabel woke with a start.

"Thomas? Is that you?" Clarabel yawned. Nia smiled as she backed down onto them.

"No, my name is Nia! I'm taking you out today."

"You are? Well, that's exciting, isn't it, Annie?"

"Quite right, Clarabel! You know, you certainly found us quickly, Nia," Annie remarked, "New engines always struggle to find us in our corner of the yard."

"Really? That's odd, it wasn't so hard for me. Then again, I have been in my fair share of yards. All around the world, in fact!" The coaches shared a glance.

"We have a clever engine pulling us today, don't we, Clarabel?"

"Oh yes, very clever indeed!" agreed Clarabel. Nia smirked as she pulled them out of the carriage shed and towards the station.

"Right! And a clever engine never lets anything go wrong," she said, sounding as though as she was trying to convince herself more than the coaches.

Nia rolled up to the junction, narrowing her eyes at the station. She scanned the platforms, trying to use her deduction to figure out which platform she was supposed to go to.

"That one is filled, so it can't be that one…" she muttered, noticing Daisy occupying the furthest platform to the right. She glanced at the platform to the left, where Henry was just departing with a goods train.

"Oh, it could be that one! Would be very efficient to have a train enter just as another leaves." She whistled and charged across the junction into the station, just as Henry's brake van left the platform. She braked to a halt, feeling very proud of herself.

"Erm, this is the wrong platform, dear." Nia opened her eyes, only to see that no one was waiting to board on the platform.

"O-Oh!" she stammered, her face turning bright red, "My mistake." Annie and Clarabel frowned as Nia reversed back to the junction to try another platform.

"Hmm… It wasn't that one," she murmured, "so which one could it be?"

"Listen, dear, I'm afraid there's not much of a mystery here," Annie interjected.

"Yes! It's platform two you're looking for, Nia," Clarabel added helpfully.

"And which one's that?"

"Well… platform two! The second platform! You should see a 'two' right above it." Nia grimaced and rolled forward again. She pulled into a platform with passengers waiting and smiled.

"Ah, so it's this one!" Annie looked up at the number above the platform and sighed dully.

"No, this is platform five, Nia." Nia raised an eyebrow.

"It is? Then who are these passengers for then?" Suddenly, there was a whistle behind them. Nia looked back as Emily rolled up behind her with her own two coaches, looking rather confused.

"Nia? What are you doing at my platform?" Nia blushed again, whistling and hurrying away without replying. Emily blinked.

Nia reversed back to the junction, hoping that no one but Emily had noticed. She sighed, becoming rather frustrated.

"Perhaps a visual cue could help!" Clarabel suggested, catching on to this, "On platform two, there's a lady with a very big hat!" Nia immediately scanned the platforms one last time and grinned when she saw the very person on one of the platforms.

"Thank you!" she called back, finally rolling into the right platform. The passengers weren't particularly happy for her, though.

"I say, what kind of engine doesn't even know platforms? A child could figure it out!" huffed one particularly grumpy passenger as he boarded. Nia winced as some of the other passengers glared while getting into their seats.

"Oh dear…"

"Never mind, Nia! Everyone gets a bit mixed up in the stations sometimes!" Clarabel called optimistically, though this didn't cheer Nia up much. The guard blew her whistle, and Nia began rolling out of the station.

"Well, at least it can't get any worse than that…" she muttered.

Nia was soon making her way through the countryside, managing to relax as she kept a steady pace. In the distance, however, Nia could see a sign beside the line. She squinted at it as she passed by it, but could only make out odd scribbles. She continued her speed, not noticing the coaches starting to tense up behind her.

"Was that a speed limit sign?" Clarabel asked worriedly as the sign faded into the distance behind them.

"I believe so, Clarabel. Look, there's another one!" Annie cried as the train passed another sign with different scribbles, "Nia, you need to slow down!"

"I do? Why?"

"Because of the signs, Nia! Didn't you see them?" Nia grimaced and was about to reply, but she decided against it. She started applying her brakes, unsure what the fuss was about, though it didn't take long to find out. She rounded a bend and gasped in horror as just up ahead, workers were mending a bumpy section of the line. They quickly ran out of the way just as she approached. Nia began to jolt about on the bumpy rails, one of her front wheels eventually derailing and crunching into the ballast. At last, Nia screeched to a halt.

"Phew… What happened? No one told me there were people mending the line today," she grumbled defensively.

"That's what the signs were for! They were there to tell you to slow down!" Annie retorted. Nia winced and fell silent. The passengers weren't so quiet, though.

"This engine's dreadful!" the grumpy passenger grouched, "They've made me spill my tea how they went over those bumps! Such awful condition for tracks too; you'd think they'd take better care of their rails…" As the passenger very loudly droned on, the coaches winced as Nia sighed dully.

"Never mind, it got worse."

It wasn't long before Edward arrived with Rocky, and the large crane made quick work of the situation.

"There you are!" he smiled as he lowered Nia back onto the rails, "Back on track again." Nia smiled sadly.

"Thanks, Rocky." From in front of the crane, Edward raised an eyebrow at Nia.

"If you don't mind me asking, Nia, why didn't you slow down when you saw the signs? You did see them, didn't you?" Nia looked away, ashamed.

"I… did, but… No, I can't say. It's silly."

"Oh, dear, it can't be that bad!" said Annie reassuringly.

"We won't think any less of you, whatever it is, we promise!" added Clarabel. Nia glanced between the coaches, Edward and Rocky and took a deep breath.

"Alright, I… don't know numbers."

"You… don't know numbers?" Annie frowned. Nia sighed and looked down at her buffers.

"I know… I told you it was silly."

"No, no, it's not that! It's just… don't they have numbers in Kenya?"

"Of course they do," Nia replied, somewhat indignantly, "The same-looking ones too, but I only really took long-distance trains there, so numbers weren't quite so important. But here, there are all these platforms and signs… I won't be a really useful engine on this railway until I know numbers."

"Oh! You don't know what a one or a two look like!" Clarabel gasped, "So that's why you didn't know the platforms or slow down for the signs! Well, that explains everything!"

"Indeed! You should've told us sooner, dear," added Annie, "It's okay to ask for help, you know. We've had to help Thomas more times than we can count!"

"How about we teach you? Those 'squiggles' aren't so hard to learn once you get used to them," Clarabel suggested. Nia stared, utterly astonished at what she just heard.

"Really? You'll teach me?"

"Of course! In fact, we can start right now! You see that symbol on Edward's tender over there, Nia? That's the number two!" Nia glanced at Edward's tender and studied it carefully.

"The number… two."

"Don't worry, Nia, we'll practice it more than once! No one ever learns the first time, you know," Clarabel called. Nia smiled and began rolling away.

"Thank you, you two!" she laughed as she and the coaches rolled into the distance. Rocky turned to Edward.

"Huh. Have you ever seen anything like it, Edward?"

"No, I don't believe I have," the blue engine murmured.

Throughout the rest of the day as Nia, Annie and Clarabel went about their work, the coaches utilized every moment they could to teach Nia.

"That number on Percy's side is six, Nia," Annie explained as Nia pulled into Ffarquhar, where Percy was having a drink at the water tower. Percy smirked proudly.

"And proud of it!"

"Toby is the number seven; notice the straight lines at an angle," Clarabel said with as much of an air of authority as she could muster as Toby rolled into Maithwaite. Toby raised an eyebrow as Nia studied the number on his side.

"What are they doing?"

"Oh, it's nothing to worry yourself about, Toby," Henrietta replied from behind him, "Annie and Clarabel just enjoy being teachers, that's all." Bertie squirmed as Nia studied the bus' front license plate.

"Can I go now?"

"Not yet, Bertie!" Annie called, "You have two numbers on you! That takes some time to memorize!" Bertie sighed.

By the time the sun was starting to set, Nia was starting to get good at identifying numbers.

"Oh! That one has a straight line on top and curved line on bottom… That's five!" Nia cried excitedly as James rushed past.

"And there's nine and ten!" she continued as Donald and Douglas could be seen rolling through the station with a long goods train. Annie and Clarabel cheered from behind her.

"Brilliant, simply brilliant, Nia! You're really getting better!" Clarabel said proudly. Nia smirked.

"Well, what can I say? I have good teachers!" The trio laughed as they pulled into the junction but were cut off by a familiar whistle. Thomas rolled slowly into the station, hissing loudly, followed by a long line of trucks, most of which were filled to the brim with rubbish. Finally, at the end of the train was Whiff.

"Come along, Thomas, just a few more stops and we'll be back at the dump in no time!" Whiff called. Thomas scoffed as he drew to a halt at the platform. He glared enviously at Nia and the coaches.

"At least someone's having a good time," he grumbled bitterly. Nia grinned cheekily.

"Oh, don't be so down, Thomas! You are the number one, after all!" Nia and the coaches laughed again. Thomas snorted, disappearing into a cloud of steam.

Author's Note: Not gonna lie, this one was tough, mainly because I wanted to translate the original episode in a way that made sense. I think I pulled it off though; Nia's essentially her initial portrayal in Big World! Big Adventures! in my canon, with her sarcastic nature sticking around as opposed to being dropped once Season 22 hit the scene. What's also changed is the placement of the story; instead of being the last episode, this is now the first, effectively replacing Forever and Ever, which isn't much of a loss for me anyway. Getting to actually write Nia was funner than I expected it to be, and having Annie, Clarabel, and Thomas play sufficient roles was great too. Next up should be either be a Railway Series adaptation or original, we'll see.