It was a lovely Saturday in Dimmsdale; the sun was shining, the sky was blue, the birds were singing, and the air was warm. Tootie and Clara decided that today would be a good day to visit one of the town's places for a while. After a few minutes of pondering, they decided on the Dimmsdale Public Library. There was a certain book that Tootie wanted to borrow and read, and she was hoping it could be found there.

The two girls had been walking for about ten minutes before they saw their destination a few feet away. They made their way up the stairs and through the doors with smiles upon their faces.

"There's probably a million books here waiting for someone to read them," Tootie said to Clara.

"Yeah, but how will we find the one you're looking for?" Clara wanted to know. "It could be anywhere..."

That was when Tootie began to tell her about the book she wanted to find and read.

"What we have to do is look for a book that has a white cat sitting next to a brown dog on the front. Once we find it, we'll know it's the one I'm-" Before she could continue, however, Tootie felt a tickle in her nose. She reared her neck back as her eyelids lowered. "Aaah..."

"Hah-tchew!" Tootie brought her upper body forwards as she released a cute sneeze, one that didn't even have any visible spray. And just like that, she'd placed her forefinger underneath her nose.

"Hey!" someone said in a stern voice. Tootie and Clara turned to where they thought they heard the voice, seeing a male guard. He didn't look too happy. "No sneezing in the library!"

"Sorry, sir," Tootie apologized politely as she began to rub her nose.

"You should be sorry," the guard replied. He didn't sound like he was willing to accept Tootie's sincere apology. "If I hear one more sneeze out of either of you, you're outta here!"

Tootie and Clara stood where they were, their eyes wide and pupils shrunken in disbelief. As the guard walked away, the two looked at each other.

"I gotta say, that sounds awfully mean to throw someone out just because they sneezed," Clara said in worry.

"But do you know what this means?" Tootie asked, pulling her forefinger away from her nose.

"Um, we should be more quiet?"

"Not just that, but I can't let myself or you sneeze while we're in this library!" said Tootie, making sure to keep her voice down. "We've got to keep each other from sneezing until we're done doing what we have to do here."

"Um, okay." Clara covered her nose in worry. "Let's find that book, okay?"

Tootie nodded in agreement, and then they began to walk around the library. Besides the cover, one of the things Tootie knew about the book she was looking for was that it was a kids book. Surely it could be found in the section marked "kids books," right? As she walked, however, she approached a man who picked out a book from one of the shelves. He took a deep breath and blew on the book, blowing some dust off it.

And that dust landed right on Tootie's nose, which caused it to twitch.

"Aaah... AAAH..." Tootie inhaled, closing her eyes as she moved her neck back. "HAAAH-"

Before she could sneeze, however, she reached up and placed her forefinger underneath her nose. Her urge to sneeze stayed where it was for a few seconds, but then slowly faded away. Tootie sighed quietly in relief, then used her other hand to brush the dust off her nose.

"That was close," Tootie muttered as she rubbed her nose again with her forefinger. "If I was one second later, I probably would've been kicked out..."

As she finished rubbing her nose, however, she heard a light sniffle from Clara. When she turned her head to look at her, she saw her eyelids lowering and her nose twitching. Before long, her breath began to hitch.

"Ah, hah... Aaah..." She was just about to release when Tootie placed her hands over her mouth, which interrupted her sneeze. Clara stood where she was for a moment, but then exhaled silently.

"Th-thank you..." Clara said. "Sorry, Tootie. I always get sneezy when we go to the library..."

"Yeah, me too," Tootie admitted as she pulled her hands away. "But listen, we can't let another sneeze get us this time. We've got to keep them from coming out, okay?"

"Well, okay," Clara said with a nod of understanding, "but I don't think that's a good idea."

Just as she finished saying that, however, she saw another guard walk by, so she threw her hands over her mouth. Luckily, the guard walked past her and Tootie without so much as turning his head toward them.

With that, Tootie and Clara began to head to the kids book section. As they did so, Tootie looked toward the books that were waiting on the shelves.

"Drama, fantasy… dramatic fantasy," she listed. "Romance, comedy… romantic comedy… romantic comedy with a hint of dramatic fantasy."

"Those kids books have to be here somewhere!" said Tootie, quietly enough to be heard only by herself and her friend.

As she kept looking, Tootie felt another tickle in her nose. To keep herself from sneezing, however, she pressed the tip of her thumb and the tip of her forefinger against the opposite sides of her nose. She also began to think denying thoughts, hoping it would help.

"I'm not going to sneeze. I'm not going to sneeze…"

With that, the itchy sensation in her nose steadily went away, until it was no longer there. At that moment, Tootie finally spotted the kids book section, and she gave a big smile.

"Bingo."

She walked over to the section until she was right in front of it. Not too long afterward, Clara caught up to her, and they began to search for the book Tootie was looking for.

"Uh, Tootie? Shouldn't the Things have blue hair and red jammies?" Clara asked, noticing an unmissable error on one of the Cat in the Hat books she saw.

"Yeah, why?" Tootie replied.

"Then why do they have yellow hair and blue jammies?"

Tootie turned her head to look at the book Clara was talking about, immediately seeing that she was right. But she turned her head back to keep looking.

"I don't know, Clara, I'm sorry. Besides, I'm not related to Mister Dr. Seuss…"

After about a minute of searching, however, Tootie finally found the book she was looking for - the one with the white cat next to the brown dog on the cover. She pulled it out and looked at it with a smile.

"Oh, thank goodness!" said Tootie. "Now I just have to check it out and bring it home."

With that, she and Clara made their way out of the kids' book section. As they did, however, Tootie felt another sneeze coming on. She could feel her breath hitching as she lowered her eyelids once again.

"Aaah… Haaah… Ah, AHHHHH…"

But as soon as Clara realized what was going on, she reached over and placed her finger underneath Tootie's nose. To both of the girls' surprise, the sneeze was stopped in their tracks. With a near-silent sigh of relief, Tootie's breath returned to normal, and Clara smiled as she removed her finger.

But then Clara thought she saw another guard approaching them, so her forefinger went back under Tootie's nose, to her surprise. But Tootie waved her hand to let her friend know that they were in the clear, and Clara put her hand down.

With that, Tootie made her way over to one of the librarians, who was sitting at one of the counters in front of a computer.

"May I help you?" the librarian asked politely.

"I'd like to borrow this book, please." Tootie handed her the book she had in her hands, followed by her library card that she'd brought with her.

The librarian ran the card through a card scanner, then a laser over the bar code on the back of the book, and then used the computer to print out a receipt. She handed this receipt as well as the book to Tootie, followed by her library card.

"Be sure to bring it back in three weeks or sooner," the librarian reminded her.

"I will. Thank you," said Tootie.

Placing her receipt inside the book, Tootie placed her book behind her back and began to walk toward the exit doors, while Clara followed her from behind. As they went, however, they saw another one of the librarians at one of the shelves, dusting it as well as its books with a duster. Clouds of gray and brown dust and other particles were finding their way into the air - and tickling Tootie and Clara's noses quite badly.

"Aaah…Haaahhh-" They inhaled before Clara placed her finger back under Tootie's nose, just as Tootie placed her own finger underneath Clara's nose. They still needed to sneeze, but they were able to stave off each other's urge to do so before it was too late.

As fast as their legs could take them, the two girls rushed out of the library doors. As soon as they'd made it outside, they each gave one last inhale and exploded.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH-CHEEEEEEWWWWWWWW!" Tootie shot her neck forwards as she released a massive sneeze, with a good amount of spray being released from her mouth. This sneeze was followed up by a somewhat less forceful sneeze that was no less loud. "HAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH-TCHEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW!"

"Aaaah-chew! Haaah-tchew! Ahhh-tchuu!" On the other hand, Clara sneezed rather mildly, placing both of her hands over her mouth with each release. "Ah-choo! Hah-choo! Hah-chu!" Her little sneeze attack was quite hard to hear over that of Tootie, however.

Finally, however, the girls were finished sneezing. Clara sniffled as she rubbed her nose with her arm, while Tootie rubbed her nose repeatedly with her forefinger.

"B-bless you, Tootie…" Clara said, somewhat groggily.

"Thank you. And bless you, Clara," said Tootie, still rubbing her nose. She also gave a sniffle, this one sounding particularly sharp compared to Clara's. "That was a pretty close call..."

"Yeah," Clara replied, "If those guards were serious about throwing us out just for sneezing, it's a good thing we got out before they could."

"No kidding, it's a good thing..."

With that, they made their way down the steps, and then they headed off to Tootie's house. To their relief, their noses didn't feel itchy anymore - at least, not as much as they were before.

"I'm just glad I got the book I was looking for," said Tootie. "And I hope it'll be worth all the sneezy trouble we had to go through."

"Me too!" Clara said in agreement, rubbing her nose once more.