Doh!

Since Mr. Destructo's school year has ended, I'm taking him on a road trip to visit my dad and we're leaving tomorrow. Mr. Destructo is so excited. When I asked him why, he said he was excited to go to Flushing to partake of an icy drink with rainbow jellies from the bubble tea shop. 

Part of my preparations for a road trip always includes returning all library books that would be due while I  am away since I am in charge of the kids' borrowings. This time, I asked Penguin Girl to provide me with the 3 books that are due tomorrow. She handed over 2 and told me the third is at school. I've talked with her many a time about not taking things like library books to school for various reasons. I told her to go look for it to make sure it's not in the house because I didn't want to wait around for her to get it at school in the morning only to have her tell me she can't find it because it's probably at home.

She disappeared to her room. I called her down for an unrelated issue and when she came downstairs, her eyes were all red and teary. Why? Because she knew that she lost the book at school weeks ago so she would not be able to produce it tomorrow morning! Of course, she did not think to tell me that she lost it. More likely, some other kid stole it. All of which could have been avoided had she kept the book at home as she should have.

As a consequence, she will have to go to the public library and report it missing herself. It will be charged to her library account. Since it's a hardcover, it will certainly cost more than $5. When you have more than $5 outstanding on your account, your borrowing privileges are suspended. She is supposed to think up ways in which she can earn the money to pay off the fine. So far her ideas are to sell some of her stuffed animals and one hardcover book. 

It may be years before she can borrow books from the library again.