"More work." Charity responded promptly and logically, "I hope it's work on the computer. That little box is so funny. I like that it sings when it's thinking about hard problems." The computer work had been fairly limited mostly, Charity suspected, because nobody was really sure what the thing could do. Charity was proud of herself for owning a computer and, in the broom closet where it was stored, she had actually set it up similarly to the set-up the man had put in school. She had tried pushing the buttons the way Inigo did when he wanted it to turn on, but it still sat there coldly. There was some part of this 'turn the computer on' trick that she was missing, but she didn't know what it was. Still, the idea that she could proudly tell her friends that she had a computer at home was somewhat... exciting.
Charity's musings were interrupted by the teacher who had stopped by the desk with a shallow box. She set it between them and explained their task - sounding a little bit uncertain. She occasionally checked the book that had the word 'STANDARDS' on the front. Charity had asked once, and these were the things that muggle schools expected elementary school children to know, and because they were not a homeschool they had to attempt exposure. Most of it was English, Math, and History, which was stuff Wizarding kids were taught anyway. There were occasionally some odd focuses and today was looking like an odd focusing day. The teacher explained that they were to make a map, using the tools that the standard book recommended, of the neighborhood. It could be just the school-yard if they wanted, but they had to be careful of keeping scale and she requested, eyeing their outfits, that they not go any further than three blocks away - or do anything else that wasn't strictly necessary in the completion of the task (She'd eyed Inigo exclusively here.) and advised them to be back around lunch time if they wanted to be fed.
Charity peeked into the box, curious about the tools that the muggle standards book suggested they use to make a map. There was the white and blue lined graph paper that they were familiar with from math lessons, two tape measures (one clothing, one construction) which both wiggled a bit in the box, and two compasses. One was a geometric compass from their graphing assignments. The other was an ornate round thing that looked like a pocket watch, but when you opened it had several differently colored needles that pointed all over the place. The drawings in the muggle geography textbook (which they used to complement the wizarding geography texts) of compasses looked similar to this, only they only had one red needle that always pointed north. This one had a red needle that didn't move no matter how Charity turned it and the other needles stayed roughly stable, too, although a pink one was moving dramatically around as she watched it.
Charity caught the clues. This meant that the extra assignment had been one from the muggle standards notebook almost completely and the teacher wasn't certain what tools to give them for completion of the project. So she'd gotten together with someone - probably her husband - and puzzled over what the muggles could possibly have meant by these words, then collected the necessary tools from around her house. The wiggling cloth measure looked like the sort that had magically measured Charity when a cousin, less than pleased by her "rag-bag wardrobe" had taken her to a store to "make her presentable" and gotten her a bunch of frilly dresses. She'd seen the construction measures before, especially well-loved ones like this one. It had to have been dropped thousands of times by wayward do-it-yourselfers and several of the guys who worked in the prep room carried a magical measuring tape in their pocket and measured impressively sized vegetables or amused Charity by letting her play with it in the corner. The first compass appeared to be one from the geometry box, complete with the label that stated that it belonged in the classroom. The second compass... Charity had to assume that it was something from the teacher's home. She'd never seen anything like it before and she was curious what all the needles were pointing to.
Well, that could be fun anyhow. Charity hadn't really seen much of the neighborhood. They had recess, but she floo-powdered in every day, didn't she? She could see the parts of the neighborhood you could see from the playset outside. She'd been in London plenty of times, but it was different from place to place. Diagon Alley looked like a completely different place than, say, the ministry building entrances. (They'd ask her to come so that they could "have a look at her" while deciding her Hogwarts paperwork. Apparently, an hour or so sitting in a waiting room was enough of a look and they'd sent her home without actually talking to anyone.) And from what she could see from the playground, this neighborhood was different from both of those other places.
Charity was sure that she wasn't going to have to wait long, but she waited for Inigo's response to the tools they'd been given so that she could follow him outside. She was always more comfortable following Inigo when they were "sent on adventures." He was so much bigger than her, even though he wasn't much older. If she lead the way, it'd feel odd. As an afterthought, she closed the baggie with what was left of her dry cereal breakfast in it and added it to the toolbox.