Welcome Home Stella

During the entire car trip, Stella kept trying to hug me. Of course I put on her seat belt so that she is safe. She tried to take it off once, but when I gave my mean look, she stopped trying.

When the car arrived home, Stella and I entered first, with her hugging my arm. 

Where to let her sleep?

There is the spare bedro-

“Why don’t you have Stella sleep in the guest bedroom?”

Guess my dad and I had the same idea. I bring Stella upstairs to her bedroom. The spare bedroom was conveniently right next door to my room, so hopefully she won’t worry too much.

We enter into the spare, now I guess Stella’s room. It’s very plain. Sometimes my uncle and aunt or grandparents use this room. There is a table, a bed size that my parents use, and a bookshelf with a closet in the room.

“This is your room, Stella!”

She stares around, looking at all the furniture. When she is finished looking around the room, I bring her to the bed.

“This is where you will sleep! It’s very big and comfy, right!”

I lie down in bed, and she does the same. She continues to look into my eyes.

After a little while I get up, remembering what I was going to do before she was adopted into the family.

I run out of her room into mine, Stella trailing just behind.

I pick up the workbooks that I just got as well as some after-school workbooks and homework and tests that I did well on from past grades. 

I noticed Stella was with me, so I decided to teach her here in my room.

I pull out the grade 1 English book. It had the alphabet, so I started there.

“This is how to draw the sound A.”

I keep repeating it, and Stella got the idea to repeat what I say.

I smiled at her and said she was correct, and we went back to the alphabet.

“And this is Z”

“Zeee”

Stella seems to get all the letters correct on the first try, as if perfectly mimicking what I said.

“Alright, let’s see if you remember the alphabet.”

I pointed to the letters in random order, and she got them perfectly! Did she really not know English till now?

Only spending five minutes learning the alphabet, I move on to the next page of the workbook.

“This says ‘I eat an apple.’”

I point to the picture. Again, she repeated back perfectly to me. 

I mimicked the actions from the picture to show what that sentence means. And I get the feeling she understood what I’m trying to teach.

So we continued on, going through each page.

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“Stella! Arthur! It’s dinner time!”

I hear my mom calling us downstairs.

“We’re coming!” I scream in response.

I stood up and gave my hand to Stella. She grabbed back and followed me downstairs. Both my mom and dad already sat down at the dinner table.

I sit down on the chair with Stella sitting on the chair right next to me.

It was an amazing dinner spread, with chicken and salad. The chicken was more appetizing than the salad to be honest, but school said that I need to eat my fruits and vegetables to be healthy, so I eat them even if they are gross.

I grabbed some chicken and salad using tongs and put them on my plate. Stella does the same.

I grab the fork and put it into the chicken. Stella grabbed the fork and put it into the chicken.

I eat the chicken. She ate the chicken.

It was like seeing a recording where it was delayed a little. But the fact that Stella can follow along so well is good.

*************************

“That was good, thanks, Mom!”

I tell my mom and she smiles and go back to dish washing.

I brought Stella up to my room, where I continued to teach her till it was bedtime. 

“It’s time to go to bed, you two.”

“Yes, Dad.”

I would normally say I’m not tired yet, but teaching is very tiring. I wonder how my teacher does this every day.

“Ok Stella, let’s continue this tomorrow.”

I bring Stella to her room, and I wave good night.

I close the door, only to hear her door open again with her right behind me.

“You need to sleep in your room Stella.”

Stella shook her head. Wow this is progress, normally she would just stare at me, but I guess she had learned something from my teaching. Well, if a student does well, they need to be rewarded, right?

I sigh and look up at her smiling.

“Ok, but just for today.”

I grab her hand and bring her to my room.

The bed is a little small for the both of us to sleep on, so I decided to get the spare blanket in Stella’s room and sleep on the ground like it’s a slumber party.

“You sleep there, Stella,” as I point at the bed.

Stella sits on the bed, and I start to lie down on the ground. Yawn, guess I really was tired. I closed my eyes, and I went to sleep immediately.

*************************

“Yawn!”

I let out a loud yawn. I look around and notice I was on the ground. Oh yeah! Stella is living with me now. I look around, and I notice her sleeping right next to me. She must’ve fell down the bed and ended next to me.

I shake Stella, and she slowly opens her green eyes. Her hair was all going in different directions due to sleeping on the ground. She also let’s out a loud yawn.

“Good morning”

“Yeah, good morning to you too—wait, Stella, you know what that means?”

Stella shakes her head up and down. 

I take a look around and notice a bunch of papers and books all tossed around in different areas. Was she studying while I was asleep?

“Do you understand what I am saying?”

I ask her. No matter the genius, there's no way someone can learn English that fast.

“I understand what you are saying,” she responds back while nodding.

What in the world?