Saturday morning.
A week since i moved here. Slowly, i was getting used to my new home.
My father insisted that i was an "extremly smart kid", but i started to question his good judgment. I think i may loose my mind trying to learn this language... I was losing my confidence really quickly. I couldn't remember a thing. Even the most basic words were hard.
Jake turned out to be a nice person. Weird, quiet and sometimes a bit confusing, but nice.
Each time we crossed paths at school he will aid me with the hellish idiom.
Flashback:
"Once again"
"Hello. My name is Cat. I'm eight years old and just moved here. Please pardon my stupidity. I have a not so slight retard".
He told me that it meant: hello my name is Cat. I'm eight years old. Excuse my lack of knowladge on the language. I'm new here.
_
What a prick...
When the girl who sat next to me in class - that miraculously knew some english- told me what it really meant, i wanted to bury myself to never be found. I told half the school the same frase over and over again.
But aside of the occasional silly jokes, he was actually very helpful. Not only with the language but with every school subject.
I was pretty surprised when i found out that he had the best grades of the school.
But as the week went through and i started to get to know him a little bit better, it became quite obvious. He was always reading. And everytime time i saw him he had a different book.
"From Monday, you are going to stay with the Mullers after school"
...
"Cat, are you there?" said my father waving a hand in front of my face.
"uh? Oh, sorry dad. I was lost in my thoughts. I think my brain melt after this past week" i chuckled. "What were you saying?"
He took a deep breath and started again "i was telling you that monday i'm going back to work. So you are staying with the Mullers after school. I'm usually back around six thirty." He fixed his glasses and continued writing on a small notebook, occasionally sipping on his coffee.
"Oooh. Ok" i said without knowing how to react. I graved a pencil and resumed the homework i long forgotten when i started to wander in my thoughts about my new experiences in this place.
"Don't worry, Sandra is a nice person. I figured it was a good idea. I have someone trustworthy taking care of you while i'm gone and she gets the extra income she needs. Anyways, what were you thinking so deeply about?" he looked at me a bit concerned.
"School" Now that i notice, i almost didn't thought about mom this past days...
With monday came the evil torture of going to a school where you don't understand a word that anyone says...
The hours passed painfully slow and when the school bell ringed i had everything ready to scape the building.
I was almost running through the front doors when i heard "Hey Cat, wait! We're suposed to go back together." Said Jake running to catch up with me."You're staying with us after school. Remember?" He looked as excited as i was...
I turned and released an annoyed sigh.
"Yeah" i said and started to follow him home.
We were half block from school when a group of older kids started yelling at us.
"oh look! The whore's son finally found a friend" and they all laughed at us.
Since i didn't get a word they were saying, i just shrugged and continued walking. After some steps i realized that Jake was no longer with me. When i looked back he was already tackling the tallest boy of the group. By the time i got there the other boy's face was covered in blood.
"JAKE! Let him go!" I tried to pull him away, but it was useless. Whatever they said, must have touched on a sensitive topic.
"Jake, it's not worth it. Whatever they'd said, it's just words" That seemed to calm him a little. I pulled from his arm and he finally gave up. He straightened and started to walk. I followed him silently, fighting back the urge to ask him what they'd said.
When we arrived his house he opened the door for me without saying a word and left to his room.
My heart sunk. The house was tiny and it had barely the minimum.
The main room had a small round table that only fitted two people, a humble counter with sink, a white stove and an extremly old green refrigerator, that didn't looked like it worked anymore. Maybe they use it to store kitchen supplies.
Something that caught my eye was the huge black piano on the right side of the room. It looked impeccable but immensely out of place. In the short space the instrument left, against the front wall, was a rustic brown couch. And at the oposite side were two doors. One, i assumed was the bathroom and the other lead to a bedroom that i barely got a slight glance of when Jake went in.
I sat on the kitchen table not very sure about what to do. I decided that the best was to use my free time to do homework. Or at least try to.
After some minutes of pulling my hair trying to understand what the hell was written on the book, the front door opened, revealing a very agitated Sandra.
"I'm so so sorry Catalina. The market was packed and..." Her accent was a lot more evident this time.
I stood up and went to help her with the bags. "Don't worry miss Muller, we just got from school"
"Please, call me Sandra" I nodded.
She sat with me and handed me a bag of cookies. "Need help with that?" she asked me as she went to the fridge, grabbed a box of orange juice and served it on a glass. Oh, that thing actually works!
"Yes, please? I still don't understand much" i pouted.
"Don't be sad. It takes some time to learn a new language. Now lets see what you got there" i handed her the papers and she began to explain.
We spent the following time doing my homework. Sandra was very kind and patient. She kept her sweet attitude even if she had to explain the same thing a hundred times. She even teach me some tricks on how to remember the words that gave me a hard time.
As for Jake, he never left the bedroom.
It was almost seven when dad came to pick me up.
"Thank you miss-Sandra. You're the best" i hugged her happily. She giggled "It's nothing, sweet heart. See you tomorrow" she kissed me on the head and lead us outside. We waved goodbye and returned home.
The next morning Jake was waiting for me outside my house. I just followed him silently to school.
Is he still mad? I didn't dare to ask.
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A/N
Please if you get to this point leave me a comment. Tell what i should fix or what do you think. Please please please 🙏
Thank you for reading! ❤
