Newt frowned at the paper before her and scribbled out what she'd just written as Ripley entered the living room. The girl huffed out a sigh of frustration.
"What's wrong, sweetie?" Ripley asked as she sat down on the sofa.
"We're supposed to write two acrostic poems about people or things we care about." Newt explained before resuming chewing on her bottom lip and staring at her paper.
Ripley racked her brain. "Acrostic?" she asked.
"We're supposed to take the name of the thing and write it down the page, and then come up with words that start with each of those letters. I want to write about you and Dad, and I did your name first. I had to use your first name, since I was having trouble coming up with a word for Y." Newt pushed a second paper to Ripley.
Ripley read the words silently:
Encouraging
Loyal
Loving
Elegant
Nurturing
"That's beautiful, sweetie," she said, with tears in her eyes, as she handed the paper back to her daughter. "So what's the problem?"
"I'm stuck on 'S' for Dad. There's too many good words." Ripley looked at the second paper and saw:
Helpful
Intelligent
Clever
Kind
S
Newt kept talking, not noticing as Ripley smiled through more tears. "I mean, I've come up with probably 10 great words that start with 'S' but I don't know how to pick."