Stella Díaz to the Rescue: Stella Diaz Series, Book 4 by Angela Dominguez

Author:Angela Dominguez
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

“Can I get you anything? I know … how about another chocolate milk?”

He stares at the screen and presses the buttons. “Do you have the ability to speed up healing or time?”

I put my hand on my face. “Not that I know of.”

“Then I want nothing,” he replies, still staring at his phone.

I try harder. “Cheer up, Nick. You’re at the halfway mark and you’ve only got one more month to go. Even though the groundhog didn’t see his shadow, it’s still cold outside. You don’t want to be out there.”

He pauses his game and looks at me. “Right now, I’d take subzero temperatures and arctic wind chills if it meant I could go walk outside and do something other than homework and video games.”

Then he resumes the game. I frown. Apparently, I’m not helping him today as much as I would like. I come up with another idea.

“Do you want to come to my Sea Musketeers meeting? It’s at our house today. You could help us with our presentation as our unofficial mentor.”

He taps the screen harder. “No. Hanging out with a bunch of kids doesn’t sound like fun.”

I hear a message ding on his phone. He pauses the game to look while I stomp away. Mom must have heard the conversation, because she stops me in the kitchen.

“He doesn’t mean it. Nick’s just frustrated. Give him some space. He’ll be in a better mood soon. Te lo prometo.”

I silently nod, but inside, every part of me disagrees. Clearly, I’m just not trying hard enough. I’m determined to figure out a way to brighten his mood, but then the doorbell rings—it must be Mariel, here early to practice Spanish with me. While I like practicing with Mom, she usually is too busy with work to do it as often as I’d like. I’m also a little shy to ask her for help. At least Mariel understands what it’s like to be confused between two languages.

We head to the kitchen. “What is something you’d like to ask your abuelos?” Mariel says. She is sitting on the other side of the kitchen table and looks very much like a teacher.

My mind goes blank. There is so much that I want to say, but I guess maybe I should start with the most basic question.

“Did you have a good flight?”

Mariel translates, “¿Tuviste un buen vuelo? Now you try.”

I wince and repeat back nervously, “Too-ve-ste oon bwen voo-loh?”

“Not bad.” She gives me a thumbs-up. She then passes me a book from her bag. I pick it up and read the title: The Everything Kids’ Learning Spanish Book.

“I found it in the used bookstore. My parents said it might help if we do some of the exercises in the book.”

I clasp my hands. “Bueno idea.”

She whispers, “It’s buena idea.”

“Oops…,” I reply, and then mutter, “Spanish can be hard.”

We work on some of the puzzles where we have to match up the phrases with the pictures. At first, I feel embarrassed. The illustrations look as if the book is for little kids.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.