Stella Diaz Has Something to Say

by Angela Dominguez

  “Go, Stanley!” Jessica says.

  Ms. Bell grabs the last flash card and asks us if we’re ready. I nod my head yes. “Focus,” I say to myself. Stanley grins at me and says, “I’m ready!”

  I feel roja again and turn my head to Ms. Bell. She flips the card. It’s four times seven.

  “Twenty-eight,” I think, but I can’t talk. I’m trying so hard to get the words out, but my mouth is too dry. I even try puffing up my cheeks like we do in speech class, but nothing is working! My mouth only feels drier.

  Then I hear Stanley pipe up. “Twenty-eight!”

  Ms. Bell says, “Correct! You’re the winner, Stanley!”

  “Way to go, Stanley!” the class cheers.

  I just cover my roja face with my hands. This is a new low. I couldn’t even say numbers today.

  Chapter Seven

  Nick has started basketball practice in the mornings, so Mom drops me off at school now. I miss walking with Nick, but I love riding in the car with Mom. She always plays salsa music. We even dance in the car a little bit before school.

  “¡Que tengas un bien día!” she says, passing me my backpack and kissing me on the cheek.

  “And you have the greatest day, too!” I reply. She hugs me super tight before I hop out of the car.

  As I enter the school, I can still smell Mom’s perfume, which makes me feel cozy and safe. It’s almost like I’m wearing her fresh laundry and lavender scent, like a sophisticated grown-up. Then I notice Stanley out of the corner of my eye. Immediately, I start feeling roja. I begin to power walk toward the front door, but Stanley apparently is also a fast walker. So I do the only thing I can think of—I run into the school office.

  “Do you need anything, Stella?” asks Ms. Green with a raised eyebrow. She’s standing behind the front desk.

  “Nothing. Just wanted to say hi.” I smile while peeking out the window of the office.

  “Oh, how sweet. Good morning,” she replies. She reaches into a jar. “Here, take a lollipop, Stella.”

  “Thanks!” I say, grabbing a cherry lollipop from her hands.

  I check the window again. The coast is clear, so I say goodbye. Thankfully, we start with sustained reading in class. This means I can hide from Stanley and everyone else with a book in front of my face. I’m more mortified than usual. I’m used to the rest of the class thinking I’m odd, but from the way I’ve been acting, Stanley must think I’m the weirdest klutz ever.

  I take a small break from fishes to read another biography about Jacques Cousteau. As interesting as Mr. Cousteau is, and, trust me, he is (he invented the Aqua-Lung, the portable breathing device that scuba divers use!), I keep thinking about Stanley. Only a little bit. I just don’t know what to say to someone who is the best at everything! He’s a fast runner. He can balance a spoon on his nose at lunch. He can play the drums in music class. He’s new and has already made so many friends. I’ve been here forever, and I only have Jenny, and she’s not even in my class. It’s almost as if he has superpowers, magic, or is just really lucky. Whatever it is, I wish I could steal some, then everything would just be so much easier.

  Fortunately, I don’t have time to think too much, because after sustained reading we head to gym class with Coach Smith, who announces that we will be playing kickball.

  “Boys versus girls,” he says with his loud voice. His big voice matches his size. Coach Smith is the tallest person I know. In kindergarten, all I could see was his freckly knees when I was sitting crisscross-applesauce-style on the ground.

  “Chop! Chop!” he says, clapping his giant hands.

  The class divides up, with the boys on one side and the girls on the other. The girls decide that Michelle should be the team captain. Everyone knows that she’d be the best since she plays sports outside of school. Then we decide what order to go in.

  Michelle says, “Stella’s really good at running. She should go first.”

  It’s true. Every gym class, we get to run laps around the gym. Coach Smith always puts on fun music to run to. When Jenny and I were in the same class, we used to sing along, which slowed us down. Now that Jenny’s in a different class, I just run quietly. Turns out, I can run faster than most of the girls and a couple of the boys.

  I nod and smile at Michelle.

  I find that if I at least smile, people think that I’m nice and I don’t really have to talk. As the game starts, I am excited to get up to the plate, but then I see Stanley. He’s the pitcher for the boys’ team. I freeze and miss the ball when Stanley throws it at me.

  The girls groan. Michelle yells, “Just kick, Stella!”

  Then Jessica Anderson shouts, “Stella stares. Stella stares!”

  Everyone else starts saying it, too. After three misses, I sit down on the grass by myself. I wish I could find the magic words to say to make everyone stop.

  When we get back to class, I stay by myself and rest my head on my desk. It’s almost lunchtime. At least that will be a break from this tough day.

  “Class, before you go to lunch,” Ms. Bell says, standing up, “I want to introduce a new ongoing project. It’s on animals. You can choose any animal or favorite type of animal you want to research. Make sure it’s an animal you really enjoy because we’ll be working on this until the spring.”

  I lift my head. I know exactly what I’m going to do!

  “We can talk about it more after lunch, but here is a handout for now,” she says. As she walks around to pass out a handout with details, everyone starts talking about ideas for their projects.

  “I’m going to do bears,” says Ben. “You know, because of the circus bears!”

  “I’m doing birds,” says Lauren, who smiles at me. Lauren is quiet like me. Sometimes we talk about Nancy Drew books.

  Jessica Anderson asks, “What are you going to do, Stella?” Her ponytail is swinging from side to side.

  I nervously reply, “Fishes…”

  “Makes sense,” she whispers. “Fish don’t talk. They just stare.”

  I groan and cover my face. Could this day get any worse?

  I’m so happy to see Jenny at lunch. I’m also glad to see that she’s alone and not with Anna. Thank goodness, too, because I need my best friend, especially on a day like today. We each bring our lunch, so we sit together right away.

  I tell her what happened during kickball.

  “Jessica Anderson said I never speak and that I just stare and then everyone started saying it.”

  “You talk plenty around me,” Jenny says as she takes a bite of her Vietnamese sandwich. Vietnamese sandwiches are very yummy. They are made on soft French rolls with vegetables, tofu or meat, and mayo. Jenny brings me one sometimes for lunch.

  “I know!” I say, offering her a jicama stick. Jicama is sort of like potato and watermelon mixed together, and it isn’t very sweet. We squeeze a bit of limón on it and this sweet-spicy powder called picosito.

  Jenny grabs one and takes the world’s smallest bite. Jenny likes seeing how many bites she can make in one carrot stick and other types of food. She’s up to thirty-seven in one carrot and fifty-two bites in a pretzel.

  “Maybe we can write a whole list of things you can say,” Jenny suggests after she takes another tiny bite of the jicama stick.

  “Like ‘I’m glad the sun is out,’” I say. “Or ‘That is a nice outfit.’ My mom says everyone likes a compliment.”

  “Totally! We can work on it on the playground during our recess. I’ve got my trusty journal,” Jenny says.

  Jenny’s journal has a big white tiger with sparkles on the cover. If she were still in my class, she would have done her animal project on tigers. Instead, her class is doing different countries for their long project. Of course, Jenny chose Vietnam. Jenny went to Vietnam last summer for a family reunion. She brought me back chopsticks and slippers. I promised her next time I went to Mexico, I’d bring her something special like an alebrije, which is a little sculpture of an imaginary animal. Alebrijes are simply beautiful, wit
h all different patterns and colors.

  During recess, we make a whole list of things I can say until we get bored.

  I slump over as I look at the list. “Jenny, I don’t know if this will help…”

  “It might.” Jenny stands up and brings her fingers to her forehead. She has an idea. She lifts her arms into the air, spreads her fingers wide, and says, “I know! You can use the power of deduction!”

  “Deduct … what?” I can’t even say the word; there are too many letters.

  “Deduction. It’s something Sherlock Holmes says. Anyway it’s just asking questions. People love questions! You can ask them about their day or what they are doing. Then you’ll know more about them, which means it will be easier to talk to them. It’s like your own personal game of twenty questions!”

  “Maybe.” Sounds easier said than done.

  She grabs my hand. “Come on. Let’s go to the swings!”

  We sit in the swings and go as high as we can. Afterward, Jenny hangs upside down from the jungle gym while I just sit on top of it. Jenny is really brave and can do flips. I am always too scared that I’ll fall. She always looks so funny with her super-straight black hair hanging upside down.

  “Come on, let’s practice. Ask me questions,” says Jenny as she pulls herself right side up again.

  I draw a blank, so I ask an easy one.

  “Do you like dogs or cats?”

  “Stella, you know it’s cats! Ask me harder ones,” she says, lowering herself off the monkey bars.

  Presto! I have a good one. “Who is Sherlock Holmes?”

  “Excellent one, Stella!” she says, jumping onto the balance bars.

  Jenny then starts telling me all about Sherlock Holmes: how he is a famous detective from a series of books, and how she recently watched part of the Sherlock Holmes movie at her cousin’s house. From there, it’s so easy coming up with more questions to ask Jenny, like about her cousins and what they do together. But then again, it’s always easy to talk to Jenny.

  Even though I’m getting the hang of it, it’s no mystery that what I really need is Jenny in my class.

  Chapter Eight

  A week before Thanksgiving, Mom comes home from work in a great mood.

  “Niños, want to go to Fantastic Time Machine?”

  Our favorite restaurant is Fantastic Time Machine, but we usually only go for special occasions.

  “Is it somebody’s birthday?” asks Nick.

  “No, just a good day at work. It can be our unbirthday party though, if you want.” Mom raises her eyebrows up and down.

  I jump and clap while Nick just shrugs his shoulders yes.

  “Can I invite Jenny?” I ask.

  She gives me the thumbs-up and says, “And, Nick, you can invite Jason if you want.”

  I like Jason. He is the nicest of all of my brother’s friends. They usually talk about comics and go for bike rides.

  I hug Mom around the waist and ask, “Can Jenny sleep over, too?”

  “Of course!”

  I run to my room to call Jenny. It’s going to be the best unbirthday ever.

  We leave to pick up Jenny and Jason on the way to Fantastic Time Machine and stop at Jenny’s first. Her mom answers the door, dressed in a uniform. Jenny’s mom is about to go work the night shift at a computer company. She also does beauty treatments in a salon during the day, when she’s not too tired. Ms. Le is strong like my mom. She takes care of Jenny all by herself, too.

  “Hi, Stella,” says Jenny’s mom.

  “Hi, Ms. Le!”

  “I’m almost ready!” I hear Jenny yelling from the other room.

  Jenny told me once that when her parents first divorced, she had to share a bed with her mom. That’s when she was living in a much smaller apartment. Jenny never let me see that place. I think she was embarrassed. I’ve never met her dad either, and Jenny never talks about him. Jenny has met my dad though. He took us to sushi last year. Thanks to Jenny, I already knew how to use chopsticks. The sushi was tasty except for the wasabi, which I thought was avocado. I put the whole thing in my mouth while Dad was talking to the waitress. That was a bad idea. It turns out wasabi is not avocado at all and is very spicy. I had to drink a whole glass of water and eat a bowl of rice before my eyes stopped watering. Not to mention I had a runny nose the rest of the night. The sushi was also really expensive, more than Mom ever spends on dinner. I’m not really sure why. It looks like they didn’t really have to cook it.

  “Okay, ready!” Jenny shouts, running to the front door.

  Jenny’s mom speaks Vietnamese to Jenny, and Jenny disappears again. I can’t understand anything they are saying to each other. I wonder if that is how it sounds when I speak Spanish with Mom in front of Jenny.

  Jenny reappears with a plate covered with foil.

  “Here, eggrolls,” says Ms. Le.

  I beam. I’m the only friend who gets eggrolls to take home from Jenny’s mom.

  “Thanks, Ms. Le. They are always so delicious.”

  She pats my shoulder. “Bye, Stella.”

  I happily carry the eggrolls as we walk back to the car.

  * * *

  Now Fantastic Time Machine looks like nothing from the outside, but it is amazing in the inside. There is red velvet everywhere with neon signs. Even the salad bar is neat because it’s inside a red 1950s car. The coolest part is that all the waiters dress up in costumes as famous people and characters. They definitely stand out, while all the customers sort of blend in. In our section there is an Elvis, at least two different Batmans, a Cinderella, and many more. My personal favorite is Einstein. The guy playing Einstein is young, but he’s wearing a crazy white wig and a mustache and has beakers attached to his lab coat.

  “Do you know what E equals?” he asks me.

  “MC squared,” I say.

  “Indeed. E also equals Excellent.”

  Jenny whispers, “You should be talking to Cinderella. She’s glamorous.”

  I roll my eyes. Jenny likes everything that is girly.

  Nick and Jason like talking to the Batmans. They argue over which Batman is better. Even Mom talks to Elvis for a little bit.

  I order spaghetti and meatballs. It’s good, but not as good as Mom’s e-spaghetti. It’s probably because they don’t know about adding the extra sabor like Mom does. It doesn’t matter though, because we’re having too much fun. After dinner we go dancing upstairs. I typically don’t like dancing away from home, but it’s dark with really fun lights so it’s easy to blend in.

  There are a bunch of kids dancing, too. I don’t know any of them, so I don’t care. We all drink Shirley Temples, which sounds like a grown-up drink. It’s just pink soda with a cherry. In our group it’s mostly Mom, Jenny, and me dancing, although I do get Nick to dance with me for a second. After a little while, Mom starts to look tired and says, “Whew! Long day at work. Keep dancing, girls! I’ll check in on the boys.”

  She sits down next to Jason and Nick, who are playing arcade games.

  When Jenny and I are alone, we get pretty silly. Jenny and I start to make up crazy dance moves.

  “I’m doing the Monkey!” says Jenny while swinging her arms around.

  “I’m doing the Shark!” I say, then put my hands together over my head.

  “I’m doing the Chicken!” says Jenny, flapping her arms.

  “I’m doing the Stingray!” I say, then spread my arms out.

  We giggle. We keep dancing until I hear, “Hey, look, it’s Stella Stares.”

  It’s Jessica. Next to her is her friend Bridget, who is in Jenny’s class.

  I stop dancing and Jessica giggles. “Nice moves.”

  Bridget adds, “For someone who can’t talk.”

  I turn roja while Jenny pulls me away. “Come on, Stella. It’s gotten super boring here.”

  Jessica shouts, “Good thing you’ve got your translator.”

  I’m slouching as Jenny and I leave the dance floor. I can still hear Jessica and Bridget laughing.
/>
  We walk over to Mom. Nick is explaining to her the new comic he is reading while playing a race-car game with Jason.

  Mom looks up at me. “Everything okay, Stella?” she asks, concerned.

  “Yup. Just tired.”

  I pretend to yawn, stretching my arms way above my head. Sometimes I can be a pretty good actress.

  “No problema. After Nick finishes his game, nos vamos!” She grabs her car keys out of her purse.

  As we’re leaving, Jenny whispers, “Why didn’t you tell your mom?”

  I shrug, pretending that it didn’t really bother me. “We were all having fun, right?” I say, lying through my teeth.

  I hate it when the kids make fun of me, but I don’t want Mom to know. It’s sort of embarrassing, and I don’t want her to worry. Mom already spent all this money to take us to Fantastic Time Machine. I don’t want to ruin her night.

  When we get home, I persuade Nick to set up the tent in the backyard. He agrees only because Jason says he will help. That and it’s not too cold outside.

  Nick and I have set it up once before, when we pretended we were mountain people in our backyard. We only ate jerky and berries because I remembered reading that in the Little House in the Big Woods book.

  This time it’s very different. Jenny decides that we should try to make it even more like a house, so we bring out the air mattress and pillows. Jenny wants to bring Pancho, too, but I don’t want him to get cold. He’s a tropical fish, after all.

  “This is much better than regular camping,” she says.

  “Best of all, we can run into the house to use the bathroom,” I say.