?m going to start taking meals in my room. She wouldn’t.
The wiggly brush on the app indicated that Sacha was typing. Their affection will wear off now that they’re living together.
Cynical much? Going to pester Niko now about when you’ll arrive.
Saturday.
Tomorrow? She followed the question with squealing emojis.
Leaving for airport soon.
Mia sent Sacha an emoji of a passenger stuck in a middle seat.
Our jets don’t have middle seats.
Spoiled. Don’t forget my Greek lessons. You promised. Mia put her phone on the white nightstand and wiggled the powercord into the port. She was both eager to meet Sacha in person and worried about what she knew of foreign exchange students. She could tolerate Sacha smoking, if she kept it to her half of the suite, but if Sacha wouldn’t shower, well, shower-refusal was a deal breaker. She had to get the gift she’d picked up yesterday.
Mia rolled out of bed and carried a good hygiene enticement to Sacha’s bathroom. She lined up the peach bath pearls by the pale lavender ones and laid a loofah behind them. In one corner, she put two jars of bubble bath. In the shower, she put five small bottles of different-scented bath gels in the shape of a pyramid and hung three different-colored bathing sponges on hooks against the tile. Tempting. She wanted to take a shower herself now. Lastly, she put a fluffy pink towel on the edge of the tub. Buying the bath products before she met Sacha equaled a nice welcome gesture. If she waited until after she’d met her, it’d be an insult. It was all in the timing. She had this covered.
Hope had insisted her fears were groundless, but Hope hadn’t met Kristnaldo. If she had, she’d be in here fluffing the towels, too.
As a last part of her welcome, Mia dragged one of Hope’s easels to the center of the game room and placed a glitter-glue-covered poster on top. The sparkling poster board read:
YOU’LL THANK ME LATER
#1: Foreign clothes must remain in your luggage. Working the water bra.
#2: No cigarettes. No weekly showers.
#3. Lauren’s annual party: We’re going. We will get into trouble for going, but we’re going.
#4. Rock music: Black eyeliner. Glow sticks.
#5. Niko’s limo.
#6. Bonfire. Plastic cups. The Pier.
#7. Dating: Backseats. Football fields.
#8. Dances: Skirts—the shorter the better. You don’t have to leave with the one who brought you.
#9. Kissing: How Americans do it. How not to do it.
#10. Hooking up: No, this isn’t dating. Spin the Bottle. Seven minutes in heaven.
If Sacha was a good sport, she’d be down for the makeover. If not, Mom and Dad would be back eventually. Mia propped a large pink gift box under the easel. It would make the rules go down sweeter. She draped the whole thing in a large flat sheet.
***
Today’s buffet was especially abundant. Buffet dining was a nice perk of living with Niko. How would Mom respond to the suggestion that they dine buffet-style at home? Probably not well.
Niko sat at the dining table drinking hot tea and reading the paper. The hot tea worked because he kept his house cool, because Hope liked a chilly temperature. Hope used her fork to push food around on her plate. She arranged it into a more aesthetically appealing array and then abandoned her food in favor of sketching.
Mia grabbed a ham sandwich and a glass of lemonade and took them to the seat beside Niko. “When? When does Sacha get here?” She bounced up and down in the dining chair as she asked him, both in excitement and to show her enthusiasm for his sister’s arrival.
Hope slid a novel over to Mia. “This came in a package from Mom and Dad. They sent me sketch paper.”
“Thanks.” The book’s cover was both familiar and foreign at the same time. It was a copy of one of the Harry Potter novels translated into German. She examined the artwork. Harry had his usual dark hair and a pointier face. Was that what Germans looked like? She turned to the first page and tried to decipher it, the sandwich and pestering Niko forgotten.