I'll be your mirror (wlw, teacherxstudent)

chapter 10

Maya's pov:

"Hello bacho!"

"What's that?" Mia questions.

Sher immediately responds, "bacho means kids."

"That's correct. Sher, do you speak Hindi at home?" I ask the boy.

"Yes! My mummy and daddy talk Hindi with me!" He grins standing up to get a book.

Aria joins the conversation saying, "I know that too. You know my papa is Indian and my dad is American."

"That's awesome guys."

Mia looks at the three of us one by one then comes up to me landing in my arms. I laugh holding her on my lap. "Why do I not know?" She asks.

"It's okay. Look you know Spanish. That's so cool! None of us know that. But... if you want to learn. I'll teach you a little."

Mia looks up with her eyes wide. "You will?"

"Ofcourse. We'll all teach Mia, won't we bacho?"

"Yes!" Sher and Aria shout in sync. Sher, who's really excited about it all sits besides us and is already teaching her a few words.

Isabella's sitting in the corner alone. I've had a little progress with her. She told me a story for the first time just three days ago. It was the story of Rapunzel. I already knew it but let her share nonetheless.

"You three, converse. I'll be right back." I say and go towards the seven year old sitting alone. "Isa... Can I call you Isa?"

She nods and questions, "Can you tell me a story?"

"Sure, what type of story would you like to hear?"

"Any story" I nod and pat a cushion next to me, for her to sit on.

"Okay. You have to listen carefully, alright?" She nods and let's me see her smile with two front teeth missing. It's adorable.

I start to tell her a story that I was taught in preschool: "This is a story of a cap seller and a few monkeys. Do you know that one?" I ask just to make sure it's new for her. She denies so I continue. "Once there was a man, let's call him..."

"Johnny."

"Okay. Johnny. Johnny was going through a forest with a basket full of different caps that he intended to sell on the other end, where there was village-"

Sher interrupts and says "We want stories too!"

I look towards Isa and she shifts to my side giving him space to sit. Once he's here, all the gang also joins.

"Start." Aria orders as if I'm a television and she's the remote. I let out a laugh and continue.

"Okay. I'll repeat. We have Johnny. Johnny is a boy who sells caps. Once, he was walking through a forest. After walking miles and miles through the heat, he got tired and decided to take a nap. He saw a mango tree and sat down under it. He placed the basket of caps besides him and slept. He slept for hours and hours."

"There was a family of monkeys living on that tree." I continue.

"How many monkeys?" James asks.

I pull out a random number and say "Eight." He nods, probably imagining it all.

"When the monkeys saw his basket of colourful caps. They got all excited because they wanted to play. So they stole Johnny's caps!" I gasp for the effect. "One by one, they took all his caps. Everything. All but one, a cap that Johnny had on his head was spared."