Gap Year

6

Leia's pov

I walked through the doors into the big hall, my big suitcase pulling behind me as I tried to make out my host parents in the crowd of people. I stopped in my tracks, clueless what to do. I looked around the hall when I suddenly spotted a colourful poster with my name printed on it. I felt my heart pounding hard in my chest as I slowly made my way over to the four people standing there. I recognized the tall woman as I came closer because we facetimed a few times before. Suddenly one of the girls standing beside her spotted me and said something to her mother. I saw her turning around to look into the direction her daughter was pointing at and immediately laid her eyes on me. A smile spread over her face as she made her way over to me.

"Hello, you must be Leia, right?" she smiled warmly at me.

"Y-Yes, I am, and you must be Mrs. Miller?" I answered nervously.

"I am, but please call me Bethany." She smiled and pulled me into a hug.

"Welcome to Canada!"

"Thank you"

"Come on, I will show you the rest of my family." I followed her over to the 3 children with their poster still in their hands and chatting quietly with each other.

"My husband, Tom, is at work right now so he can't be here but you will meet him once we get home." I nodded and she turned back to her kids.

"This is our new guest, Leia. I told you she will be staying with us for the next year so please be nice to her, okay?" she told them and they all nodded their heads. The oldest girl turned to me and smiled, a gap between her teeth clearly noticeable.

"Hi, I'm Vivi and I'm 7. How old are you?" She hugged me.

"I'm 18" I smiled, a little overwhelmed by her sweet welcome before I hugged her back.

"You're really pretty. I made this for you" she rambled on and showed me the poster she held in her hands.

"Aww thank you Vivi that's really sweet of you. And you're really pretty too" I looked over to the other two kids who held onto their moms legs. They looked at me with big eyes, a shy and little scary look on their faces. Mrs Miller looked down at the two of them and whispered "Come on, say hi to Leia. Don't be scared". The little boy looked at me shyly before he walked over and held his little hand out for me.

"Hello, I'm Bennet. But you can call me Ben if you want."

"Hello Ben. I'm Leia." I smiled and shook his little hand.

"I'm three." he pointed out, looking a little proud.

"And that's my sister. We're twins!" Sky, come over here." he explained and called over his shoulder to his sister. The little girl let go of her moms leg and slowly walked over to me. She looked up at me with big blue eyes so I smiled softly at her.

"Hello, I'm Leia. You must be Skylar, right?" she nodded at me, holding onto the stuffed animal in her arms.

"Oh, who's that little guy?" I pointed at the teddy bear.

"That's Teddy" she mumbled quietly.

"Oh that's a cute name. I also had a teddy bear named Teddy when I was younger" I chuckled and she looked at me.

"I have a lot of stuffed animals at home. But he's my favourite. We can play with my toys at home if you want to."

"I would love that" she smiled and suddenly hugged me. I held her little body in my arms before she pulled away, turning over to her mom.

"Mummy can we go home now so I can show Leia my toys?"

"Sure honey. Daddy just texted me saying he's already at home. Come on, let's go." Bethany said. I stood back up as Sky suddenly grabbed my hand. She grinned up at me and I smiled down at her. Vivi grabbed my other hand and together we made our way to the exit.

I quickly looked back and spotted Shawn in the crowd talking to his mom. Just then he looked up and met my eyes. He smiled and waved over to me. I smiled back but then got dragged out of the door by the girls holding onto my hands.

They happily jumped over to the car and I just laughed. I already love Canada.