Rise Up

Talie

I didn't want Mr. Miranda think he could choose my friends for me, but Naomi did seem like a nice girl. We had some things in common, like reading. She read an insane amount. Our favorite author was Maggie Stiefvater, and we'd read all her books. On Friday, I asked if she wanted to come hang out at my place. Meaning Mr. Miranda's place.

She met us at Mr. M's classroom at the end of the day. He smiled when he saw that she'd been joining us.

"Naomi!" he greeted her. "So glad you're gonna hang out with us. What kind of pizza do you like?"

"Pepperoni," she said.

"Me too," he said, slinging his messenger bag over his shoulder. We all headed out and caught the subway. Naomi and I walked a few steps behind, chatting about random stuff. When we got home, Vanessa was already there with the boys. On Fridays, she usually left work a little early. Sebastian ran to his dad and he was scooped up.

Vanessa came over to say hi to Naomi, then we went to my room. We put on some music and laid on my floor, flipping through some magazines.

"So why are you living with Mr. Miranda?" she asked me after a while. I knew the question would come eventually.

"My dad's living in London for a couple months," I told her. "I don't have any other family and Mr. Miranda found out. I was just gonna live by myself, but he wouldn't let me."

"That's pretty nice of him," she said.

"Yeah," I agreed. "He's my favorite teacher."

"Is it weird living with a teacher?"

"At first it was," I admitted. "But now it's like he's just a regular person. I have trouble not calling him Mr. Miranda."

She laughed a little. "What's his first name?"

"Lin-Manuel," I told her. "But he mostly goes by Lin."

"Do you like his kids?"

"Yeah, they're sweet," I said. "Sebastian is hilarious."

A while later, Mr. Miranda knocked on my door and said the pizza was here. We raced out to the kitchen, where two pizza boxes were open. Both of us grabbed a paper plate and loaded it with three slices. There were soda in the fridge so we both got one and sat at the table.

"Talie, look!" Sebastian requested. I looked up to see two pepperonis balanced on his eyes. I laughed at him.

"Gross!"

He giggled and popped one of the pepperonis into his mouth.

"Sebastian, don't play with your food," Vanessa gently admonished as she helped Cisco. The baby kicked his feet in his high chair as he sampled little pieces of cheese pizza and pepperoni.

"So Naomi, how are you liking Hunter so far?" Vanessa asked.

"I like it," she said, "It's pretty hard though."

"Yes. They go pretty fast. Lin and I both went there. Do you like my husband's class?"

"No pressure," Mr. Miranda said, grinning.

"It's okay," she said, smiling, causing him to laugh.

After dinner, we played with Sebastian a little bit and watched a Disney movie. Naomi and I stayed up late giggling and making silly videos. Around 1:00, Mr. Miranda wandered down the hall and told us we needed to quiet down. It had been so long since I'd had a sleepover like this where I'd had so much fun.

The next morning, we slept late. We didn't get up until after 11:00. Vanessa had made pancakes earlier and saved some for us. We drenched them with syrup and shoveled them down.