Chapter Five

I wake up the next morning to the sound of the vacuum. It’s a terrible noise, especially when you are trying to sleep. It’s noise pollution for my ears. Whenever I think of noise pollution, I feel bad for the whales. All the noise that people make in the ocean with their boats and oil rigs is driving them crazy! Unfortunately, the noise also stresses them out and makes them sick. Scientists say that may be a reason why whales are beaching themselves more often.

Thinking of the whales makes me sad, and it’s too early to feel sad. Also, I have no plans of getting out of bed, so I cover my face with my blanket to drown out the noise. The door squeaks open.

“Oh, are you still sleeping?”

Mom has the vacuum in her hand. Through the holes of my blanket, I spy that she has a sly smile.

“Perdoname,” she says, asking for forgiveness. I feel her sit down next to me on the bed, and she starts singing “Duérmete, niña.” I angrily throw off the blankets.

“First of all, ‘Duérmete, niña’ is for sleepy time.” I sit up in bed and cross my arms. “Not to mention it’s a song for night and it’s now morning.”

She laughs and kisses the top of my head.

“Okay, okay. I’m awake,” I say.It’s hard to be too upset with Mom.

“Buenos días, mi Stellita.”

I swing my legs around the bed. I rub my eyes trying to get the sleep out.

“You got an email from Stanley.”

I leap out of bed.

“Why didn’t you start with that?”

Mom puts her hand to her chest.

“Perdoname.”

Over pan tostado, Mom and I read Stanley’s email together on the computer.

Mom moves the mouse around for me because my fingers are sticky from the jam on my toast.

Hola, Stella!

How are you? I’m doing great. My dad and I just went to West Texas for a quick trip before my NASA Space Camp. It’s so different from the rest of Texas. There are cacti and mountains. I even saw a jackrabbit! The best part is I saw not just one real-life telescope, but three! They were enormous and weigh a ton! I’d say they’re almost the size of a school bus. It was at the McDonald Observatory. The tour guide let me move it with this remote control. It was so cool! I feel officially ready now for my space camp. I mean, who else there will have operated a real-life telescope?

What about you? Are you doing anything fun? Let me know!

Sincerely,

Stanley

“Sounds like he is having a great time,” Mom says.

“Vacations are the best,” I reply.

Mom nods.

“They are also inspiring.” I nudge Mom with my elbow.

Mom chuckles. “Well maybe we could go on our own little vacation before your camp starts.”

I nod enthusiastically.

“I’ve been looking into visiting family. I’m just waiting to hear back from work if I can take the time off,” she says.

I squeal. I wonder where we would go. Tía Maria might be traveling somewhere cool in the United States. Maybe we’ll join her! One summer we drove to see her in Washington, D.C. We visited all the sites, like the Air and Space Museum and the Capitol. If this vacation were to happen, then I will have two huge adventures this summer!

“Let me work on it. But first, do you want help replying back to Stanley?”

I pause and stare at the keyboard keys. I pull at my curls. My summer hasn’t been nearly as interesting as his yet. I only just found out about my summer camp, but I have nothing else to add beyond that.

I turn toward Mom. “I don’t know what to write.”

“Well, you don’t have to write back right away. This email is going to stay magically in the computer until you’re ready,” she says, tapping the screen. “Maybe Jenny’s party will give you some inspiration.”

I hug Mom. She’s so smart.

“And by the look of the clock, you should probably go get ready,” she says, putting the vacuum up in the closet.

I’m excited to see Jenny. I haven’t seen her as much as I’d like since she started her dance camp. This should be extra fun too since it’s a party.

At Jenny’s family parties, I’m the only non-Vietnamese person there and many of them prefer speaking Vietnamese. I really don’t mind it at all. It’s less pressure than when I’m visiting my own family. At my family events, I have so much I want to say, but I don’t have all the Spanish words I want to say to them. This time, I am determined to try to learn a little Vietnamese and be a better party guest.

When I get in Jenny’s mom’s car, I ask right away. “How do you say hello in Vietnamese?”

Jenny sighs. “It’s complicated.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it depends whether the person you’re speaking to is younger, older, much older, a boy or if they are a girl.”

Scratch that, I think. There is no way I can memorize that many ways to say hola. Then I have another great idea.

“What about thank you?”

“It’s sort of the same. You have to make it special for each person,” she replies.

I gulp. “I’ll just smile.”

“Good idea,” says Jenny’s mom, giving me the thumbs-up in the mirror.

“How is dance camp going?” I say, switching topics. I really want to tell her about my Shedd summer camp, but I figure it’s polite to ask her about her camp first.

“Awesome.” Jenny beams. “Ms. Charlton is going to assign parts for the big recital soon. I can’t wait to hear what part I get.”

I quiver. The idea of performing in front of that many people still sounds a little scary. Not for Jenny, though. Jenny can sing, dance, and talk in front of anyone. If she were a fish, she would definitely not be a sargassum fish. They look like seaweed with eyes and hide among the seagrass beds. Jenny is happy to stand out. She is more like a brightly colored mantis shrimp.

Now it’s my turn to share my amazing news.

“Super cool!” Jenny replies after I tell her about my camp. “I hope you get to pet a dolphin.”

“Me too!”

When we arrive at the house party, it looks almost like the Vietnamese New Year’s party we went to last year. Until Jenny, I didn’t realize that Vietnamese people had their own New Year. That party was amazing because it was during the day, not night, and we ate from a giant buffet. But this party is a graduation celebration for Jenny’s cousin Michelle, who just graduated from college.

“Is this your whole family?” I ask Jenny, looking at a packed room.

She laughs. “Nah. Some of the people are from my mom and auntie’s temple.”

Even though I can’t speak back to everyone at the party, I make sure to smile very big. It seems to work because people smile back and share more delicious food. I even make sure to say “thank you” clearly like my speech teacher, Ms. Thompson, taught me. To my surprise, a few people reply “you’re welcome” without any accent at all. It makes me turn a little roja like a tomato. I guess they’re just like Mom’s friends from work who can speak English well, but prefer to speak their language with friends and family. When we see Michelle, we make sure to chat with her.

“I made you a graduation card,” I say.

“I love it,” she replies, carefully examining my narwhal drawing. I wanted to draw her a squirrelfish, but I thought she might not know what one was. While the squirrelfish are pretty cute-looking with gigantic eyes, narwhals are a crowd favorite.

“So are you moving back?” Jenny asks eagerly. Michelle is Jenny’s favorite cousin and used to babysit her when Jenny’s mom was at work.

“Not yet. I’m taking a gap year,” Michelle replies excitedly.

“What’s that?” I ask.

“A year to explore and help the world before I have to work full-time.”

“WOW!” I reply, practically jumping off the ground.

Michelle giggles. “I’m going to volunteer at the Marine Mammal Center near San Francisco. I’ll be able to help rehabilitate otters, seals, and other types of animals.”

My mouth drops open. The idea of saving sea critters sounds amazing. It also sounds like the perfect job for me.

“It’s important for everyone to play a part in taking care of the earth. After all, we only have one planet. Can you imagine how much better the environment would be if we all chipped in?”

Before I can ask Michelle more about her gap year, she gets pulled into another conversation. Jenny and I head to the buffet for yummy food.

While we eat pork and rice dumplings, I notice people giving Michelle all these red envelopes. They sparkle with gold drawings on top.

“Do we get one?” I ask, leaning over to Jenny.

“Those are only for Michelle.”

“Why?”

She whispers, “They’re full of money.”

I begin to exclaim, “Whoa, but I want one…,” but Jenny hushes me.

“You only get red envelopes on big days like your graduation or a wedding.”

Jenny looks at me. I must look disappointed, because she says, “I know. I just can’t wait till my graduation. I keep trying to convince my mom every year to give me a graduation party. Maybe fifth grade. Cross your fingers.”

I slurp up more rice noodles from my bowl of pho and turn to Jenny.

“This is a two-thumbs-up party. Thank you for bringing me.”

“I can’t go to a party without my best friend.” Jenny throws her arm around me.

After we stuff ourselves with food, we play tag in the backyard with the only other kids from the party. Then we run back inside to eat sweet rice dumplings stuffed with mung bean paste. By that point, the party is getting louder. Some of the parents are even singing karaoke! Most of the kids we were playing tag with run back outside in embarrassment at the sight of their parents singing, but Jenny and I stay inside to watch the show. I could never sing in front of a crowd, but it’s fun to watch other people do it.

On the car ride home, I start thinking of all the stellar things I have to write to Stanley, especially about Michelle. I want to save the world, too—especially sea creatures. And I don’t want to wait till after college. At the rate summer is going, that’s way too far away.