I awoke to the sounds of enthusiastic, and very loud, Italian exchanges. Tony’s family must be here. I slipped out of the room into the kitchen. In my attempted “escape,” I barely noticed a small girl in front of me, resulting in my tripping over her.
“Oh!” I cried in surprise. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there.” The little girl smiled and shyly turned away, occasionally peeking over her shoulder. I gave her a smile and rolled over to get up.
I found Cricket towering over me, happy to see I was awake.
“I see you’ve made a new friend,” he said.
“I guess, I nearly tripped over her,” I shrugged. He held out a hand to help pull me from the floor.
“Miss Spoony’s over in the corner,” he muttered, just loud enough for me to catch, “and getting quite impatient to start.”
“Why does that not surprise me?” I sighed. “I need a bite of breakfast, then we can drive that birdie into the dirt.”
After half a waffle, I meandered over to Lin. Cricket approached us.
“Now,” he began, “are you ready for some badminton?”