Vista Hermosa
Ella spent a few hours on Saturday afternoon putting together her valedictorian speech, and then practiced it in front of the mirror. She was the first person in her family to actually achieve valedictorian status, and she wanted to leave a good impression.
To her delight, Ava came over to hang out that same afternoon, fully recovered from her Llama Flu. Ella was eager to introduce her sister to her new pet- and get her opinion on her speech, since she was there.
Pudding wasn't thrilled about the stranger in his apartment, and tried very hard to be scary. It wasn't particularly effective, though, to his dismay. Ava was just as enamored with him as Ella was, and the kitten eventually begrudgingly accepted her affection as well.
He had to pretend he still wasn't happy about it, though.
After Ava left, Ella decided to take a walk around the neighborhood- get to know some of the local sights, take in the fresh air, and enjoy the sunshine.
And there was plenty of it! Compared to San Sequoia and its chilly coastal weather, Ciudad Enamorada was a perfect warm, sunny paradise. She was thriving here!
While she was on her walk, Ella found a copper axolotl stuck in a log. What an odd place for it! She decided to take it home until she could find a suitable pond to release it into.
Ella's route continued up the hill, where she found an ancient totem with butterflies and a lizard carved into it. She'd heard some of the locals talk about this at the cafe- an ancient totem that had been in the area for five hundred years!
Nobody seemed to remember what it was from or what it stood for, though- just that it was historical, and needed to be preserved.
Maybe if she visited a local library someday, she could figure it out. Not today, though.
The next local attraction Ella came across was the famous Wall of Love, where hundreds of couples had come and written out their affections for each other. Ella didn't know the names of the couple portrayed, but she was sure they were significant to Ciudad Enamorada's history- maybe a prince and princess, wouldn't that be romantic?
Something else to look up at the library.
After she had exhausted the sights around Vista Hermosa, Ella headed out to Plaza Mariposa to visit the Media Naranja Park. (She wasn't particularly interested in checking out the sketchy WooHoo motel across the street from her new home- she should've wondered why the lot was so cheap.)
While she was exploring the park, the sound of crying drew Ella's attention, and led her to... a man in a bear costume, it seemed? He seemed quite distressed, and Ella's compassion quickly won out.
"Why are you crying so? Is there something I can do to help?"
"Lots of reasons, friend." The bear sighed mournfully. "The main reason, though, is that I've lost my ring! Well... I sort of threw it in the nearby pond. I've tried fishing it out, but I'm terrible at fishing. That was always her thing... If you ever find it while you're fishing in the pond, would you let me know? That ring has some kind of special romantic magic about it... but I can tell you more about that later."
Ella's interest was engaged, and she had a few hours to kill until she had to leave for graduation, so... why not? She grabbed a fishing pole from the nearby tack shop and headed off to the pond. The ring was bound to turn up sooner or later, right?
To her disappointment, it did not turn up before she had to leave. She still needed to go home and put her hair up, and change. But she would come back next weekend, and keep looking- if someone else didn't find the ring for the poor bear before then.
Ella met her parents outside the Copperdale Auditorium to prepare for the ceremony. She had a card with her speech on it, and she'd rehearsed it in her head the entire train ride there.
Hopefully it would be enough- it would be so embarrassing to trip over everything in front of the entire school, and their families!
Kit arrived just in time for the ceremony, to Ella's relief. She'd been starting to worry, and she would've hated for him to miss her speech.
"Sorry I took so long, work kept me an extra hour, so I missed the train." Kit apologized. "I'm glad I made it on time."
"So am I." Ella agreed. "It wouldn't have been the same without you. How was work?"
As they continued the usual chatter, Alyssa watched them with a knowing smile. She remembered her daughter's high school crush, and wondered if perhaps something might come of it after all.
Social hour settled down, and Ella was called up to the stage for the Valedictorian speech. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves, then put on a bright smile and addressed the audience.
"My years at Copperdale High School have been some of the best. I've made a lot of friends and a lot of memories here, but now it's time for the next steps, and there's already been a lot of them! Just this summer, I moved to Ciudad Enamorada, I opened my dream cafe, and there's so much more to come. Thank you for a great high school experience, everyone, and good luck with whatever life has in store for you."
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