Chapter Text
Karen Wheeler was all worked up. She had spent the past few days cleaning the house, not leaving a single spot. She wanted everything to be perfect. Today, she had rearranged Nancy’s old bedroom to welcome their new guest. Of course, she made sure her daughter was okay with it -- which thankfully she was -- even if she didn’t see any reason why she wouldn’t be. Nancy was off to college after all, with a dorm for herself, she didn’t really care about her bedroom anymore, she had taken everything she needed and loved. And Karen was glad she did, because it would let their guest feel at home.
The woman also tried to look presentable, so she would make a good first impression on the girl who was going to live in their house for a full school year. So she put on a pretty dress, but not too fancy, to make it look kind of natural. Yet, Karen had gotten her hair done. She also had dressed Holly up, her youngest daughter who was six. Now, she had to convince her son to do the same.
She knocked on the door of his bedroom. Once. Twice. No response. Not a sound. Of course, she should have guessed he would be in the basement, as always. So Karen headed downstairs, trying not to mess up her hair or to wrinkle her dress.
When she arrived at the basement door, slightly open, she sighed. Her son wasn’t getting ready at all: he was still playing videogames.
“Michael Wheeler, come here,” she said in a tone she wanted to sound authoritative, but she failed, letting kindness slip through.
“What’s up, mom?” She simply heard, her son pausing his game and finally looked up at her, standing upstairs in the doorway.
“You know what’s going on today, right?” She questioned.
Was there something going on today? Mike kept thinking. It wasn’t mother’s day, neither it was his little sister’s birthday because he remembered offering her that Barbie doll she begged him to buy two months ago. Then a light turned on in his brain. How could he forget this?
“Happy birthday, mom!” he exclaimed.
Karen sighed, looking hurt. “Come on, Mike, my birthday is in February…” She looked down before continuing, “You really don’t remember?” Her eyebrow was raised. Mike simply shook his head as a “nope, sorry”.
Karen smiled at her son, walking down the stairs to sit next to him on the couch. She looked at him, before messing up his dark mop of hair with her hand, as Mike groaned.
“You better take a shower and get dressed. We’re going to the airport remember? That French girl is arriving today!”
Mike’s eyes grew wide before he facepalmed himself. Now, he really looked like an idiot. He forgot that someone, who was going to live in his house for nearly a year, would be here. Today. “God, mom, I’m so sorry, I-I totally forgot,” he stuttered, as he got up awkwardly, not minding his game anymore. “I’m going to take a shower and uh-”, he paused, as he studied his mom’s clothes, “what kind of clothes should I be wearing?”
A huge smile appeared on Karen’s face. Shit , he thought. “I’ll prepare them for you, or else we’re going to be late! Don’t worry!” She exclaimed.
Deep down, Mike was actually pretty worried. His mom could come up with some crazy ideas. Despite all this, he still thanked her, shooting her a look of gratefulness before climbing up the stairs and heading for the shower.
After an hour or so spent in the car, the Wheelers finally arrived at the Indianapolis International Airport. And as much to his surprise, his mom picked him an outfit that was actually really fine, and which didn’t make him look like a dork.
As they parked, his little sister, Holly, was jumping in her seat, eager to have a sort of a new sister for a year. He saw his mother was also excited, because of course she missed Nancy, that’s why she asked to welcome exchange students, and teen girls , more specifically. Because, let’s face it, it wasn’t with Mike that she could talk about girl things. But Karen also seemed nervous. And Mike was totally mortified. He had totally forgotten about this girl and he was afraid his mom would point it out, and that the girl would immediately hate him and the rest of the year would be awful and awkward. Also, he quite didn’t know how to act around girls his age. Yep, it was going to be awkward.
His mom looked one last time in the rear-view mirror, touching up her hair and makeup before finally looking at him and his sister, a bright smile on her face, and saying “Let’s go! Let’s go meet our girl!”
Holly squealed with joy, jumping out of the car and Mike followed, a little bit behind his mother and his sister, hopping happily as her dress swirled in the warm August air. His mom had a huge sign under her arm which read “Eléonore” in capital letters. That was the girl’s name, Mike guessed, but he didn’t quite know how to pronounce it, as there were weird things on some letters, stresses, which you definitely didn’t get the chance to use daily in the English language. But she was French , of course she would have stresses in her name.
He tried to catch up with his mom and his sister, his tall legs helping a lot through the process. The girls were talking about how excited they were to meet Eléonore. With a name like this, he could only imagine a sweet girl. It seemed sweet when he read it.
They finally entered the huge building, and Karen stopped right in front of a wide screen. His mom studied it, then looked at some paper where she had scribbled unreadable things, her eyebrows furrowed together, a concentrated expression on her face. She glanced once again at the screen and turned to her children, beaming at them. “Okay children! She should be in Hall 2 very soon! We have to hurry!”
Mike swore he never saw his mom as excited as she was at this moment. She walked so fast, almost jogging as her heels clicked on the floor. They headed for Hall 2, his mom took the sign from under her arm, holding it up as she was still walking at a quick pace.
“There we are! She should be here any minute now!” Karen said with excitement.
They waited as passengers came down the hall, luggage in hand, many of them looked like tourists, obviously excited to discover a whole new country. Amongst them were lots of tired faces. Also businessmen, not losing time, almost running to be the first to catch a cab. And then, there were people walking slowly, taking their time, scanning the crowd of people holding up signs, probably looking for their relatives, or a lover, or a friend, and running towards them once they found their name or the face they were looking for, hugging or kissing them, or both.
But as everyone found the people they were looking for, a girl was left alone, in the middle, struggling with her baggages, constantly falling. She looked tired as well, as if she just spent the past day in an airplane. Her brown honey hair fell into sweet curls around her head, it was messed up, but after all, she looked so tired. But the girl looked up, and Mike locked eyes with her.
Her face lit up, as she read the sign above that woman’s head. They were here, they were waiting for her, even though she was the last person to get off the plane, because she was still sleeping and it was one of the stewardesses that woke her up. And then, she had some trouble with her baggages. There were three of them, three huge baggages. She had waited for fifteen minutes before all of hers came down on the carousel. And as she made two of them roll behind her, she kept pushing one with her leg, while walking -- or at least, trying to. She was tired, each baggage kept falling to the floor. Again and again. But they were waiting. There were three of them. The woman holding up the sign with her name written on it seemed nice. Long brown hair surrounded her face, she was smiling brightly, as if she was happy to see her. Next to her was a small girl, with long blond hair, who also seemed delighted to see her. And finally, next to this young little girl, there was a guy standing, a very very tall guy, he seemed like he was about her age. Unlike his mother and sister -- she guessed --, he had dark hair, which fell around his face. It wasn’t that short, but she liked it, it looked good. He wore a shy smile on his face as he started walking towards her, well, they all did. The young girl was running, coming to hug her. She was so sweet, even though she never met her before. The mother did the same -- except for the running part, although she was walking pretty fast. She hugged her tightly, whispering “welcome” to her. Eléonore smiled stupidly. And finally, the guy approached her, his shy smile still on his face. He looked hesitant though, as if he didn’t know what to do. She leaned in, getting on the tip of her toes, kissing both of his cheeks.
“That’s how we say hello in France,” she simply said as the guy’s face turned red. She continued, bowing a little bit, “I’m enchantée to meet you, my name is Eléonore, you must be the Wheeler family, right?” she said, mixing English and French, with a slight accent in her voice.
The woman chuckled, before talking, “Yes! I’m Karen, call me by my name, it’ll be easier and it won't make me feel old.” She laughed once more and pointed at the blond-haired child, now hidden behind Karen’s leg, peeking out to look at Eléonore. “And this is Holly! And here you have-,” she gestured to the tall boy, “Michael!”
“Yeah, hum, but please, call me Mike,” he interrupted, “when people call me by my full name, it usually means something bad is coming, so…” God, he had such a deep voice.
She shook her head, still wearing that same smile, when she spotted Mike take one of her baggages. She opened her mouth to protest but he beat her to this.
“I saw you struggling earlier, it’s okay,” he chuckled, “plus, you must be tired, so it’s not fair to leave you with all this.”
She whispered a soft “Thank you,” before Mike told Holly to get the smallest baggage. Eléonore was glad she would be with nice people for a year. She beamed as she followed them out of the airport hall.
Yep, she somehow felt like it was going to be a good year.