Chapter One
“Do you have the grapes?” I shout excitedly from the living room.
My big brother, Nick, joins in. “Yeah, Mom. It’s almost midnight.”
Mom pokes her head in from the kitchen.
“Si, niños. Un momento.”
Our neighbor Izzy looks up from her phone. “Grapes?” She’s here with her dad, Diego, to celebrate with us.
“Grapes are one of our New Year’s traditions,” I explain as I smooth out my sparkly sweater.
Izzy nods, but she still looks puzzled as Nick fills her in on our yearly grape tradition.
Mom says it started in Spain, but now people all over Latin America do it. Each person gets twelve grapes, representing the months of the year. You’re supposed to make a wish with every grape you eat. However, Nick and I have never paid attention to that. We believe whoever finishes all twelve grapes first must be the luckiest. Unfortunately, Nick always wins. It’s probably because I giggle too much at Nick to eat quickly. He looks like a chipmunk with his cheeks filled with grapes!
But I’ve been hoping that this year will be different. I have my game face on.
I love that New Year’s Eve feels different from every other day of the year. It’s the one night we get to stay awake past midnight and wear fancy clothes just to sit at home. More than anything, I love having the chance to start over and the opportunity to make the next year even better than the last. It feels magical!
It’s also awfully nice to have friends with us for this New Year’s. Even Biscuit, Linda’s Chihuahua, is here, and he is wearing his nicest sweater. Linda is in the Bahamas with her family, and we’re dog sitting until she gets back tomorrow. I think having Biscuit here is a sign there might be a dog in my future.
“Look, the ball is dropping!” exclaims Izzy, pointing at the television. On the screen, the announcer is counting down in Times Square.
We count along from ten to one. Then at the stroke of midnight, Mom and Diego blow their party horns. Nick and I race to eat our grapes as Izzy slowly nibbles on hers while texting her friends. Nick looks like he is going to beat me when suddenly he gets distracted by his phone buzzing. This is my chance to win! When I finish my last grape, I open my mouth and stick out my tongue.
“All done! It’s official. I am the luckiest!”
Chapter Two
I sleep in later than usual the next morning, and so does Biscuit. Not Mom, though. When I go downstairs to the kitchen, she’s dressed in her exercise clothes and is busy setting up the blender. I watch as she tosses in some yogurt, milk, blueberries, and frozen spinach.
“¡Buenos días! ¡Feliz año nuevo!” she exclaims, wishing me a happy New Year.
Mom looks at the spice rack and grabs the cinnamon.
“It’s time to eat well and start our resolutions.”
Before winter break, we learned about resolutions in Ms. Benedetto’s class. They are basically goals people make for the year.
“And what are your resolutions this year, Mom?”
Mom turns on the blender and shouts over the motor’s whirling noises.
“Focus on my wellness and get a promotion at work.” She taps her chin. “Oh, and for us to become US citizens, of course.”
I get all tingly inside when she says the word citizens. Mom is two days away from taking the big citizenship test. It’s a hard test you take when you are trying to become a United States citizen. You have to know the answers to a hundred questions about US history, even if they ask only ten of them. I’ve been helping Mom by pretending we’re on a quiz show and I’m the host asking her the questions. If Mom passes, then she, Nick, and I will finally become citizens and have a special ceremony.
“What about you, Stella? Do you have any resolutions?”
I nod. So many, I think. I grab my journal from my backpack to show her.
Besides getting a dog and becoming citizens, one of my resolutions is to have the Sea Musketeers pledge finally approved by our school district. Last fall, we prepared to do a big presentation for the city council so they would approve our pledge to cut back on plastic, but at the last minute, it was canceled! However, we finally have luck on our side. We received our letter in the mail with the new date in March.
“Those are some good goals, mi amor!” Mom says, kissing my head. Then she grabs her thick green smoothie and pours herself a glass. “Yum, que delicioso!”
She fills up a second smaller glass and sticks a metal straw inside. “Do you want to try?”
I look at her eager expression. It’s hard to say no to Mom, so I take a gulp.
Even though the smoothie is muddy green like seaweed, it’s surprisingly tasty! I give her a thumbs-up.
Mom’s cell phone buzzes and lights up. She leans over and takes a peek at the screen.
“Linda messaged. She’s back home.”
I stare down at Biscuit. “Time to go, my little friend.”
We walk outside, and I ring Linda’s doorbell. She must be excited to see him, because she opens the door right away.
“My two favorite creatures! Come on in!”
She motions us to follow her inside. She smells of coconut-scented sunscreen and has tan lines on her face from her glasses.
Linda picks up Biscuit. He covers her face with sloppy kisses.
“I missed you, too,” she says, giggling. Then she turns to me. “How did my boy do?”
“He was perfect.” I clasp my hands together. “Guess what! Mom says we might be able to get a dog this year, too.”
“I’ll put a good word in for you with her.” Linda grabs something from her purse. “Now, this is for taking care of Biscuit,” she says as she hands me a few bills.
Linda gives me some money whenever I take care of Biscuit, although I never keep it. It always goes directly into the Sea Musketeers club.
She continues, “And this is a little gift from my trip.”
I squeal when she hands me a small cardboard box. When I open it, there is a little sea turtle carved out of white limestone resting on top of cotton balls.
“I saw it and immediately thought of you. The gal who sold it at the store also said it would bring good luck.”
I give Linda a big hug. “Thank you!”
Then I wave goodbye and head back home. As I squeeze the sea turtle in my hand, I think, This is just what I need for my perfect year.
Chapter Three
I wake up energized even though it is as dark as the abyssal zone outside. Winter makes the days shorter, and usually all I want to do is sleep in, but today is special. It’s the first day back to school after three weeks, and more importantly, it’s Mom’s citizenship-test day. We all get up extra early, including Nick, to help Mom review during breakfast.
In between bites of my warm cinnamon-flavored oatmeal, I grab a couple of the homemade flash cards.
“Oh, here are two questions combined into one,” I say, reading a card. “Who was the first president and the father of our country?”
Mom replies, “George Washington. Eso es muy fácil. Ask me a harder one.”
Nick sips his chocolate milk and then asks, “How many amendments does the Constitution have?”
Copyright © 2022 by Angela Dominguez
