Adopted

Chapter 10

"Here's another proof you are from out family – the girls in our family are always smarter than the boys." Alison smiled in triumph.

"Hey, why don't you play with us?" Stephanie suggested.

"I don't-" Valeria started, but was cut off.

"I will!" Alison stood up from the bench and walked up to the court.

"What about you guys?" Sportacus asked Valeria and Jorge.

"No thanks, we're good." Valeria laughed.

"Since we're not playing, why don't you show me around town?" Jorge suggested.

"Sure!" she happily answered.

*****

Valeria showed him every spot in town, including Robbie Rotten's "hidden" liar.

When they got closer to Bessie's house, they saw her hanging her laundry outside.

"Oh, hi, Ms. Busybody. How are you today?" Valeria smiled at the woman.

"Oh, I'm good, thank you! But who is the man with you?" Bessie asked interested.

"That's my father, Jorge. My mom and he came for the weekend all the way from Miami." Vale explained.

"Oh, why, nice to meet you, sir!"

"Nice to meet you too, Bessie!" he said back.

"So where is your mother?" Bessie asked.

"Oh, she's playing basketball with the kids." Valeria said.

"Wow, really? Are you sure she's your mother and no Sportacus's?" the blue-haired woman laughed.

"I actually thought about that lots of times myself." Valeria laughed too.

*****

The father and the daughter kept walking until they got to Milford Meanswell's home. Valeria could see him through the open window in his kitchen. He was sad.

"Oh, look at him. He is so sad about yesterday. I think I should go and talk to him." Valeria was about to go but her father pulled her back.

"Don't do it. You will make it worse now."

She looked at him for a few seconds, and then took off to Milford's house. She knocked on his door and heard a quiet call of "Come in." from the other side.

"Hello, Mr. Meanswell." She said to him.

"Oh, hello, Valeria..." he replied.

"Listen... Can I talk to you for a sec?" she asked.

"What do you want?"

"It's about our weird situation, as a family." She said.

"Did Stephanie talked to you already?" he asked, fearing of what she will say.

"No. About what?" Vale asked, now curious.

"Um, nothing... Keep going."

"Anyway, I wanted to tell you that Alexander and I would be more than happy if you'll be part of our family. What do you say?" Valeria could see tears floating in his eyes.

"What do you mean by that?" Milford asked the woman.

"I mean, it's obvious that you can't let go of Stephanie, and you're such a great friend of Alex, you even agreed to help us with the DNA test and everything. That means a lot. We want you too to be part of our family, to keep being Stephanie's uncle, and also, if you would like, of our future children who are yet to come." Valeria giggled.

Milford couldn't help, but he laughed too. He looked away from her for a minute, then back at her and said "I'd be honoured to."

"Awww, thank you, thank you, thank you!" she hugged him tight.

"I'm sure you won't regret it. But before I'm leaving, may I know what was that about Stephanie?" she asked.

"Um, well... She told me this morning she want to move in with you guys." He told her.

"Wow, really? But that will requires a lawyer first. If she wants to, first we need to transfer the guardian responsibility from you to us." Valeria said, a bit shocked.

"Yeah..." Milford mumbled as he saw Valeria leaving.

*****

Valeria went back to the basketball court, seeing all the others are getting ready to go home.

"Hey, guys, what's up?"

"Vale, you're not going to believe this! We were playing girls against boys, and we won like 3 times!" Stephanie said excitingly.

"Wow, that's great!" Valeria said.

"And later I played one-on-one game with Sportacus and he lost. Twice." Alison told proudly.

"Oh yeah!" Valeria and Alison high fived.

"Yeah, please don't remind me that." Sportacus commented.

"Oh, yes I will! For the rest of my life." Alison commented back.

*****

At home, Valeria told her family the exciting news about Stephanie.

"What?!" Alexander exclaimed, "That's great!" he hugged his wife.

"But don't you need a lawyer, first? You know, for the guardian thing..." Alison asked.

"I know, that's why I'm going to do it on Friday morning." Valeria replied.

"I can't wait for it. This will be great." Alex added and kissed his wife on the cheek.