Lego-lerdo Saige

MJ Valdez was bored. Breakfast had been an hour ago, and she had just let two of the girls she was staying with, Saige and Savannah, dress up in her clothes.

She walked through Loren's house aimlessly, wondering what the lime peels she could do.

Then, high up on a shelf, she saw a Spanish-English dictionary. Her dad had been Spanish, so she knew some -- not mucho grande, but she was OK at it. She decided to read the dictionary and brush up on her Spanish.

MJ climbed up the computer desk to get to the dictionary. She grabbed the book, and . . .

Toppled backwards! She landed with a thud on the printer, but she still held the book.

Reaching up, MJ grasped a handle to a cabinet. She pulled herself up, using it as leverage.

But then the door swung open, and hit MJ in the face.

She tumbled to the side and landed on the dictionary. "Ow, ow, ow . . ."

When she got up, MJ went to close the door, but saw something that stopped her.

She flung the doors open and shouted, "Video games!"

MJ spread them out, oohing and aahing over each one. There were four video games total.

"Indiana Jones -- The Original Adventure . . . Star Wars . . . Indiana Jones -- The Adventure Continues . . . BATMAN!"

MJ decided to play the Batman game. She set it up, and then a video started to play. It was a fight between two henchmen and the Dark Knight. "Get 'em, Batman!" she exclaimed.

Savannah and Saige found MJ just as Robin was falling off of a building.

"Hey, MJ!" Saige said. "What do you think?" She twirled, showing off MJ's apron that she was wearing like a dress.

MJ looked over her shoulder and replied absently, "Yeah, cute outfits." Then she turned back to the screen.

Saige and Ana climbed the computer desk and slid into the chair beside their famous guest.

"What are you doing?" Saige asked.

 

"Playing Lego Batman. Hey, I've got an idea! You and Savannah can take turns playing as Robin. Saige can go first. How does that sound?"

"Let's do it!" she other girls chorused.

Saige looked at the keys and asked, "So, um, how do you play?"

"Arrow keys are run," Savannah told her. "Five is jump, one is fight, three is getting in vehicles, and two is pretty much everything else."

"OK, fight. . . jump . . ." Saige ended up making Robin die in the Batcave.

After a minute of Saige practicing the controls, MJ started the first level, "You Can Bank on Batman."

"You can beat up Robin all you want -- I'm still not coming down," MJ said in an accent as henchmen started hitting Robin. She moved Batman along a tight-rope line thingy above the fighting.

"Gaahh! They're killing me, MJ!" Saige shrieked.

MJ smacked her head on the keyboard as Saige pressed 1 -- fight -- when she should have pressed 5, jump.

"Vamos, Saige!" she exclaimed in Spanish. "El empuje cinco, no uno! Usted lerdo-lerdo!"

Saige paused the game, turned to Savannah, and asked, "What did she just say?"

Ana shrugged. "Try using Google Translate."

Saige pulled out the phone that she and Isabelle shared. "Vamos, Saige. El empuje cinco, no uno . . . Usted lerdo-lerdo," she muttered. "Translate: Come on, Saige!" she shouted after a minute. "Push five, not one! You dum-dum!"

Savannah turned to MJ, who was waving her arms around wildly, and said, "Can I play now!"

"Si!" MJ answered desperately. "Usted, pero no vaquera Saige!*"

Thanks for reading,

Loren

*Yes! You, but not cowgirl Saige!