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Jada was working, and Amélie had an appointment with her doctor, but Giulia and Aidan were still only 6, meaning they could not be home alone. That meant that they needed a babysitter! Aidan was going to be working on his homework, probably, but Giulia- Giulia loved when they got babysitters.

Rory was a fun babysitter. Giulia liked her a lot and was very excited to see if she would like this one too.

They were still in the city house instead of the mansion. Was Jada going to make them live here now? Giulia wasn't sure. She didn't like the idea. She missed her bed, and the garden, and the really big pool.

The doorbell rang, and Amélie made her way over, while Giulia clambered up on the couch to stare out and try and get a good look at the person who was going to be her play-friend today! "Hello," she heard Amélie say to the girl at the door, "You must be Nadia?" Amélie's french accent was light and sweet. "Come in. Thank you for being able to come and keep company on such short notice."

Thumping her bare feet into the couch, ignoring Castor's unhappy mew as his cushion bounced, Giulia stared past her nanny at the girl stepping in. Then waved frantically. "HI!"

"Hello Nadia," Amélie said with a smile as she let the young girl inside. "There are treats for you and the kids in the kitchen, Giulia can show you where. I will be back in only a couple of hours. Giulia, chérie, vous comporterez-vous pendant mon absence?"

"Oui, Nounou. Je vais être bon. Je ne mangerai même pas tous les biscuits. Peut-on regarder un film au théâtre?"

"C'est très bien. Vous souvenez-vous comment utiliser le lecteur vidéo?"

"Oui, Nounou!"

And with that babble, the woman was out the door, leaving Nadia and Giulia alone together. The six year old girl paused, considering her. "Do you want to get the cookies and watch a movie? Or do you want to play with dolls?"

"You are so smart!" Giulia squealed with enthusiasm. Dolls *and* a movie; how had she not thought of it? Clearly, good thinks came sometimes as you got older, but not too old. Adults wouldn't want to play dolls and watch a movie at the same time, probably. Adults could be awful boring and single thought in the head. Um. Single minded? Yes.

"It was French!" Giulia confirmed to her babysitter proudly. "I am bi ling oo all. Because we lived there when I was little so Jada said Aidan and me have to keep talking it so Amelia talks it to us. I like it. No one at school really talks it good like me but I know some people who do, but they are old."

Moving over, she grabbed at Nadia's hand with her own very little one. "I will show you where the kitchen and the bathrooms are so you don't get lost. Then we can pick out the dolls to play with and the movie. We can bring the snacks to the theater room but we can't have soda in there unless we have it in kid cups."

Giulia shrugged. "I don't know if it is good or not but I don't have much of a choice on how many languages I know. I have lots of things I need to know if I am going to be a proper princess." A proper Disney princess, if she had her way. "I haven't figured out how I am going to get little birds and mice to do my chores for me, but one day I will."

She guided Nadia from room to room, showing her the way around the (what Giulia considered) tiny house, finishing in the kitchen. "It can be nice to talk a couple languages- I have friends who talk more than one and so they get to practice too. I may have to learn Italian too because mama- because Jada- says that that is part of my hair ah tije too. She's old, though, and so when I'm not supposed to be around, Zora tells her to give me a break."

Pursing her lips, Giulia shrugged. "No favorite. They are all very good dolls, but I know that one day they will all need to go to other homes and let other boys and girls love them. So I try an love all the dolls the same so that I don't get sad. I know if I liked one more than the others, the other dolls wouldn't be happy, anyways."

As she pulled the older girl into the kitchen, she led her to the pantry. "Cookies and chips are on the third shelf, if you want them."

"It would be so good and helpy," Giulia enthused, "And then all the icky yuck jobs could be done by pets who don't mind as much, or like- like in Enchanted, the roaches scrub the yuck off the tub, then you just put some cleaner in there to kill the germs and bam everything is all clean, or maybe the birds will hang up your clothes, or..." There were just so many options, when someone else was going to be doing all the hard parts. Even though they had a maid, Giulia and Aidan both had to help and keep the biggest parts of their mess off their floors and put their towels in the right places.

Was hair ah tije really that important? Did coming from one place mean something different than coming from another place? Was one mommy better than another, or one daddy or one country? Nice to know where you come from... but Giulia knew that. She came from France- it was where she was born- but her mother hadn't been French. So....?

Hair ah tije was really confusing.

Spinning around the pantry, Giulia considered. There was a wide array of snacks to pick from, cookies and little brownies and swiss cake rolls. Pursing her lips, she reached out to grab a little bag of veggie chips. "One of these for now!" she said cheerfully. "Amélie will want to have dinner when she gets back. Just a snack now while we watch a movie, and play!

An easy life sounded like a great idea to Giulia. Though, she really didn't know what a hard one was. But it made Nadia smile, and Giulia liked smiling people, so that made things extra good.

Her babysitter didn't seem to want a snack of her own, so Giulia closed the door firmly, nodding in agreement with the older girl. "I think they are yummy. We usually get the ones with ranch flavor. It isn't as healthy, but real veggies don't moosh right without cooking and I only like mooshy veggies."

She led the way to her bedroom first, collecting a few choice dolls. It was lucky this was the city house, not the big house, or there would have been a LOT of walking! "We should watch either Moana or the live Beauty and the Beast. We could do Into the Woods if you want, but not the Disney version, we have a copy of the stage play."

And down, towards the theater room. "Have you seen all of those?"

The blonde bounced into the small theater room, considering the options. "Okay," she said, and grabbed the title she decided on, putting it into the player before her babysitter could see.

"You're going to find this one so shiny." Nadia would understand later. Grinning, Giulia plopped down in a seat. "You'll love it- and you're welcome in advance."

The player slid seamlessly into the opening of the movie.