To his surprise, the sheets had words written in English on them. They read:
ARCHIPELAGO VALLIPO
The drawing beneath the text looked like a map, but if it was indeed a map, it wasn't of a continent Bill could recognize. It depicted more than a dozen islands of various sizes, with the largest one featuring a castle and a pier, while each of the other islands had illustrations of trees.
At the bottom of the sheets were various animals meant to be cut out or colored. Although they seemed strange to Bill, he decided it was normal for a preschool class.
Miss Angie: "Now hand them out to everyone, and we'll start coloring when your friends arrive!"
Understanding the command, Bill replied, "Yes, ma'am," and did as he was told.
After distributing the sheets on the tables, Bill sat in his spot at a round table near a large bay window. Outside the window was a fairly large yard where children played. At this point in his life, apart from this yard, Bill had never left the hospital grounds.
As time passed, other children came into the classroom, some accompanied by parents, but most were with men dressed in white and blue uniforms with the word "MARINE" on their hats.
At first, he wondered why English words were used despite them not speaking English, but this question was resolved once his preschool classes began. Wherever he was, two alphabets were used here: one in English and the other in some Eastern script.
Bill had yet to ask his father or nanny about this or the uniforms. First, his speech wasn't good enough to frame the question as he would have liked. Second, because he had seen one of those same hats on a coat rack in his father's office.
But unlike those men, his father never wore the white and blue uniform. Instead, he wore a green shirt and dark charcoal pants. Over the shirt, he always wore a white coat with green trim that hung on his massive shoulders.
When the last child arrived, everyone took their seats. There were only ten children in the class, two at each round table.
The child sitting at Bill's table was a curly-haired blond with big cheeks and glasses. It seemed his name was Riccio Occhiali, but Bill just called him Ricky.
There wasn't much to discuss with the boy. After all, Bill barely managed to follow what his nanny said, let alone understand the speech of a small child.
However, things weren't so bad over the past few months. Activities like singing songs, finger painting, and learning the two alphabets were much more interesting than the time spent in the apartment. He had probably mastered about seventy percent of his language skills in the past few months.
"I hope that in a year or two I'll be speaking fluently," Bill thought as Miss Angie began to explain the page he had handed out with a wide smile.
Miss Angie: "Good morning, class!"
((Class)) "~Good morning, teacher~"
As the class said this in unison, the teacher picked up a box from her desk and started distributing crayons to each round table, saying:
"Today, I have something special for you! But you have to be good and listen in class. Would anyone like to raise their hand and tell us what was on their desk when they came to class today?"
No sooner had she asked the question than six hands shot up into the air.
Pointing at a girl with a sharp gaze and light hair, Miss Angie said, "Sasha."
Sasha: "It's paper."
Bill listened attentively whenever people spoke around him and always tried to understand. Luckily, at that moment, he mostly understood everything and began to smile broadly.
Upon hearing this, the teacher glanced around the classroom: of the six students with raised hands, only two remained, one of whom was Ricky, who seemed to be trying to reach the ceiling and almost stood up.
Miss Angie: "Correct, it's paper... now, Ricky, can you tell the class what's depicted on the paper?"
Jumping as if he had won the lottery, the bespectacled boy said, "It's a map!"
Miss Angie: "Absolutely right! This paper shows a map of the surrounding islands and the animals that live here."
Looking at his paper, Bill tried to read the names under the pictures of the animals. They were written in Eastern script, and he couldn't understand much.
Miss Angie: "Today, we're going to color each animal and match its color to the place where it is typically found. Remember, if you work well today, there's a surprise waiting for you after lunch!And so the day passed. Bill learned the names of these "animals" — there were Super Sparrows and Super Worms. Moreover, there were Super Sharks, Super Rabbits, and Super Monkeys!
When Miss Angie finished circling the room, checking the work of all the children, she said, "Great job, everyone! Now you can keep these maps for yourselves and don't forget what we learned today!"
Bill had to admit that his nanny was great with children. Kids want to be noticed and draw energy from the adults around them. She did both.