News and Old Tales (Geronimo Stilton fanfiction)

6

With all the paperwork sorted, Geronimo and Theodora finally joined the Stilton family. They settled into their new lives over the course of the following weeks, Geronimo starting school and Theodora staying at home with Grandma Shortpaws initially.

"Theodora," Thalia mused one day, watching her sister play with a little, soft ball, "It sounds so stern for such a little and lively mouse."

Geronimo, who was sitting on the couch, reading a book full of colorful pictures, looked up at her with a shrug.

"There was a nicer lady back at the old place," he explained, "Her name was Cheryl. She used to give me food and tell me stories. She told me stories about Theodora of Byzantium, who was an empress a long, long time ago. I liked those stories. That's why I named Theodora Theodora."

Thalia's eyes widened at this.

"Hang on, Geronimo," she said, "You named Theodora?"

"Uh-huh," Geronimo nodded, "But yeah, it's a bit long. Maybe you can find a name for her too?"

"It's not my place to rename everyone left and right," Thalia replied with a chuckle, "But maybe there's a nickname we could use."

Geronimo nodded eagerly. However, they did not manage to come up with anything suitable for a while.

***

A few days later, Alice was attempting to feed Theodora some porridge, but that proved to be quite a challenge, as the latter was waving her arms about with glee while talking her baby-gibberish.

"Oh, Thea, you're making such a mess!" Alice laughed.

Thalia's head snapped up at this. "Did you just call her 'Thea'?" she questioned.

"Yeah," Alice shrugged nonchalantly in response. "I figured, why not? It sounds good, doesn't it?"

Geronimo, who had been sitting at the table, enjoying a plate of mac and cheese, looked up at Alice and nodded with a small smile. "It does," he confirmed.

"Thea," he then turned to his younger sister, "Thea, Thea, Thea!"

The little mouse looked up at her brother, to then begin laughing and shrieking happily. To follow up on that, she soon settled on talking some more gibberish. As the words of the nonsensical baby language tumbled out of Thea, there was something that caught all of her siblings' attention.

"'ronimo," Thea uttered, whereupon Alice, Thalia and Geronimo exchanged a surprised glance.

"Come again, Thea?" Thalia raised an eyebrow.

The toddler squealed happily, then stretched out one little arm towards Geronimo. "'ronimo!" she repeated, causing her brother's eyes to widen, and his snout to light up.

"Yep, that's my name," he told her with a bright smile. "And yours is Theodora. Or Thea. Whichever you like best."

***

As more time went by, Thea slowly became more and more adept at mastering the art of speech. She soon learned to call all family members by their names, or as close to them as she got. There was "Gramma", "Grampa", "Alice", and "Thalia", or, when Thea was particularly tired, just "'lia". However, Geronimo remained "'ronimo" for a long while to come. He attempted to teach Thea to say his whole name, but it was to no avail; he was simply "'ronimo", and Thea did not seem to want to have it any other way.

"Come on, Thea," Geronimo instructed her gently one time, "I know you can say long words like that. Now, say after me: 'Geronimo'."

"'ronimo!" Thea exclaimed happily.

"No," Geronimo shook his head with a smile, "Geronimo."

"'ronimo," Thea repeated, her eyes glistening with pride and glee.

"No, Thea," her brother corrected her again, "It's Ge-ro-ni-mo."

"'ro-ni-mo," Thea enunciated each syllable in response, and Geronimo couldn't help but burst out in laughter, while Thea squealed happily and soon joined in.

"But Thea," Geronimo giggled then, "There's a first syllable, actually."

However, that did not seem to bother Thea tremendously.