For a moment, she sat on the stool with the hat in a silence she felt more than heard. One that left her mind a second to wander. The hat hadn't taken this long with Mona or G. Did it ask everyone the same questions? For the most part, it had only seemed to linger on that one girl earlier (Tels couldn't remember her name but it was the one who'd looked like she was a second away from running away). And when it spoke again, for a moment she thought it was done and she started to rise only to realize it hadn't said a house but another question.

How do you want to be remembered?
She changed her mind. That was the hat's hardest question, not the one about picking three words to describe herself. Tels stayed silent for a bit longer this time as she threw the question around in her head trying to decide what she wanted. It wasn't really something she'd ever considered before. At the age of eleven, Stella Aileen had always been far more of one to live in the present as opposed to thinking ahead. Slowly she thought, I think I want to be remembered for a lot of different things. But mostly, I want to be remembered for being happy with myself even if it isn't what everyone else wants of me (like the whole pants thing I said earlier) and for how much I love my family and friends. She thought she'd be satisfied with that. She'd be looked at like one of her storybook heroes then. Kind but daring. And with a happy ending like the heroine always got or like mama and papa had.