AN : There's a tiny bit of Spanish spoken in this chapter, I put the translation in italics right after the dialogue, if there's any confusion please tell me. Is it understandable that way? Thanks for reading, I hope you like it.
Chapter 3
Saturday was such a slow burn, I just wanted to melt into the carpet.
My mother and I were alone at home, I had no idea where the hell my brothers and my dad were, and I did not have the energy to go downstairs and ask.
Too much free time at once made me lazy, and it's not as if I could just hit up any of my friends to just hang out or something. Oh how I wish I was brave enough to go out and make friends here, but sitting around at home was just so much easier.
But seriously if I didn't come out of this vegetative state I had been in all day and at least change my clothes or wash my face I was going to start feeling awful.
"Julie! Get down here I need you to run an errand for me!"
Okay that was definitely not the way I wanted to revive.
"Coming!" I yelled back.
I had no idea what kind of errand that woman wanted me to run but knowing her she'd have me run to the store to get something, so I decided to stick with sports clothes. You can't go wrong with workout clothes, that's my motto.
So after picking out my cute yoga pants and top from Forever 21, selecting my nice kicks and pulling my hair into a high pony, and stopping to fill in my brows a bit just to look a little less dead, I headed downstairs.
"I need you to take this over to the Potters," my mother said as soon as she saw me emerge from the stairs.
"Mum, you do remember that they're the ones supposed to bring us a welcome to the neighbourhood present, not us" I said sceptically.
My mum rolled her eyes, "yes, I know. It's not a welcome present, it's an apology for any trouble you kids may cause here."
I scoffed, "seriously?"
"I have a reputation in this town honey."
I scowled harder. I should explain; you see, my mother, Olivia Carolina Cabello Suárez was born in the city of Habana, Cuba but sadly her parents passed away just a few months after she was born. After that she was sent to the very small town we just moved to in the UK to live with a couple who had been good friends of my mum's parents but could never had children. So my mother spent her early days here, and grew up as an Englishwoman before going back to Habana when she was 19 so she could reconnect with her roots. That's where she met my dad, and they fell in love and settled down in my father's hometown in Mexico. And that's why we were her now, after over twenty years of living on my father's hometown she wanted her chance now.
I took a deep breath, oh the times I did not understand my birth-giver.
"I really don't see the point of speaking English inside the house, ma," I tried to change the subject.
"We live here now, honey, we speak English now."
How could she just forget about our whole lives so easily; but most importantly, why?
Now there's some food for thought.
Just as I was about to give up on my mum and head out to our crazy neighbours' house the doorbell rang.
My mum went straight to answer, not even bothering to check who it was through the window like we used to back home. I felt a pang of nostalgia. So I ran in front of her and beat her to the door just to be annoying.
Standing on our front porch was a tall redheaded woman, who seemed built enough to be a professional athlete, holding a pie in her arms (that in all honesty looked sooooo delicious).
"Hello, I'm Ginny Potter, I'm your next door neighbour," she said.
Shit. It's crazy Mrs Potter. What do I even say to her, 'hey does your family have a weird broom fetish?', 'I've been spying on your family since we moved here but thanks for the pie!' Okay, knowing myself, it was highly probable that some of that would burst out of my mouth the second I opened it. I suddenly wanted to throw up. Shit shit shit shit shit.
My mum, in all of her 'we just moved!' cheer came quickly to my rescue, "Oh hi! I'm Olivia Roman," she stretched out her hand. Can you believe her? Her freaking hand. Were all of those years of kissing on the cheek acquaintANCES THAT EVEN MY MUM BARELY KNEW FOR NOTHING?! I needed my breathing exercises.
Mrs Potter shook my mother's hand.
My mum simply hadn't been herself since we moved. "No, mum, you're Olivia Cabello," I would so get my ass whooped for this later.
My mother's welcoming smile faded just a little, "This is my daughter, Julie," she said, dismissing my previous comment. I was by now pretty sure my mum would never call me by my actual name ever again, which I couldn't decide if it was good or bad.
Mrs Potter's eyes glazed just for moment but she did not comment.
"It's nice to meet you, Julie." Nice move, Mrs Potter, you might have just saved my ass.
"Likewise, Mrs Potter," I said politely (I think the thanks dude was implied). Why do you buy your teenage son brooms?
"Oh please, just call me Ginny," she said modestly, I half expected her to flick her hair behind her ear in model like fashion. "Anyway, I just came over to give you this pie as a welcome to the neighbourhood present and to invite your family to dinner on Thursday when my husband gets back from a work trip."
I blinked at her, dinner at the Potter household? I couldn't tell if I should be afraid or excited for the new information I may be getting.
My mum was over the moon. "Well of course, we'd love to! Thank you so much for the pie!" she said as she took the dish from Mrs Potter's hands. "I was actually just about to send Julie out to your house to give you a little something."
My mum took the container with Carlota from my hands while I just stared blankly at the exchange between the two women, "this is a dish from my kids' hometown, it's kind of like a pie," my mum said.
"It's not a pie," I corrected. "It's hard to explain, but it's really good. Not a pie at all though," I explained.
Mrs Potter nodded as she took the container from my mum.
Mum ignored me again.
"Wow, thanks a lot guys, I'm sure my kids will appreciate it. Dinner's on Thursday at 6, if you guys are available." Mrs Potter said.
"Yes, of course!" my mum said not even giving it a second thought. I'm pretty sure if any of us happened to be unavailable she'd make us available.
"Well it was nice meeting you both, thanks for the not-pie," she said with a wink. "I'll be heading back now."
I smiled. "Bye." She seemed nice.
My mum watched as Mrs Potter retreated back to her own household. Then turned to me and said, "Well that went well. See honey? You'll be making friends in no time."
I tried not to let my scowl show. Now I had to rely on my mother to set me up on play dates. Great.
I headed back upstairs not without yelling out, "and I put on my cute yoga pants for nothing!"
When I woke up on Sunday I realised three things; (1) There wasn't a pillow under my head. (2) There were two lumps on my bed next to me that had not there when I went to sleep. (3) I could not let the dinner on Thursday happen.
"Get offff," I drawled while I kicked my brothers blindly.
"Julieeeeee," was my little brother's only reply as hugged me like a teddy bear. I relaxed, damn my soft spot for that little.
Everything was fine for a few minutes before my big bro let out a huge snore and started drooling onto my pillow.
That woke me up, "okay, GET OUT NOW!" I yelled as I reached over our little brother's head and pushed him.
He woke up with a start and realised what was going on. And he. Fucking. Giggled.
I started screaming bloody murder. "GET OUT OF MY ROOM BOTH OF YOU. NOW." I said as I shook, trying to pry them off my bed.
I noticed my little brother's evilness then as he laughed at my despair.
"MUUUUUUUUMMMMMM!"
That got them off.
They were off my bed and about to flee the scene when my mother sauntered in. "Daniel! Gabriel! What are you boys doing in here screaming?!"
Dany immediately put on his 'I'm just a little innocent 10-year-old' facade and let his older brother take full responsibility.
"¡Ella es la que estaba gritando nosotros no!" 'She was the one screaming, not us!' Gabriel quickly argued. And in that moment I almost forgot what had just happened and in my head applauded my brother for being just as stubborn if not more in my mother's insistence of using only English now. But then I remember how my beautiful new pillow cover would be now forever tainted by his disgusting saliva. And it passed.
Mum's face reminded impassive, "and you were the ones in here having no business, get out."
I smirked as they made their way out of my room. I win this time bitches.
"And you little lady stop screaming bloody murder this early in the morning," she scolded me as she left with a sigh.
I laid back down on my bed with a thud.
I could not let my brothers meet the Potters.
"Yes, but are they cute?"
This was my best friend Pau's only response to my long rant on the phone about my crazy neighbours.
"Okay, I literally just told you a full detailed explanation about why my neighbours are crazy and why we shouldn't have dinner with them and that is your only response?" I scolded her as I paced around on the furry cream carpet in my room.
"Oh I am truly sorry, Julieta. Let me rephrase that. I don't care how crazy they are, if you meet a cute British guy you gotta bring him to me immediately," she said. Sometimes I wondered how I was friends with her.
"Well I haven't had the chance to look at them very carefully to be honest, I wouldn't know what to say," I said truthfully. I sure hoped they were cute though.
"Ugh," I could feel her eye roll through the phone. "Me cagas." 'You suck.'
"Yeah, but remember how I told you about that magazine the girl at the Potters' was reading, Witch Weekly?" I said as I sat down on the edge of my bed holding the phone between my shoulder and my cheek.
"Yeah," she sounded bored now.
"Well I looked it up and it doesn't exist," I waited a few seconds to see if I would finally get my detective moment and she would gasp and say 'oh my god, how is that possible', it didn't come. "I mean it could be some seriously small magazine from this town or something, but I still think it's really odd."
"Yeah, I guess so."
"But you gotta admit, Witch Weekly is a pretty dope name, I'd definitely read that." I said.
"Yes, it's a really cool name. But in all honesty, I don't think there's such a deep meaning behind the not finding the magazine online. I'm sure it has a very um… what's the word?" she wondered out loud.
"Plausible," I provided.
"Plausible explanation," she finished her sentence.
"And that's whY YOU GOTTA THINK BIG!" I exclaimed.
Pau laughed lightly. "And that's why you of all people should be excited about moving to England."
"What? Why?"
She made an exasperated noise at the back of her throat. "Because you know more English than anyone I know, and you love it more than anyone."
Well this had turned in a whole new direction. She wasn't wrong though, somewhere in the very very back of my mind I was excited about moving to this country, I could never admit it to myself though. Maybe the awkwardness I had developed in my mother tongue wouldn't be so bad in this one.
"You know I only accept the title of best in the student body." I tried to sound cheery, I knew Pau was already on the verge of tears, la chillona.
Pau only let out a gasp between a chuckle and a cry that I could only interpret meant that if she said another word she would burst into tears. But what about Once? I wanted to say, but I tried not to mention the subject anymore.
We hung up soon after that, and I went to sleep with my eyes brimmed with tears and a lot on my mind.
