Chapter 10:
(Caleb POV)
I woke up as the sun rose the next morning and began looking through my stuff. I was clearly on the outside of town. I knew that they didn't trust me. I knew that they were going to try and keep me away but, I knew that today was only day one. I began to pack up a small satchel and threw it at the side of my bed. I then heard a knock on the door and went to see that Isabella was here. Why was she here already? "Isabella?"
(Isabella POV)
I woke up the next morning and went down for breakfast where Camilo and Olivia were already happily eating at the table. I walked over and sat next to them as more and more people started to make their way down. I could feel them all watching me and I held in a breath as I just focused on my food. I then looked at Mirabel, "Where are the no-go areas in town today?"
"Um, well Camilo you are going to be in town square for a story today, right?" He nodded his head, "Yeah but that is in the afternoon, so if you take him there in the morning that should be good." Luisa looked at me, "Yeah I'm not doing anything big today." I nodded my head and looked at Mama and Papa, "I'm going to be in town for a little while after the people work in the fields come back in to heal them if they need it." I nodded my head and then looked toward Tía Pepa, "I'm going to be in the fields in the morning for a little while after that I am going to just feel how I feel and I will try to make sure that it isn't too bad." I nodded my head, "Alright well I'll take him to town square in the morning and maybe I will go by the marketplace with him. I'll try to delay going out to the fields today." Everyone nodded in agreement.
I got up and began making my way out to that old shack. I was going to try to make Caleb think that we were just the most boring place in he world. If I could convince him that nothing good was here maybe he would see that there is nothing to find here. I knocked on the door and watched as he groggily opened it, "Isabella?" He asked and I nodded my head, "Yeah. I'm here to take you into town." He nodded his head before opening the door a little bit more, "Why don't you come in and wait while I finish getting ready?" I nodded my head and made my way inside.
(Caleb POV)
I kept looking around to make sure that nothing was lying around. Before I went into the kitchen and began looking around for something to eat or drink. I don't know why I expected anything to be in there. When I opened a covered I saw what looked like an old jar of ground coffee and an almost empty bag of rice, "When was the last time someone lived here?" I asked looking at Isabella. She shrugged, "Olivia lived here for a while before she married Camilo so 2 years ago." Made sense, "That would explain the lack of food." She gave me a half smile, "Well if you finish getting ready we can swing by the bakery today and tonight we can go to the marketplace so you can get food."
I couldn't let them know how much money I had with me or who I actually worked for. "With what money?" She seemed shocked by this, "You didn't bring money?" I rolled my eyes ok, maybe I can use a little bit of the money I brought in here but not too much. I filled a glass with water and handed it to her, "That was for the whole Candleholder thing, but it does bring up a good point." She took a sip looking at me waiting for me to continue, "If I am going to be here for a year, how am I going to afford food and stuff?" She didn't seem prepared for the question and just shrugged, "I'm sure something can be worked out." I nodded my head and grabbed my bag slinging it over my shoulder double checking that my notebook was inside. She looked at me and asked, "You ready?" I just nodded my head and we left the shack.
(Isabella POV)
After a few minutes he looked back at me. "You ready?" I asked. He nodded his head. We walked out of his shack together and I took him away from the fields and towards town in case Tía was still out there. "So are you going to tell me about the vines?" He asked and I looked at him and feigned innocence, "What do you want to know about the vines?" He rolled his eyes, "Come on Isabella I saw you doing something to them." I shook my head, "I was tending to them sure but that was it. I don't know what else you could have seen, but that was all that happened." "Isabella, don't lie to me" he said and I looked him in the eye, "What makes you think I am lying to you?" "Why aren't you directly answering my question?" He asked. "Are you going to keep asking me questions?" I smirked. "Will you give me a direct answer?" He was continuing the game. "Depends, what is the question?" He groaned, "That isn't cute." I shrugged, "I disagree." "Of course you do," he muttered. I rolled my eyes, "Look I'm not sure how open people are going to be to actually talking to you." He nodded his head, "I figured as much. I figured we could just look around today." I let out a breath, "That sounds fine."
We went into town and it was visibly tenser in town. Everyone was looking over at Caleb and I couldn't help but feel a little relieved that it wasn't on me for once. He looked at me, "Is everyone always this quiet?" I smiled, "Only around people they don't know." He rolled his eyes, "You can't keep blaming it on being around new people." I smiled, "I can when that is the only thing different from before. The town may have let you stay but honestly there isn't that much to see." We walked through town square for a while. Caleb wasn't really asking questions. He took a notebook out from his bag and began writing down notes. I didn't know what was so interesting that he needed to write it down but, I had to try and steer him away from it. He didn't want to go into any of the stores or talk to any of the people he was just watching. I practically had to force him to come into the bakery to get him some breakfast.
We were walking when I saw Camilo and Olivia making their way into town. I knew it was time to take him to the marketplace. "Come on let's go to the market." "Why are you trying to take me out of town?" He asked. I looked at him, "I'm not. I am just trying to show you around. Besides you are going to need food." He looked at me skeptically, "Ok, let's check out the market." I was walking away and my eyes widened when I saw Camilo shifting for Olivia behind Caleb, "Come on. Let's go." I grabbed his arm and ran him over to the market before he shook my hand off, "What is your problem?" I smiled, "Nothing at all."
(Caleb POV)
I knew that she was hiding something from me. It is obvious that she is hiding something from me but, I can't prove it. We walked through the marketplace and stopped at a few different places to get some supplies for my shack, "Shouldn't we get the bigger bag?" I asked when she picked up a small bag of flour. She looked at me, "You can always restock next month." She then mumbled something under her breath. I rolled my eyes and we made our way to the edge of the market and I sat down as I continued to write in my notebook.
A man came over to us, "Isabella can I talk to you?" She gave him a polite smile and turned to face me, "Excuse me for a minute." I watched as she walked over with him and he seemed to want to know. I don't know what she said but he walked away looking disappointed before she sat down next to me. "Another member of your family?" I asked. She shook her head, "No." "Well then who was it?" I asked, not knowing why I cared. She looked over at me, "His name is Hector." "And what did he want?" I asked she shook her head though, "I refuse to answer that one." I let out a quick breath. This was not what I should have been focusing on.
She looked at me, "You haven't asked a single question since we came to town all day and now the first thing you ask is about a private conversation that I had." She didn't say it like a question but I still felt like I had to answer, "Yes. I guess that it was." She nodded her head. The market was dying down and she looked over at me, "Want to go back to the shack?" I don't know why but, I liked how no one denied that I was living in a shack. I nodded my head, "Yeah I learned a lot today." She quirked her eyebrow, "Really?" I let out a breath, "Yeah that your town is incredibly boring." I saw a small lift on the left side of her mouth. Was she trying to bore me out of town?
(Isabella POV)
I stood up and we walked back to the shack together and I stopped in front of it, "So are you going to let me see what you were writing all day?" He shook his head, "No you live in this town you already know all of this." I squinted, "What did you write?" He rolled his eyes, "Tell you what if I have something to write about you will be the first to read about it." I rolled my eyes. He wasn't going to be here long enough for me to read any of that. I had spent the entire day trying to limit his exposure to Encanto for as long as possible. The more long and monotonous the town was the sooner he would want to leave. Still I think that I was realizing that it wouldn't be enough to get him to leave town. No he was right about going to need money to survive in town. I was going to have to talk to a few people about this but, I think I had an idea of what to do. Caleb had no idea what he was doing coming here but I was going to make sure that he left.
(Caleb POV)
I put away the few things that Isabella and I bought in town in the cupboard. I was going to have to figure something out if I was going to keep living here because having a member of one of those big families paying for me. I went over to the bed and opened up my notebook reading over what I wrote down. I needed to figure out how to get an in with this town and I don't think that Isabella was going to work so I needed to work with someone else. I read over my notes and then I landed on where I wrote down Hector's name. He was the only name I actually had written down and I don't know why I did. What was he even asking her? It was obvious that he was interested in her. Was he asking her out? Did she say no?
I closed the notebook and leaned back, "Day 1 down. 8 more months to go." I had to get this done in 8 months because now that I knew were this place was they did to and I needed to be ready.
