Chapter Five:
Isabela smiled as she hurried to meet up with the rest of her family, but not without stealing a second look at Marco. He was kind of cute and his art was very interesting. It wouldn't be too bad, being stuck inside a classroom with him to look at, and that field Photography course he told her about sounded like something she would enjoy greatly. What's a few hours in the classroom when she'll get the opportunity to explore even more places. It will be a whole new adventure!
"What's that look for?" Mirabel asked, tilting her head to one side as she stared at her eldest sister.
"What look?"
"The Walking on Sunshine, Floating in the Clouds, heart all a flutter kind of look," Mirabel said.
"You do seem to be happier than you were when we arrived," Julieta agreed.
"Which brings us to the all important question as to why," Luisa agreed, arching an eyebrow at Isabela.
"It's nothing really," Isabela insisted, "It's just… Marco's the first person outside of the family that hasn't treated me as just a pretty face, he showed me his painting, and told me about this Field Photography course that he thought I might enjoy when I told him that I liked exploring the Jungle. When I told Mariano that I like exploring the Jungle, he went pale and started trying to tell me how dangerous the wild animals are."
"They aren't dangerous," Antonio pipped up, "They only attack if you get to close to their young."
"I know Antonio," Isabela said, "It's just refreshing, you know, after only being treated as a pretty face before, to have someone who actually listened to my likes and dislikes."
"Marco huh?" Mirabel asked, resting a hand on her knee and leaning forward, "Was he cute?"
Isabela felt a strange warmth creep over her face as Mirabel chuckled, "I'm going to take that as a yes," she announced, "Isa has a crush."
"It's not a crush!" Isabela insisted, "He's just the first person who didn't think I was weird when I told him that I like exploring!"
"You know that your mother and I support you in this right?" Agustin asked.
"Yes, but your my parents, you'd support me with just about any decision that I make," Isabela pointed out, "He's a complete stranger, and he's more understanding then my own Abuela."
Abuela flinched at that accusation, "I'm trying to be understanding," she insisted, "I just don't understand the appeal of the jungle that you have."
Isabela shrugged, "So what are we doing next?" she asked changing the question.
"We're heading to lunch," Julieta announced, "As soon as we stop by the front office and pick up an Application Form for Luisa, unless of course we need to pick up one for you as well."
"Well..." Isabela started slowly, "I might just look at the pamphlet with all the different classes offered, maybe, if enough of them catch my eye, I might apply."
Julieta looked kind of pale, "All three of my girls going to college," she muttered, "All at once. My kids are all grown up, they don't need me anymore."
Pepa arched an eyebrow, "Seriously Juli? This is what sends you over the edge, Isabela debating about going to college?"
"You're just saying that because Dolores isn't really interested in continuing her education, and Camilo has a few years before he can attend college, and Antonio hasn't even started school yet."
"Can we go eat now?" Camilo asked, "Cause I'm starving!"
"Just how much more are you planning to grow!?" Mirabel exclaimed, "You've already grown six inches the past couple of months."
"I'm hoping to get to be as tall as Mami, if not taller," Camilo insisted proudly.
"Has he really grown that much in the past little while?" Abuela asked, shocked, how in the world had she not noticed that.
"Either that or his pants keep shrinking," Mirabel grumbled, "I've had to let the hems down on his pants three times since moving back into Casita, which, by the way, I can't do anymore, if he keeps growing he'll need new pants."
"Well, since we're in the city we might as well look at clothes here," Pepa insisted.
"Clothes shopping!" Camilo gasped, pretending to gag, "Please no, not that, anything but that."
"With a reaction like that, I kind of want to take him shopping now," Isabela muttered.
…
It didn't take them all that long to find the diner that Mirabel had suggested, mainly because she pointed out a long line heading out of a building with a, "Look that's it, looks like we hit the lunch rush."
"All of these people are waiting to eat here?" Luisa asked, "Wow."
"How long will this line take?" Abuela asked, "I don't really want to wait for a whole hour or something."
"You won't," Mirabel insisted, as they finally arrived at the line, which immediately moved several feet forward, as a woman dressed in a yellow blouse, blue skirt, and red apron approached.
"Hello, how many are in your party?" she asked.
"Twelve," Mirabel insisted, "Under Madrigal, we'll prefer a table."
The lady didn't even give Mirabel a second glance, turning instead to Alma, "Excuse me Senora, how many are in your party?"
"Uh, Twelve, there's twelve of us," Abuela said nervously, "We'll prefer a table."
"Great, Table for twelve, what name would that be under?"
"Madrigal?" Abuela guessed.
"Madrigal table for twelve, it might be a ten to fifteen minute wait before we can sit you," the woman informed them, before heading back inside.
"Why did she make you repeat everything Mirabel said?" Antonio asked, "She knew how to answer those questions before she even asked them."
"Probably because I'm still technically a kid," Mirabel said with a shrug.
Waiting in line wasn't that bad as the kids immediately started up a game of twenty questions that kept the whole family occupied before they were finally called in and lead to a table by the same woman who had ignored Mirabel earlier.
Isabela helped Mirabel by pulling a chair out from the table so that she could maneuver her chair into its spot. The hostess, as she had introduced herself as, offered to take the chair, and asked, "So are you her caregiver?" she asked, "What would she like to drink?"
"How in the world am I supposed to know that," Isabela snapped, "I'm her sister, not a mind reader! Why don't you ask her yourself!"
Everyone at the table turned to her as did several others at the surrounding booths and tables as she glared at the hostess, who spluttered out something about not wanting to upset her.
Isabela rolled her eyes, "Trust me, the one thing that will upset Mirabel the most is treating her like she's not there, so you should just get over the fact she's in a wheelchair and notice that she's a teenage girl that can probably make you look like a fool in at least ten different ways."
"I've already came up with twenty different ways as you guys spoke," Mirabel said with a smirk, "And I'll have a Lulada."
After the hostess took everyone's drink order, she turned to leave. Bruno stifled a laugh, there on her back was what looked like a piece of paper on the back of her shirt with a donkey on it.
"Mirabel!" Abuela snapped, "I said no magic," she hissed.
"It will turn back to normal in an hour," Mirabel insisted, "I'll be fine."
"And that everyone is why you should never get on Mira's bad side," Isabela announced.
The rest of lunch went fairly well after the incident, and as everybody was finishing up, Abuela spoke up, "We need to figure out what we want to do next."
"We're going to the zoo," Antonio announced, "You promised me that we will go to the zoo, so that is what we are doing!"
"Whoa, I want to go see a movie," Camilo protested.
"We're going to the zoo," Antonio insisted.
"The Movies.
"Zoo."
"Movie."
"You two do remember that we're going to be here all week right, there will be plenty of time to do both. Besides, we don't even know what's playing at the moment, we need something that the whole family will enjoy," Mirabel pointed out, "Antonio won't like anything that involves hunting animals, and I don't think Abuela would enjoy anything that involves war… and we don't know what time any of the movies are playing anyway."
"Mirabel has a point," Abuela insisted, surprising everyone, especially Mirabel, even though Abuela had been trying so hard for the past few weeks to be a better person, it didn't make up for the harm she had done in all the years before, "I suggest that we go to the movie house and see what's playing and pick out a movie to watch. Once we know what time the movie will start we can plan our time accordingly."
…
Mirabel reached into her satchel and pulled out a map of the city unfolding it on her lap, "Okay, we're here, and the movie theater is here," she announced, "It's only like three blocks away, we can totally walk it."
"Well we can," Camilo said, "You can't."
Dolores smacked him on the head, "Camilo," she hissed.
"Camilo that was totally uncalled for," Abuela announced, "Apologize."
"But it was just a joke, I mean I'm not wrong am I, she can't walk."
"Ay! You get your sense of humor from your Tio," Pepa groaned, shooting Bruno a dirty look, who started to whistle innocently.
It only took them ten minutes to walk to the movie theater, there was a large sign outside of the theater that told them what movie was playing when.
"How are we going to know what movie to watch?" Antonio asked, "There are so many!"
"Disney's Dumbo might be a good bet," Bruno suddenly spoke up, "Disney's supposedly a family friendly company."
Everyone turned to look at him in confusion, "I had a vision about them okay, in like seventy years or so they're going to turn our family's story into a musical, they get all of the details wrong, but they get the jest of it."
"Okay, if I ever hear my name in connection to Disney, I'm not watching the movie," Mirabel muttered, "But the next showing of Dumbo isn't for another three hours, and we'll want to get here a half hour early."
"Great, that means that we can go to the Zoo now, right?"
Mirabel frowned, looking at the list of show times, "If we go to the six-thirty showing, that will give us enough time to go to the zoo and get something to eat beforehand."
"Finally," Antonio said with a sigh of relief, "I was starting to worry we would never go to the zoo."