So, the next day, Arthur was on a plane headed for Veracruz, where he would meet whomever Alfonsina had send to meet, and would drive him to Piedras Grandes. It was not that he wasn't happy. Piedras Grandes was nice, and everyone there treated him well. They had to. Otherwise, they would be fired, and would have no where to go, but either way, he did not want to go, but his cousins always had a way of making him not want to say no.
When he reached the hacienda, he was glad to find that the dectuplets had already told everyone everything. That way he wouldn't have to do it. Alfonsina was very happy to see him, and as was the custom there, she presented him with loads of gifts. Some which she had knitted and made herself, others, which she had bought. Ma.Eugenia also presented him with gifts, since she also hadn't seen him in a long time.
"So, look," he began. "They told me that I should bring you back to Bayville as soon as possible. They said he was very anxious to see you." he told Ma.Eugenia.
She looked down at her hands. "He's never wanted to see me before." she frowned, but then, she asked,"What's he like?"
"I've only seen him once. His name is Carlos Xavier." He gave her the Spanish pronunciation for the name, even though, Ma.Eugenia spoke English, he knew she wouldn't be able to pronounce the name. "And I guess you'll see him by this time tomorrow, okay. I want to go back as soon as possible. I have a project that I'm working on."
"What kind of project?"asked Alfonsina.
"Well, it's a new video game. It's kind of cool. I'm almost done. Don Chuy will be coming with the dectuplets when I get back tomorrow, to give me his opinion."
"Meche will come, too."Ma.Eugenia told him. Meche was her maid, and accompanied her wherever she went.
"I'm sure there will be no inconveniences."Arthur replied.
Meanwhile, in Bayville, the dectuplets were dressing in their best. They knew that in order for things to work out right, they would have to tell Lance about Ma.Eugenia so that he could play along. And they wanted to make a first good impression. Fermin drove them to the Brotherhood house, and Ma.Xamila knocked on the door. Luckily, it was Lance who answered. He only stared. In front of him were ten girls, all dressed exactly alike, and wearing the most bizzare clothes he had ever seen.
"We need to talk to you. You must be Lance, right."she told him, without introducing themselves. They didn't like to waste time on things like that.
"What do you want to talk to me about?"
"Surely you noticed my sister, Ma.Xiomara with Kitty, the other day, didn't you? Well, we decided that we should help you get her to go out with you. And we know just how. You see, it's simple, you try too hard to impress her. Not to mention the fact that you sometimes cross the line, like with that scoreboard. We think she does like you, but won't admit it. And that she takes you for granted, because she probably knows that you would not pay attention to another girls, so, what you actually need to do is make her jealous. A friend of ours, Ma.Eugenia will be coming tomorrow, and she agreed to pretend to go out with you. You see, if Kitty sees that now you like Ma.Eugenia, she will be jealous, and then she'll try to take you away from Ma.Eugenia, and well, you probably know how it goes, now."
He just looked at them confused.
"Why would you want to help me?"he asked. "You don't even know me."
"Oh,"she frowned. That had never occurred to her. "Well, you see, we...we like to help people. That's what we like to do. And we just thought it would be kind of fun, just like a telenovela. You know, trying to get two people together. So, are you willing to go out with Maru? You don't actually have to like her, she already knows, you just have to pretend. Oh, yeah, and we'd also like to help you because we know that Scott wouldn't like it, and we just hate that guy. That's why Ma.Xiomara made the car catch fire, so he would leave. We just hate him, and we know that Kitty dating you would really tick him off. He doesn't like you. And we want to make life impossible for him."
He looked at the floor. These girls were weird, and he didn't know them, but, if they could help him, why not. Besides, there was something in their eyes, that made him trust him. They had emerald-green eyes, with long, dark eyelashes. They had a look in them, that seemed genuine.
"Okay,"he said.
"That's great! We shall start as soon as possible."She took out a sheet of paper and handed it to him. "You need to be at this address tomorrow, around five o'clock. That's when Ma.Eugenia is arriving. There you will meet her. And well, just as a warning, I guess, everyone will be there. Everyone from Xavier's anyway. You see, Maru's his daughter, and of course, everyone will want to see what she is like. Don't worry, she's a friend of ours, and she is willing to help us. We've known her almost all our lives. See you there."and they left.
Ma.Eugenia did not know what to wear. What did one wear when they were going to meet their father for the first time? She did not know what he would expect. Her godfather, did not mind what his daughters wore, just as long as they liked it. He just didn't like them to wear their hair in front of their faces, or go outside without a hat. So, in the end, Meche ended up picking for her.
They arrived at Arthur's house. Ma.Eugenia had not said a single word for the whole trip. Suddenly she grabbed his arm.
"What's he like? Not that I really care, but...you know? Does he ride well? What does he do? My godfather rode very well, of course, and he ran the hacienda. Does he do any of that? Is he married? He doesn't have any..."she trailed off.
"I don't know, but I don't think he will be anything like my uncle. You'll have to ask him."
The dectuplets told him that it would be better if they went to his house, and then everyone from the institute met them there. They did not give any reasons why. Maru had been here only once or twice. Since Arthur's mother lived in a penthouse apartment in NYC, and his father was always traveling, Arthur lived in one of his father's houses here in Bayville, where there was a large staff to wait on him.
"Sissy!"Maru exclaimed suddenly, and she got up and ran towards the gray cat, and picked her up and kissed her. "Sissy, what have you been up to? You're so beautiful, Sissy. You know, I've been kind of...distressed lately. Did you know that Amor Real is going to be on pretty soon, but they haven't said what time. Do you think I won't be able to watch it Sissy..." Maru kept on talking to the cat about her problems, feelings, asking her questions. Even though Maru could not communicate with animals, she liked to talk to them, just like the dectuplets.
Sissy was sitting on the stairs with Maru, as Maru sang to her. Her godfather always like to listen to Maru sing his favorite songs for him. So, she liked to sing, even when she didn't have an audience, which in this case was Sissy.
"Maru! My dad always did like to hear you sing."exclaimed Ma.Xosefina, as she ran up the stairs to where Maru sat. Maru did not notice that they had gotten here. She got up, hugged each of the dectuplets, kissed them twice on each cheek, and hugged them again. Arthur's friend, Jesus, whom everyone knew by "Don Chuy" was there, too. Maru hugged him, kissed him once, and then he kissed her hand.
Later, Arthur waited on the front porch for everyone else to arrive. The dectuplets and the Brotherhood had gotten there early, because they had convinced them to ditch class.
"You guys have to listen to me. You see, my cousins invited them here. I don't know why, and you should just know that Maru thinks most highly of these boys, one of them, anyway."
"What boys?"asked Scott.
"Just remember, this is my house, I don't want any problems, and there are ladies present."
"I'll go call Meche, and tell her to come here."said Maru as she ran towards the kitchen. Meche was also received very nicely, even though she was a maid, the girls treated her as a friend. "Alfonsina also send you guys a lot of tamales, and higos, and well, all the things you asked her."
"That's great. Over here, the food is terrible. Well, terrible compared to the food in San Pedro, since it's so good over there."said Ma.Xitlalli. Everyone helped themselves, except Arthur, who was diabetic, and couldn't eat at this hour, until dinner time.
"Well, I guess you're wondering about the people, and which is you father, well, let's not wait any longer, we only have a few minutes, before we have to watch the novela, anyways. This is your father, so shake hands, yes, I know, he's nothing like my father, right, but I guess he'll just have to do."