"I just don't know what to do," Julieta confessed, glancing at her sister, "I love Mama, I do, but at the moment, I don't even know if she cares that Mirabel's hurt. You heard her, she was planning on kicking my fifteen-year-old daughter out on the streets."

"Why do you think I was hiding in the walls for the past decade?" Bruno asked, carefully folding himself down to sit next to his sisters. Almost immediately Pepa turned to look at him, bewilderment in her eyes

"You've been living in the walls?" Pepa asked.

"Didn't I blurt that out during my argument with Mama?"

"Maybe, I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention to what was said," Pepa confessed, "I was trying to process the fact that my hermanito that's been missing for the last ten years was suddenly there, yelling at Mama," Pepa sighed, "I owe Dolores a huge apology, she told me at least a hundred times that you were in the walls and I kept telling her that she was probably hearing rats."

"You've been living in the walls for ten years, completely alone, trying to protect mi hija?" Julieta pointed out, "Gracias, Bruno, Gracias."

"I wish I could have done more," Bruno confessed, "But, well you saw the vision, could you imagine what Mama would have been like if I had told her that the fate of the familia rested on the at the time five-year-old girl who just didn't receive her gift?"

Pepa and Julieta sighed, knowing exactly what would have happened. She would have tried to control Mirabel's every last move in a way to ensure that the miracle remained safe, and when the miracle started to fade, she would have blamed Bruno and his vision.

"That still doesn't tell me what to do, part of me wants to slap Mama, yet she's my Mama."

"Have you talked to her?" Antonio offered, speaking up from where he was clinging to his mother's side, "When Mira and I have an argument or are mad at each other, we try to talk it out. Sometimes we even have Papa sit down with us and he makes sure that we are actually listening to each other and helps us find a solution, like the fact that I should ask before getting into Mirabel's craft stuff."

"Out of the mouth of Babes," Bruno chuckled.

Julieta sighed, "You're right, Tonito," she admitted, "Our lives must be pretty messed up if we're taking advice from a five-year-old."

"It's better than what my advice was going to be," Pepa confessed.

"Just out of curiosity," Bruno said, fluttering his large green eyes at his sister, "What advice were you going to give Juli?"

"Forget the fact that she's Mama, and slap that…" there was a pause here that caused both Bruno and Julieta to dive at Antonio, covering his ears with their hands before Pepa let out a string of swear words letting them know just what she thought of their mother.

"Pepa," Julieta scolded, releasing Antonio's ears once she was sure that the tirade was over, "Antonio was literally right next to you."

"It's okay Mami, I hear those words all the time when I'm out in town with Mirabel."

"Of course you do," Pepa groaned, "But seriously, the five-year-old has better advice than three grown adults."

Julieta nodded, turning to look at her husband who was sitting beside the still form of their youngest, "I think I'll go talk to Mama then."

…

Abuela Madrigal was so confused, how in the world had Mirabel not only applied to University but was accepted. Sure it was a trade school, but still. It was outside of the Encanto, somewhere she had never been, ever. Why hadn't she been informed that Mirabel was planning to leave the Encanto?

"Mama," a familiar voice called out as her eldest appeared, "We need to talk," Julieta insisted.

"You're telling me, what's this all about Mirabel going to some school called Escuela de Moda? Senora Silva was telling me about it. Something about Mirabel getting a scholarship?"

"Oh," Julieta gasped, momentarily forgetting what she wanted to tell her mother, "She got the scholarship, that's wonderful."

"You knew about this?"

"I'm her mother of course I knew that she's on three separate occasions has accompanied Senora Silva out of the Encanto. I don't see what harm her going to school would cause. She really likes sewing and the school is a good one."

"Why didn't you talk to me about this?" Abuela demanded.

"Because Mirabel wanted to tell you about it, but you always silenced her whenever she started to talk," Julieta explained, "And I kind of figured if you didn't want to hear about Mirabel's opportunity from her, then why would you want to hear about it from me."

Abuela shifted remembering all the times she had told Mirabel to be quiet and eat her cena, and she did remember the fact that Mirabel had on a few occasions gone on a weekend trip for school, something the others never did. She hadn't thought much about it, figuring that it might have been for one of the many clubs that she had been involved with. Something that none of the others had bothered with. Which was a good thing, they didn't really have enough time to be involved in after-school activities as well as help out around the Encanto, and at least the clubs had kept Mirabel busy and out from underfoot.

Julieta noticed that her mother had gotten uncomfortable with her pointing out that she always silenced her youngest whenever she had tried to tell her anything, but that was okay, she needed to know, "You probably would have shut her down anyways," Julieta confessed, "Probably would have forbidden her to go. It wouldn't matter that she has everything worked out ahead of time. You'll tell her no, and ask her what's wrong with just getting a local apprenticeship. It would be just like her Quinceanera."

"What are you talking about? It was her decision to have a small family dinner instead of a big party."

"Only because you pressured her into it," Julieta pointed out, "I found the notebook she was using to plan it, she was really looking forward to it, and you shut her down, and now you're wondering why she didn't tell you about her scholarship."

"I don't know what you want from me, Julieta," Abuela confessed.

"There is no way in the world that you can make up for all the harm you did, not when your recent decisions nearly cost her her life," Julieta confessed, "But you need to figure out a way that you can try to make things up, but the ideas have to come from you, if they are from anybody else then it wouldn't mean as much."

…

Abuela shifted, trying her best to get comfortable on the padded pew where she was sleeping, or at least where she was trying to sleep. Only one camp cot had been donated for them to use, and there was no denying the fact that Mirabel, with her injuries, needed the bed more than her old bones did. She had already taken away the use of her nieta's legs, she wasn't about to demand that she give up what little comfort they had to offer as well.

Some people had donated some spare mattresses that could be set up on the floor of the church, but there hadn't been that many, just two queen-size mattresses and two twin-size ones as well, that and the camp cot. They had probably assumed that the mattresses, which probably would be softer than the pews, would be claimed by the older generations, but it was quite obvious that Luisa, with her broad frame, wouldn't be able to fit on a pew, so one of the mattresses had to go to her.

Bruno had volunteered to surrender his mattress, trying to assure his sisters that it would be perfectly fine, that the pew was more comfortable than the broken-down armchair he had been sleeping in for the past ten years. There had been an argument. Julieta and Pepa had won, obvious by the way they clung to their hermanito in their sleep despite their own husbands sleeping beside them and she had ended up on one of the pews.

Well, if sleeping on the pew for a couple of nights was what her familia needed her to do, then that would be what she will do. Julieta had told her that she needed to make things up with Mirabel. Honestly though, what was she expecting from her? How could she ever apologize for ruining her nieta's whole life, for ignoring and neglecting her for a full decade?

How in the world could she make up for refusing to send out a search party that very well could have prevented her from having the tree crush her? Would Mirabel know, of course, she would, Camilo was making sure that everyone knew that she had had an ample opportunity to send out people looking for Mirabel before the Earthquake, an earthquake that wouldn't have happened if she hadn't gotten into that argument with Julieta and Bruno? If she had sent out the search party as soon as she had heard that Mirabel had run away, then she could have informed Julieta that there were people searching. If she had just done that and allowed her to join the search, then… well then the earthquake wouldn't have happened and Mirabel would be safely tucked away in the Nursery right now.

The girl was fifteen, she was heading off to a trade school next school year, a trade school to which she had gotten a scholarship to. Yet she was still sleeping in the nursery. Did she even fit in the bed? Well, at least that gave her something she could do. She'll make sure that they add a room for Mirabel. It would have to be on the main floor. Talking to Julieta it was pretty clear that Mirabel wasn't going to be able to go up and downstairs, so it couldn't be up with the rest of the rooms. She'll also need a wheelchair, and since she'll have to go outside of the Encanto to find one, she might as well look into this school Mirabel was planning on attending, maybe there was some on-site living that Mirabel could stay in during the school year. Now that the mountain path was open, it would be easier to go back and forth, they could figure out a way. Maybe even have some public transportation go between the two of them. Yes, in the morning she was going to have to go outside of the Encanto.