Following Julio and Antonio's playdate were multiple other instances of them meeting up to play with each other. Sometimes Antonio would send Julio a signal (usually a toucan landing on the window) that it was play time. This usually resulted in me having to come up with a lie about where Julio went. These lies would range from either he went up the hill to play with one of our cousins, I'm playing hide and seek with him, or I would say I only just got home to make him a lunch before going back to him. But so far Julio and Antonio have seemed to map out when the most people are in the house and the times Julio can sneak out and come back without ever being noticed. Still, in cases where there were a lot of people still home, Julio usually begged me to take him out to play. This resulted in us meeting Mirabel and Antonio somewhere that the boys could be easily watched by us and not seen by our families.

While I still bought my books and still had little to no idea what I could talk to Mirabel about, I soon found she wasn't like my gossip-loving sister at all and could talk about any topic. She was more interested in telling me about her family and their own antics than delving into mine, which I greatly appreciated. I listened as she told me about a new flower Isabela grew and how her tía Pepa used her powers to teach school kids about the shapes of snowflakes. She also told me about how before her parents began officially dating, Augustine would over-exaggerate his injuries just so he'd have an excuse to see Julieta. From the sound of her voice, Mirabel seemed very excited to have someone new to tell all this to. From telling me about her Abuela's late-husband to how their house first came to be, I couldn't help but admire the pride the young girl had for her family. I also couldn't bring myself to tell her I've heard all of this before from Bruno when he and I first started dating, so I just let her have her fun.

I also couldn't help but feel a little sad every time I saw Julio playing with his new friend, neither of them caring about the feud between our families. Even though he's a year older than Gloria when it first happened, I'll never forget the look on my sister's face when she was told she couldn't go to the Madrigals anymore. She had just bought a new dress and was excited for Mirabel to see, but papa took her to the side and explained why they could no longer be friends. Understandably, she started crying and begging papa to let her see her best friend. Papa stood firm however and put his foot down. Every time I watch Julio and Antonio play, I see the same smile Gloria once had and it makes me dread the day he may have to give up on his friend should papa ever find out.

"Looks like it's bath night for someone." I smiled as I cleaned off some dirt from my brother's face.

"I had a bath last night!" Julio protested, trying to push my hand away from his face. I simply laughed as I turned to say my goodbyes to Mirabel and Antonio.

"Mirabel, did you ask her?" Antonio asked, looking up excitedly at his cousin as his animals rubbed their heads against him.

"I completely forgot!" Mirabel's eyes went wide as a thought suddenly crossed her mind and she turned towards me. "Rosa, Antonio and I were doing some thinking on our way here and we were wondering if you-well if you could find it in your schedule which I'm sure is very busy if you-"

"Can you and Julio come over for dinner one day?" Antonio interrupted, now looking at me with excitement in his eyes.

Typically after a day of playing, Julio nearly falls asleep in my arms almost the minute I pick him up, but this invitation seemed to renew his energy as he started wiggling around in my arms and shaking my shoulders.

"Can we Rosa?! I want to go see the Madrigals!"

I suddenly got a sick feeling as I felt my stomach drop. "Well…I…"

"Antonio and I were talking about it before we met you today." Mirabel said smiling. "He thought it would be a great idea for Julio to come to our house to see his room and then we got to talking about dinner."

"How many people would be there?" I asked, slowly starting to set my brother down.

"The usual. Us, Abuela, tía Pepa, tío Felix, Dolores-" The more people Mirabel named, the more my stomach sank but the happier Julio seemed to get. He started yanking on my arm and jumping up and down at the thought of meeting all these people. As Mirabel named everyone, Julio started naming each of their gifts with an eagerness in his voice. Meanwhile, a constant "No, no, NO!" kept playing through my mind, getting louder as more names were mentioned.

"If you'd like," Mirabel said after she finished naming all the names "I can put in a special request for yours and Julio's favorite dishes as a welcoming present for you both."

To a hungry boy, the mention of food is enough to send them through the roof, and Julio is no exception. After hearing this, he started running circles around Mirabel and I with Antonio soon following. "Rosa!" was all I heard while he ran around me. Mirabel seemed to find this amusing as I saw her put her hand up to her mouth to hide either a laugh or a smile. However, this quickly got very annoying to me as I was trying to find a way to say no without hurting Antonio's or Julio's feelings. I bent down to catch my brother before he could make another full circle and turned him around to face away from me.

"Julio, why don't you go play with Antonio's animals for a little bit. I need to talk with Mirabel about this dinner." I let go of my brother and him and Antonio raced after Antonio's animal friends. I turned to look at Mirabel who still had a smile on her face.

"Mirabel…I didn't want to say this in front of the boys, especially my brother, but I really don't think it would be a good idea for me and him to come to dinner."

"Why not?" Mirabel asked, keeping her smile. "If Julio's going through a picky stage don't wor-"

"No," I quickly interrupted her. "Let me put it another way. "I don't think it would be a good idea for us to come to your house."

This seemed to still confuse her. I shook my head and sat down on the ground, motioning for her to sit beside me. "Mirabel, you're a great kid and a really sweet cousin for Antonio to have. So…you know my family and yours do not get along in the slightest."

"That's crazy. Julio and Antonio get along gre-"

"And knowing my papa I don't know how long that's going to last. He doesn't care how great a friendship is, he'll break it apart like it's nothing. You know this"

I saw Mirabel's face drop as she picked up what I was hinting at. I wasn't around to see her face when she was 5 and she was told she couldn't play with Gloria anymore, but I have a feeling it wasn't any different than what I saw from my sister. "Then why do you let your brother play with Antonio if you don't think they're going to stay friends?"

I looked down at the ground, trying to find an answer. "Because they're just kids." was one of the thoughts that crossed my mind, followed by "They deserve at least a little happiness". I looked back at Mirabel and just shrugged my shoulders.

"You wanna know what I think?" Mirabel asked and I raised an eyebrow. "I think you want to be like your dad. Enforce the rules, do as he does, and follow in his footsteps-"

"Mirabel," I said, rolling my eyes "You're not the first to tell me I'm like my-"

"I didn't say you are," Mirabel corrected me. "I said you want to be. You're trying to be like him and enforce his rules, but you can't bring yourself to do it. You want to be the tough, big sister who keeps her family safe, just like your dad. But, you've also seen the hurt Gloria went through when we were forced to being friends, and you don't want that You don't want Julio to be hurt and lose a friend. Possibly his best friend."

Whether she was trying to persuade me to think this way or not I can't say. But as soon as she said this my mind immediately when to Bruno and I felt nothing but anger. My mind started going back to the day he disappeared and the anger I felt. I remember thinking about us growing up, laughing, falling for each other, and then all of that going away the night he left like it never happened.

"Ok, I care about my brother." I crossed my arms and looking over at Julio. "Which means I don't want to take him somewhere neither of us will be wanted."

"Why do you think you two wouldn't be wanted?" Mirabel asked, cocking her head.

"Because the Madrigals and the Castaños haven't talked in 10 years?" I replied, questioning why she would ask this. "Do you not remember the look my papa gave your Abuela when they saw each other? Or all the times papa made my family walk the other way if he saw a Madrigal in his path? He kept-"

"Rosa," Mirabel said with a small smile. "If you and Julio weren't wanted, would we have invited you in the first place?"

I looked away from Julio and back down at the ground. "Mirabel…how does your family talk about mine?"

There was a pause for a minute or two before she finally answered. "They're proud of yours." This caused me to look up and it was now my turn to be confused.

"Proud?" I asked and Mirabel nodded her head.

"Your uncle Samuel and his sons have made Luisa's work easier by moving their own building materials. Your mother takes care of the sick with her home remedies and leaves the broken bones and accidents to my mother. Believe it or not, a lot of people in my family have said yours has restored their faith that there's still those who can take care of themselves if anything happens to the Madrigals."

"You mean another collapsed house?" I asked, giving Mirabel a small smile.

This made her laugh and nod her head in agreement. "That and so much more. So…what does your family say about mine?"

At this, I gave her a look that seemed to tell her all she needed to know for that question. Mirabel nodded her head and called Antonio back over to her. "Well, if you and Julio would like to come to dinner one day, we'll be happy to have both of you. Or more if they're willing to come."

"Bye Julio!" Antonio shouted as he mounted his jaguar and followed Mirabel back home.

"And Rosa," Mirabel said, turning towards us before they were out of sight. "If you come to dinner, you'll see this feud isn't as two-sided as you may think."

I watched them go as Julio clasped onto my hand. "So, are we going to their dinner, Rosa?"

I lifted my little brother up and put him on my shoulders as we started walking back to our house.

"We'll see."