"Look at this thing! LOOK AT IT!"

Bruno rushed into the kitchen, holding a mysterious green object.

It was shiny and rectangular…and had picture of Pepa on it! Well, that's JUST creepy.

"Oh. That's nice, I guess," said Mirabel.

"BRUNO!" Alma screeched. "It's not nice to make pictures of people without their permission!"

"Who did he make a picture of?" Pepa asked. Little did her family know that she was barely holding herself together.

"You," Alma said.

"BRUNO! WHY?!" Pepa wailed.

Bruno grabbed her arm. "It's very important! You need to see this!"

Pepa screamed and freed herself from his grasp. "DON'T TOUCH ME!"

"Bruno!" Alma said. "What has gotten into you?"

"Never mind," Bruno sulked. "You wouldn't understand."

He tossed the green thing into a trash can and left the kitchen.

"Ugh," Pepa said, shuddering. "I'm gonna need a nice, long, bath."

Pepa went into the bathroom and cried while bathing in flower petals. Who knows where those came from.

Everyone heard her crying, and they all laughed!

"Wow!" Mirabel laughed. "She sure has been having a lot of mood swings!"

"Well, you know how redheads are. They always have short tempers!" Bruno said.

"Good thing she's the only one in our family!" Mirabel said.

"Why are you guys saying mean things about my mom?" Dolores asked.

"We're not!" Bruno said, grinning.

"I heard you! And I've never misheard anything in my life!" Dolores said.

"Well… we didn't say anything that wasn't true!" Mirabel said.

"Yeah, she has been really moody lately!" Bruno said.

"And crazy!" Mirabel said. "Yesterday, she was pulling out her own hair!"

"Well, maybe she's been having a lot of stress lately! But did you think about that? No! You only think about yourselves!" Dolores said.

Since everyone was shouting, Pepa heard it all from the bathtub and decided not to get out.

Dinner time came, and she was absent from the table.

"Where is Tía Pepa?" Mirabel asked.

"We don't care about Pepa," said Alma.

"But she's been really sad lately. Shouldn't we check to make sure she's okay?" Mirabel asked.

"No!" Alma snapped. "We don't need any thunderstorms at the table, anyways."

"Well, I'm gonna go apologize to her," said Mirabel. How dumb.

"Mirabel, no! Come back!" Alma said, making no attempt to go after her.

Mirabel knocked on the bathroom door.

"Go away!" Pepa said, in a bratty voice.

"Tía Pepa, I'm sorry!" Mirabel said.

"GO AWAY!" Pepa said. The sound of thunder was heard.

"Okay, okay! Fine!" Mirabel scurried back to the table.

"I think you made it worse…" Bruno said nervously.

"Maybe you should try apologizing to her," Mirabel said. "After all, you started this!"

"Mami, do I have to?" Bruno whined.

"Just finish eating your dinner," Alma replied.

I should just leave. I'm clearly not wanted in this family anymore… Pepa thought.

That night, when everyone was sleeping, she left the house and began wandering aimlessly.

A few days later, she still hadn't returned. She was tired, hungry, and cold from being soaked in the rain.

"Maybe if I think happy thoughts, a ray of sunshine will come along and warm me up…" she said to herself.

Meanwhile, back at the house, Antonio was asking Alma where his mother was.

"I don't know," Alma said dismissively.

"Maybe she's hiding in the walls! Go look!" Dolores told him.

"Okay!" Antonio said cheerfully, and ran off to go look.

"That's stupid," Bruno scoffed. "Why would she do that?"

"She isn't hiding in the walls!" Dolores said, rolling her eyes. "She ran away from home because you and Mirabel were bullying her, just for having red hair!"

"Oh," said Mirabel. "Whoopsies!"

"What if I had a kid one day, and they had red hair?" Dolores asked. "Would you bully them, too?"

"Well…uh… why do you ask?" Alma replied. "You aren't pregnant, are you?"

"Uh… n-n-no…" Dolores said. "I was j-j-just wondering…"

She took a moment to compose herself, and continued.

"Even if I was, I would tell Mami first. But I can't, because you drove her away!"

"Aha! So you are pregnant!" said Alma.

"No, I'm not! Leave me alone!" Dolores cried.

"This is so exciting!" Mirabel said, grinning. "What if she has twins?"

"Or triplets!" Bruno said, also grinning.

Click! Alma's eyebrows went down.

"OH, SHE'D BETTER NOT!" she snapped.

"I'M NOT PREGNANT!" Dolores shouted.

She ran away, still crying.

"What a crybaby!" Mirabel laughed.

"In all seriousness… do you think maybe we should look for Pepa now?" Bruno said, "It has been a few days…"

"Do you really care?" Alma asked.

"She's my sister! Of course I care," said Bruno. "And I never got to say sorry to her…"

"Okay, fine. If she doesn't show up in a few days, we'll all go look for her together," Alma said.

"Yay!" Bruno said.