Hola Rayella peeps! I'm so happy that you all liked the first chapter of Lightning Bolt, and your reviews are so motivating and encouraging! You are guys are awesome and I can't wait for you to read on! There are alot of new characters presented in this story to help understand our favorite crazy couple, the first being the eccentric Magdelena Soto! Who is she, you ask? Well read and find out!
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING BUT MY CREATED CHARACTERS AND MY IMAGINATION
If you asked the entire town of Flagstaff, Arizona (A/N yes, it is a real place lol), they would say that technically there were no adjectives for Magdalena Soto; she was more of an adjective herself. Magdalena Soto is dubbed meanly as 'The Witch of Flagstaff' or 'Magdalena the Kooky', but dubbed more accurately by the lemonade mouth gang as, 'Magdalena Queen of Vintage'. For Magdalena Soto was far from a witch but yet so far from normal; but to be honest, aren't we all? This was exactly the approach the band took toward her, and formed an odd and rare friendship with the antique store owner. Which is why when Mo, Stella and Olivia stepped inside the uniquely familiar store, they were given a big greeting by a frizzy haired, boa wearing, and paint stained Magdalena.
"Mamacitas!" Magdalena greeted running up to them from behind her post at the register.
"Maggie!" The girls said in unison as they hugged Magdalena's snake skin jacket clad body. Her long brown hair, mixed with shades of pink, orange and purple, was in a messy bun at the top of her head with a funky butterfly clip. Her brown eyes were sparkling with bright orange eye shadow, and her star tattoos around her eyes made her eyes look more out of this world.
"I had an aura that you girls were coming." She said with a knowing look and a smirk. "Looking for something for the dance tonight?"
"Maggie, how do know everything?" Mo asked. Maggie just shrugged and wrapped the boa around her neck. "Because I have the blood of a witch and Coco Chanel." Then in a theatrical manor, she said, "Let's get you ready for the ball." The girls immediately knew she was the perfect one to come to.
"Oh my god Magdalena! This is perfect!" Mo squealed as she twirled in a strapless pink and black belted cocktail dress that screamed of Mo.
"Mo that dress is perfect for you." Olivia agreed sitting in a chair outside the dressing room holding a box of shoes.
"Olivia darling, are you sure you don't want me to whip up a dress for you? I've got plenty." Magdalena offered. Olivia nodded.
"No thanks Mags. I'm wearing one of my mom's old dresses. Gram found it in some of her storage boxes, and I feel like it was a sign from my mom that she's still with me." Olivia said as Stella shot her an encouraging smile.
"What about you Stella star? I've got some dresses that would look absolute fabulous on you!" Magdalena emphasized.
"No thanks. I'm wearing a simple understated black dress with green high tops." Stella said as she fished through the rack of vintage jewelry near the dressing room.
"Oh my darling, you could do much better!" Magdalena said. "Let me doll you up and make you look like Lucy Liu on the red carpet." Magdalena begged with her hands folded pleading. Stella looked her dead in the eye.
"No. I am not giving into the typical high school girl hysteria for an over-budgeted high school dance that has crappy music and warm punch."
"Oh come on Stella, you wear stuff like that every day. Don't you want to wow him with something really cute?" Olivia inquired.
"Ray gets wowed when that guy at the mall makes a balloon giraffe. I doubt some taffeta, ruffled, and bedazzled mess will perk his excitement." Stella said.
"But Ray is leaving for that soccer camp tomorrow morning for the whole summer," Mo said as she continued to admire herself in the mirror. "Don't you want to leave him with a lasting impression? Something for him to think about all summer?" Stella stopped and playfully pretended to ponder.
"Nope, I'm good." Mo rolled her eyes.
"I will never understand you. You're the most non-girlfriend like girlfriend I have ever met. If Scott was going to that camp all summer, I'd be making sure I looked like an Indian goddess."
"It's not like I'm going to be stuck here alone all summer! We're going on tour in a week and a half. Ray and I will both on our own little adventures having so much fun we probably won't even have to time to talk to one another. Missing him is not issue, believe me." Stella assured as she held out a studded leather jacket. Mo and Olivia shared an unconvinced glance.
"Besides, you guys are going to be smoking hot for me. Scott and Wen might need sunscreen." Stella remarked as she tried on kooky sunglasses and made funny faces in the mirror.
"Please, Wen could use a tan. He's as pale as Edward Cullen and Casper the Ghost put together." Mo said still admiring herself in the mirror.
"Hey! He may be a pasty carrot top, but he's my pasty carrot top." Olivia spoke up making her signature "Wen face" again. Mo and Stella pointed and yelled in unison, "Wendrome!"
The two laughed while Olivia just covered her red face in embarrassment.
"I'm missing something- Wendrome?" Magdalena asked in confusion.
"Whenever Olivia talks about Wen she gets this goofy look on her face, with dilated eyes-" Mo began.
"A wide smile and sometimes drool on the side of her mouth." Stella teased as Olivia threw a hanger at her.
"Ever since, we've called in Wendrome." Mo finished.
"So what if I'm in love?" This time Mo and Stella were taken aback and they stared shocked for a moment as Stella pushed her crazy sunglasses down to the tip of her nose.
"Wait-what?" Stella asked. Magdalena clapped her hands excitedly.
"Oh to be young and I love. Never lose it sweetie." Magdalena said endearingly and cupped Olivia's chin and smiled before walking back to her studio.
"Liv, I didn't know you two were that serious." Stella asked.
"Well you guys are always teasing me about how I love him, I just figured you knew."
"Yeah, but you've never really said it out loud and serious like this before. You're really in love?" Mo said extremely intrigued and took a seat close next to Olivia. But Stella remained far away.
"Yeah, I really think I am." Olivia said with a wide smile.
"Oh my god, I think I love Scott too!" Mo said extremely high pitched and took Olivia's hands and they squealed in joy together. As the two were consumed in their squealing and common predicament of love, Stella stayed distant from the conversation and rubbed her forearms as if she was cold, although all she was feeling the rising heat of anticipation. She knew the question was coming, and she wanted to run as far away from it as possible. So she tried to discretely maneuver over to the hat section of the store all the way on the opposite side, but was too slow.
"What about you Stel? Do you love Ray?" Mo asked excitedly and expectantly.
"Yeah, come join our love fest!" Olivia joined in. Stella laughed tensely.
"Guys, don't you think we're a little bit young to be in love? We're only 16, I think we need to focus more on passing Algebra 2 and getting past size A bras before we start considering love."
"But a lot of people fall in love at a young age. Remember that movie Letters to Juliet? That old lady fell in love with that Italian guy at 15!" Mo argued.
"Mo, first that's a movie and second we're not well-bred British people are we? We're 3 extremely cool American high school students slash rock stars, who are in their first ever relationships, and are mistaking puppy love for actual forever love." Stella said cynically as she played with a rack of necklaces. It was quite for a moment after Stella's rant as the two love-struck girls pondered her explanation. Then Magdalena spoke up.
"My parents fell in love at 16." This sparked the diming fire of love in the squealing girls.
"Really?" Mo said. Magdalena put down the dress she was folding and sat in between the blonde and the brunette.
"It was 1945, and my father Ernesto was a handsome Dominican-American naval officer and my mother was the daughter of the local bakery owner in Venezuela. One day in spring, my father's ship docked in Venezuela, and when he was trying to find his troop after a long day of exploring, he got lost and wondered into my mother's bake shop to ask for directions. They fell madly in love that week and ran off to America and got married. They've been together ever since." Magdalena said. The two girls awed. Stella just rolled her eyes.
"Stella did you hear that? It does happen!" Olivia said.
"Oh please, it was 1945 where girls had kids at 17 and communism was at its height in Russia. I'm not convinced." Stella argued.
"Love crusher!" Mo said throwing a scarf at Stella.
"Realist is more I like it." Stella retorted throwing a random shoe at her in return.
"Alright enough!" Magdalena interjected with a laugh. "My store is already a complete mess without you girls adding to it! Now Mo you have Lauren ring that up for you and Olivia you check out, I'm closing early today. I'm the host of this week's séance." Mo and Olivia looked at each other and gave a giggle at her antics. The girls disappeared to the front of the store while Stella stayed behind with Magdalena.
"Maggie, do you really believe people can fall in love at 16?" Stella questioned. Magdalena just smirked at Stella as she picked up the scarf from the floor that Mo carelessly through and wrapped it around Stella's neck.
"Oh Stella, I believe that orange, blue, green, and yellow constitute a matched outfit. What do I know?"
"But you just don't seem like the fairytale-Cinderella type." Stella said. Magdalena paused and looked at the armoire behind her, then back to Stella.
"Come with me." Magdalena said as Stella followed her with a suspicious eyebrow.
"You know I used to be just like you Stella." Magdalena said as she dug through the massive closet. "Free-spirited, strong-willed, not into that lovey dovey stuff. Always looking for some trouble I could get into." Magdalena turned to Stella with a wink. Stella smiled. "But while I was too busy not looking for that stupid lovey dovey stuff, I found it anyway. Aha!" She exclaimed as she turned around with a small jewelry box in her hand.
"And it was that young love that gave me these." Magdalena said as she handed the box to Stella to open. Stella glanced at Maggie and then opened the delicate platinum box that was now rusted, and was caught by the beautiful set of emerald teardrop earrings.
"Oh Maggie, these are gorgeous!" Stella said. Magdalena smiled at her excitement.
"He gave them to me at our school dance. Looked me right in the eyes on the dance floor, and said 'be my girl Magdalena Soto'." She said with a sigh. "Most romantic moment of my life." Stella smirked at the kooky store owner.
"I thought you weren't into that lovey dovey stuff?"
"I'm not. But when something romantic happens you have to celebrate it." Magdalena's neon orange eyelid winked. "Keep them."
"No Maggie I couldn't!" Stella protested trying to hand them back.
"These earrings were meant to be worn by a young girl at a dance. I don't take no well, so say gracias and leave it alone." Magdalena said with sass.
"Gracias."
"Denada." Magdalena said. "Now are you sure you don't want me to find you something fabulous to wear? I have some good stuff that will make that Ray of yours die from a Stella induced heart attack." Maggie offered.
"Thanks but no. Black is my color." Stella said as she kept the box in her hand and made her way to meet her friends. "I'll see you later Maggie."
"Adios darling." Magdalena waved as Stella disappeared. Maggie just shook her head at the young Asian companion. Stella was almost to the cash register before her curiosity got the best of her. She had to know.
"Hey Maggie?" Stella's voice came back again peering around the corner.
"Yes?"
"What ever happen between you and that guy?" Maggie smirked and sighed.
"Turned him down quicker than a bad credit card." Stella's face showed disappointment, as did Magdalena's. "Learn from an old woman's mistakes my dear. Nothing hurt's worse than a broken heart… and child birth." Magdalena smiled. Stella smiled back as she heard her named called by what sounded like Mo's voice. Stella waved bye and raced to meet her band mates. Magdalena stood there and let out a sharp breath.
"Please learn from an old woman's mistakes." She stated to herself, as the young version of her that just fluttered out of the store.
"So we have a hair appointment in 20 minutes, then we get our nails done, then my mom said she'd pick us up and we're going back to my house for make-up, wardrobe, and pre-dance pictures. Then the boys will get there at 7:30, and then we'll take going-to-the-dance photos, then-" Mo went on as they walked to the hair salon only a block from Magdalena's. Stella was feeling the dread of Mo's plans and praying that some earthly catastrophe or angel would save her from the hours ahead of girly primping. Stella discretely pulled out her phone and texted Ray.
HELP!
-100%BA
Then as Mo's voice went on, she heard a car honk and she turned to see the extremely familiar and as if biblically sent red mustang.
"Excuse me mam, but do you eat Lucky Charms? Because you look magically delicious." Ray said in a playfully smooth voice tipping his sunglasses down to check out Stella as one hand stayed on the steering wheel coolly.
"Like something you see Beech?" She said playfully strutting her stuff.
"Actually, I was looking at the blonde but thanks for your interest Yamada." He said with a grin and Olivia blushed. Stella playfully put up a fist. "Wanna go for a spin?" He asked her.
"Yes!" Stella said almost too excitedly for her own liking and began to make her way to the passenger's door.
"No stop right there! Ray we told you Stella was going shopping with us and to disappear." Mo said with her hands on her hips glaring down at the cocky blonde.
"But we're done shopping, so it's all good!" Stella countered throwing her book bag into the backseat of his car.
"But we still have appointments with the hairdresser and nails and-"
"I'll have my mom do my hair and have my brothers paint my nails. Problem solved! See you guys tonight!" Stella said as she strapped in. Ray gave the girls a salute and in a blink of an eye they were gone.
"Oh she is so dead." Mo said with a vindictive tone. Olivia just laughed.
"If Scott was to pull up in his red mustang, would you stay with us or leave with him?" She asked with an eyebrow raised. Mo thought for a moment and sighed loudly.
"Well it's not me is it, so it doesn't matter!" She said and began to walk toward the salon again. Olivia giggled in satisfaction. It always paid off to be the quiet one: you ask all the questions and never have to give the embarrassing answers.
There's chapter 2! Be prepared, becuase the next chapter has all the Rayella fluff you need! But before chapter 3, leave a review and let me know what you think! Peace out!
Allure xoxo