Chapter Two

POV: Miguel Santos

Maya left my room and closed the door behind her and I got up and quickly threw on a light blue T-Shirt with a collar and my dark blue cargo pants. I never really was a fan of jeans, they can be so itchy sometimes. Then again I hear a good wash can soften them up. I opened my door and went to the kitchen. "Buenos dias, Miguel" said Mama greeting me. It was Saturday so the whole family should be home. "Good morning mom" I said. "How did you sleep?" Papi asked curiously. "Good, I had a dream that I got an A on my math test-oh wait, I -did- get an A on my math test!" I said happily and revealed a sheet of paper which had 100 written and circled on it. "Good job Miguel!" My mother said happily. "Well Rosa I am off to open up the pet shop" "Bye Hun, I'll be down in a few minutes". Estoy Contento!

I poured myself a bowl of cereal with milk and began to dig in. I thought about how to deal with the new pet rule thing, surely Maya will come up with something. But to be on the safe side might as well ask Mama. "Mama, what is this new pet rule I'm hearing about?" "Ay, Lo Siento Miguel, I forgot to tell you but we might not be able to keep Paco".

"SQAWK! Look at me! I'm Paco ! Paco want stay! Paco want stay! SQWAK!"

Paco landed on my shoulder and I gave him a small bite of my cereal. I looked at Paco admirably would this be the last day I saw him in this apartment? What if we have to set him free? He wouldn't last a day out in the wild. My fears began to over take me so I cleaned up my breakfast and went to Maya's Room.

I hesitantly knocked fearing that this would lead to more trouble then what it was worth. Maya said to come in and I opened the door and stepped in. "So Maya, what's the plan?" "I told you... I don't have one". My siblinghood took over for a minute: "You don't have a plan?!" I said mocking her. "That's a first". "Miguel! This is why I'm asking you-because you're the smartest and wisest person I know besides Mama and Papi". I was flattered for an instant but I realized what she was doing, she was drowning me in kindness. "Hey... I know what you're doing" "No, no, Miguel I mean it". "You really mean it?" I asked. "Yep. I really mean it". "Ugh, fine I'll think of a plan but I'm not getting involved when it goes wrong".

I stood in her room looking like a statue staring out the window until it hit me, "Why don't you make a presentation about how pets or in this case Paco should be able to stay?" Here it comes... "Eso es!" Ay. "Thank you Miguelito" she said and she quickly kissed my forehead and ran out the room. Ugh, what is it with girls and kissing? I left Maya's room and went back into mine and began doodling and sketching ideas for my next drawing. We have an art project coming up in school and I want to be ready and already have my idea down so I can get ahead. Eventually after around thirty minutes of drawing doodles and sketches I had enough and took out a comic book and laid down on my bed and began reading. Some times I wish I could write a comic book. But I'm not much of a writer, although I am a good drawer.

It's probably been an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Suddenly Maya bursts through my door, I automatically said "Maya, you're supposed to knock-Oh..." One look at her hair and clothes. There was black dirt all over her clothes and her hair was a mess. Is that a wire in her hair too? "Miguel!" "Maya, what happened? Que pasó?" "I made the presentation like you said and it had all of these beautiful images of Paco and bulleted points of why he should stay-" I cut her off again. "Maya, you're babbling, get to the point". "Oh, yes, right, when I tried to set up the projector all the wires were tangled and the projector itself was really dirty". "Look Maya, mama has invited the Land Lord over for dinner to convince him, why don't we just let mama handle it?" "No! Have you even seen the Land Lord? He probably doesn't even hear mama, he is like this giant masculine creature!" So in short wires went flying everywhere, Maya got dirty from trying to fix the projector and the wires and her hair got messy from doing all the work and having the projector fall on her head. Also her hair got a lot of static electricity so I hear an occasional "Ow!".

Maya sat down and then looked down at the floor and almost looked like she was going to cry as her sole attempt failed. "Aw, don't be sad Maya," I said sympathetically "But I am sad, estoy triste. No estoy contento." "I'll think of something but first you need to wash up and second, we need some back up". So Maya left and took a quick shower and I made a few phone calls to Theo, Maggie and Chrissy. Maya got out of the shower and the door bell rang. "I got it!" I screamed and skedaddled to the door and opened it.

Sure enough Theo, and Maggie were there. Chrissy said she couldn't make it. "Hey, Miguel," Theo said, "Hiiiiii, Migueeeeeeel," Maggie said in one of those weird girl voices where they stretch the ending. "Come in, come in, Maya will be right out and we need all hands on deck for this one". So I explained the situation while we were waiting for Maya. "No pets huh?" muttered Theo. "That's what the rules say now. I called you guys in to help come up with a plan". Then Maggie chirped in, "Why don't you have a bird festival?!" A Festival de pájaros? I was doubtful.

"It's an interesting idea," I said "but I don't think it would work out...-" "Of course it will!" said Maya. "Oh boy", I rolled my eyes and slumped down in my chair smug and sure that the plan wouldn't work. "Because Miguel is going to help us!"

"WHA?!" I said frantically while falling out of my chair. Then Theo said "If Miguel is in, then I'm in". "And I'm in to help out my friend, Maya." said Maggie.

I stayed on the floor looking up at the ceiling. "Please tell me I'm dreaming..." Then I saw Maya's face look down right at me. "Come on Miguelito!" and she ended up dragging me to the phone and literally dragging me into this mess. I just lay there on the kitchen floor while Maya made a phone call. "Yes?" "Uh-huh..." "I'd like two exotic birds". She continued talking and finally hung up and then dragged me back to the living room.

"We can have it at the community center" Maya said.

"Miguel and I can set up plants and bird feeders and even a bird fountain". "We can?" I said in a I-don't-want-to-do-this voice. "Absolutely!". Theo said enthusiastically as I got up.

"I'll go plan out the show, we can have birds flying from side to side across the stage with Paco". Maggie exclaimed.

"Ok! This sounds great!" Maya shouted. I groaned as I went downstairs and collected a few plants along with Theo for our bird festival. How is it even a festival when we only have Paco and two other birds?

"Come on Miguel! I'll race you to the community center". "Oh you're on!" I replied and took off running for the center with Theo right on my tail. It was difficult not dropping the plants we collected while running so we went a bit slower then usual but it was still a close race. We finally arrived at the center out of breath and we took a short break before setting up the plants. Theo and I worked well together and we were friends since day one.

We finished quickly due to our team work. I could never imagine losing a friend like Theo. And then Maya and Maggie came in with Paco, except instead of having two other birds they came with something unimaginable.