"Oh!" Julieta said in surprise as she saw Isabella storm into the kitchen. "What are you doing back so soon? I thought you were going to stay out for another two hours!" She looked at the clock just to make sure she hadn't lost track of time; that sometimes happened when she was cooking, with Agustin having to get her when she got lost in a meal only to find it was completely dark in the kitchen and she had been lucky not to cut one of her fingers off while chopping the vegetables.
But no, it was the right time yet there was Isabella… looking ready to rip her hair out. She'd never seen her eldest daughter look so upset before. Even when she'd been a baby she had been a pleasant little tyke, crying only at the bare minimum and mostly just coos.
(This was a lie, of course. Isabella had screamed so loud at times that casita had shook and she seemed to sob at everything and anything. But Isabella had perfected her, well, perfect persona so well that everyone only remembered her as a sweet baby whose diapers smelled of roses.)
"What happened?" Julieta said worriedly.
"Mirabel never came back," Isabella declared dramatically. "She is still out there somewhere and we should go find her because the creature Tio Bruno brought back with him is a terror that must be destroyed!"
"oh, is that all," Julieta said with a slight smile, returning to finishing the salad she had been working on. It was a rather large one and she still had two others to make before she needed to go get dressed.
"Is… did you hear me, mama? Your daughter has been replaced by some feral monster!"
"Has Mirabel been telling you stories about her time out in the world?" Julieta teased. "I can't tell if she's telling the truth or not but they do sound rather exciting. Your Tio performed one about a bard they met who journeyed to the land of the dead to find his great great abuelo… I think Mirabel might have a crush on him-"
Isabella slammed her hands down on the table. "This is serious! That… creature… is not my hermana!"
Julieta merely shook her head in amusement. "I said the same thing about your Tia Pepa all the time when I was your age. Why, one time she stole my favorite shoes and made a hole in the sole-"
"Mama!" Isabella whined, sitting down on a stool and cradling her head in her hands.
"Okay, okay," Julieta said walking over and patting her on the back. "What exactly happened?"
"She… she just ruined the entire day."
Julieta let out a sigh. She had considered having Luisa take Mirabel out as the two had truly hit it off since Mirabel returned, becoming close friends. Camilo was a close second and honestly Dolores wouldn't have been a bad choice after Mirabel had given her those discs that helped her control her gift… but she'd finally agreed that Isabella should do it because Mirabel hadn't spent enough time with her sister. Julieta wanted her daughters to be close, to be able to share secrets and rely upon each other. And that would only happen if they got to know each other again as they women they were becoming rather than the children they had once been.
But, of course, there would be growing pains along the way. After all… she loved Pepa but that didn't meant the two hadn't nearly come to blows sometimes.
Nearly.
Nearly.
~36 Years Ago!
"AAAAAAAAAAAA!" Julieta screamed, Bruno struggling to hold her back.
"Don't let her go!" Agustin said, the poor teen having walked by at the wrong moment and been forced by Bruno to rip the two Madrigal sisters off of one another as they rolled along the side of the road, clawing at each other.
"She can heal herself with her shitty cooking, now let me at her!" Pepa roared.
"HOW ARE THEY THIS STRONG!?" Bruno whined.
~MC~GF~MC~GF~
"I'm sure she didn't ruin the ENTIRE day," Julieta said with a smile.
"She ruined the entire day, mama," Isabella assured her. "It started when we first went down to town."
"Okay…"
"She… kept talking to everyone."
"…and?"
Isabella just gestured with her hands, like she was present an award winning piglet at a fair and wanted all to see it.
"And?" Julieta repeated.
Isabella snorted in frustration. "She kept walking up to people and wanted to talk with them!"
"And this was bad?"
"Yes!" Isabella proclaimed. "We were on a schedule! We had to do certain things! And she was busy-"
"Saying hello to people and asking how they were doing."
"Exactly!"
Julieta sat next to her daughter, resting her head on the heel of her hand. "How terrible."
"And then there was the SINGING!"
Julieta chuckled at that. "Yes, I did hear her singing rather loudly from the rooftops. It was a good song."
"It wasn't just that song, mama! She had a song for everything! Or a story! Or some anecdote from her time in that… weird place beyond the mountains!" Isabella rested her head on the table. "Everyone SAW."
"And they will whisper about us and spread rumors." Isabella shot her mother a look of surprise. "What, you thought your papa wouldn't tell me?" She scoffed. "You girls… always thinking papa and I don't talk to one another." She reached over and patted Isabella's shoulder. "It will be okay, Isa. The village… they have been spreading rumors about us for decades. You think you are the first to notice? Go ask Tia Pepa how she earned the nickname 'The Smiter' after someone tried to claim that Bruno liked to sneak into people's homes and lick their feet."
"…what?" Isabella said in disgust.
"I have no idea and I don't want to ever know. The point is that people like to gossip and spread rumors… you can't beat it."
"But I have been beating it!" Isabella complained. "I've been making sure that no one whispers about us! That they don't spread rumors! That they only see us in the best light!"
"So you've traded one falsehood for another."
Isabella lifted her head up.
"Isa… no family is perfect. No family always gets it right. There will always be something that goes wrong or that doesn't happen the way you want and… people will notice. You can't stop it from happening."
"You're wrong," Isabella said stubbornly, standing up. "The family… I get it, mama. It's all going to fall on me. Abuela has told me I'm the future-"
"And she shouldn't have done that," Julieta said, cutting her off. "mama… Dios mios she means well but she has caused so many problems for all of us. And I regret that I let her think that this mentality of yours is the right way to go about things." She reached out. "You don't have to be perfect."
There was a moment… just a moment… where she thought she'd gotten through to Isabella and she was going to reach out to her.
But it was only that. A moment. And it was gone.
"You should check on Mirabel," Isabella said, the perfect little mask she had taken to wearing slamming down on her features. "Knowing our luck she will come down covered in soot and wearing pants and an ill fitting shirt."
Julieta could only watch Isabella leave and wonder how she was going to fix this.
~MC~GF~MC~GF~
Camilo was frankly glad that his prima was utterly oblivious. If she had been paying attention at all the surprise would have been ruined. Senorita Perfecta had brought her home far too early and Camilo had been forced to grab Mirabel and take her to the Bureau (which had seemed rather startled by them if the sudden flare of lights was anything to go by… and the odd music by a deep-voiced man it had been pipping towards the door leading to casita; He had a theory as to WHAT the singer meant by "Let's get it on" but he didn't want to think about it) so she didn't realize what was going on, Antonio joining them.
The moment he thought that though Camilo winced. Saying he was 'forced' to do anything with Mirabel wasn't right at all. That made it sound like he didn't want to be around her. And it was the opposite, it truly was: Camilo couldn't wait to get some time with his prima.
It felt like he was whole again.
Yes, they didn't get to spend as much time around each other as they had before he had gotten his gift. He still had his chores he had to do and Mirabel was helping out where she could. Some days she helped out Lusia with her chores…
~MC~GF~MC~GF~
"I'm just saying that another bridge here would solve a lot of problems," Mirabel said as she looked at the river. Camilo had been passing by when he noticed his primas talking with a group of builders.
"But the time it would take…" Senor Richardo complained.
"Is less than the time lost when this bridge crumbles," Mirabel said.
"Crumble?" the builder complained. "The bridge is stone. Solid! It-"
"Has cracks," Mirabel said, pointing at one of the largest stones that made up the bridge. "Right there."
"…I think that has always been there."
"It hasn't," Mirabel said. "I've been measuring it for the last week. It's getting bigger. Making Luisa constantly move it is causing strain. Luisa's gift doesn't creating an energy field around the objects she touches to help them maintain stability like some gifted with magically enhanced strength." Everyone just stared at her but Mirabel moved on. "Every time she sets the bridge down she causes the mortar to break… no, I'm sorry, I take that back. YOU cause the mortar to break because you keep making her lift the bridge up because you don't want to do your jobs."
"Excuse me?"
Mirabel shrugged. "I'm just saying you are builders."
"And what?"
"Build something!" Mirabel exclaimed. "When is the last time you actually BUILT something?"
The builders… all grew quiet.
Come to think of it, Camilo couldn't remember the last thing the builders had made.
"…oh by the Truesilver," Mirabel said in exasperation.
~MC~GC~MC~GF~
She'd helped Dolores out… and Camilo winced at that…
~MC~GF~MC~GF~
"Say it!" Mirabel said, Camilo twisting in her grasp as she held him by the ear before a startled Dolores.
"How are you keeping hold!" Camilo whined, trying to shift his form to break free but Mirabel kept managing to keep her grasp on his ear.
"You aren't the first shapeshifter I've dealt with! Now say it!"
"Okay, okay!" he pleaded. "Dolores, I'm sorry! You aren't a snitch and I shouldn't have said that!"
"And?" Mirabel asked.
"And I love you!"
Dolores waved her hand and Mirabel let go. Camilo rubbed his sore ear only for himself to be suddenly wrapped in a hug.
"I love you too," she whispered and after a moment Camilo returned the hug.
~MC~GF~MC~GF~
Honestly the only person that she hadn't helped was abuela… and that was why Camilo, against his better judgment, chose that moment to speak up.
"So I wanted to give you a heads up," he said as Mirabel finished telling Antonio a story about a horse she had met that had somehow been made the head of a royal guard and how his soldiers all had fry pans, "abuela is going to be paying extra attention to you tonight."
"Oookay," Mirabel said with a shrug. "Any particular reason?"
"Well…" Camilo WANTED to warn her about the party… but that would mean spoiling the party and he didn't want to take away that surprise. "It's just… she really is into image-"
"Yeah, Isabella was telling me all about that today. 'Don't sing, Mirabel!' 'Stop talking so much, Mirabel' 'Why must you dress like a boy?'." Mirabel shook her head. "Sometimes I worry that Isa's going to one day have that stick up her-" She looked down at Antonio and stopped herself. "Uh… hey, would you mind checking in the main hall if I left my wrench out there?"
"Sure!" Antonio said. "But I already know what naughty words you wanted to say!" He grinned and scampered off.
"Smart little bug," Mirabel said with good humor.
"Wait," Camilo said, "you get that Isabella and abuela have issues about…"
"Me?" Mirabel asked. "Sure! I'm not stupid, Milo. I notice how awkward they are around me. How they don't know how to talk to me. Heck, I barely spend any time with abeula, and not for a lack of trying!"
He furrowed his brow. "Then… why do you-"
"Not say a word?" Mirabel shrugged. "I get it… they have traditions they want to uphold and I don't fit that mold right now." He let out a sigh of relief that Mirabel got what the problem- "But over time they will mellow out and we'll find our new normal! And they will get over all their awkward feelings and be ready to spend time with me!" –was.
"Uh… abuela doesn't do 'mellow'."
"Come on, she isn't an ogre or a troll or a dragon." Mirabel paused. "And even if she were half of them are nice. Other half try to eat me but I try not to think about that. Anyway, abuela and Isabella will get used to how I am now and everything will work out!"
Camilo wondered if Mirabel was just being optimistic… or utterly stupid.
And he had a bad feeling no matter what she was it wasn't going to end well for any of them.