Chapter Seven:

Agustin slid into the seat of the restaurant as Julieta and Luisa helped Mirabel maneuver her chair up the table, "I feel like we should do introductions." he admitted, "Well this is my wife Julieta, and our hijas, Isabela is the one with the colorful hair, Luisa is uh… our middle child, and Mirabel, our bebe, is the one in the wheelchair."

"Why is she in a wheelchair?" a little boy around Antonio's age asked.

"Ralphie," Carla exclaimed, "Honestly, you don't go about asking questions like that."

"He's fine Tia… all of the kids in the village were curious about my wheelchair, but once they get use to it, they don't care about it anymore," Mirabel insisted, "I was hurt during that earthquake a little while ago, I can't walk anymore."

"Oh," Ralphie said, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

Valentina snapped her fingers, "Mirabel Madrigal!" she exclaimed slightly.

"Yeah," Mirabel said nervously.

"I actually have been trying to figure out a way to contact you and your parents," she exclaimed, "Oh, I'm your Tia Tina, by the way. I work at Escuela de Moda. In fact, I need to schedule a meeting with you."

"Why?"

"Because I'm your counselor," Valentina insisted, "I wanted to get to know you and your needs so that we can better help you succeed. I do it with all of my students, especially those that are underage. If you want I offer special tutoring classes to help you keep up with the other students."

"I don't need help with that Tia," Mirabel insisted, "I've been apprenticed to the seamstress in our village since I was eight. This is just to get more experience and learn different techniques."

"Well, if you insist, although most of my students that I help claim that my lessons are almost magical."

Luisa's glass shattered in her hand, as cacti pop up around Isabela, Julieta actually started to choke, and for once in his life, Agustin had to pound on her back. Mirabel shifted nervously in her wheelchair, "You're a witch aren't you?" she finally asked.

"I don't know about where you live," Valentina insisted, "But around here, it's considered rude to call someone a witch." Mirabel ducked her head in embarrassment as her tia gave her a wink.

"Come on, let's finish eating and get to the movie theater," Abuelo insisted.

…

"How did Tia Tina know about my magic?" Mirabel hissed as her mother helped her in the restroom as everyone was getting ready to leave for the theater.

"I think you're just nervous about people finding out about your magic," Julieta insisted, "Just because she claims that her lessons are magical doesn't mean that she knows that you're magical."

"I don't know, Mama, her wording just seemed weird to me," Mirabel confessed, "And she winked at me when she got after me for calling her a witch."

"Why did you call her a witch?"

"In the Stitch Witch Chronicles a trained Stitch witch can identify a fellow stitch witch by sight, I don't really know how it works, all I know is that is what supposedly happens. I thought, maybe, just maybe, she was a stitch witch as well, then maybe she could train me."

"That will be nice," Julieta confessed, "Come on, let's go, everyone is waiting for us."

…

The Theater was dark and crowded, and had not been designed with wheelchairs in mind, so they had parked Mirabel's wheelchair by the door and Luisa had carried her in.

As soon as she had been sat down Antonio climbed up onto her lap, "Mira, you missed it, we went to the best place ever for cena. It was American Food and there was this play area with tunnels and slides and a big pool filled with balls! It was so much fun, Abuela said that we can go there again later."

"That's great Tonito," Mirabel muttered, shifting him on her lap so that she could see the screen as well.

…

The movie was about a baby elephant in a circus that got bullied because of his overly large ears. Mirabel actually had just as much fun watching Antonio watch the movie as she was watching the movie herself. He cooed and awed as the storks arrived with the babies, and grumped when the rest of the elephants were rude about Dumbo's ears.

Mirabel was worried that they would have to take Antonio out as it showed a boy picking on Dumbo and pulling on his ears, as he was sniffling slightly. On screen Mrs. Jumbo, Dumbo's mother, reared up, grabbing the boy and giving him several swats on the rear end. Antonio laughed, "Huh, serves him right."

As the people from the circus surrounded Mrs. Jumbo and started to tie her up and take her away, there was a low rumble of thunder as Pepa quickly got up and left the theater, Felix quickly following her. "I don't think I like this movie," Antonio muttered, "She was just protecting her baby. Why are they being so mean to her?"

"Shhh, watch the movie," Mirabel insisted.

…

Outside in the alleyway, away from anyone else, Pepa and Felix stood in a personal rainstorm.

"It wasn't fair," Pepa insisted, blowing her nose on the handkerchief that Felix had offered her, "How could they be so cruel? She was just protecting her bebe."

"I know Pepi, I know," Felix said, rubbing her shoulders as the rain poured down on both of them. This was going to be fun to explain to everyone.

"She was just being a mother, and she got taken away!" Pepa wailed.

"I know Mi Amor, I know," Felix offered.

"Who's going to protect Dumbo from everyone now?" she wailed as the rain turned to hail.

"Pepa, what is going on here?" a sharp voice demanded as Alma Madrigal made her way to the alleyway, "I thought I made it perfectly clear that you need to control your clouds!"

"Mama! I'm trying the best I can!"

"Oh, leave her alone you old hag," a new voice called out as Camilo appeared, crossing his arms grumpily over his rauna, "She's allowed to feel emotions, just like everybody else.

"Camilo," Felix exclaimed, "What have we told you about talking to your Abuela like that."

"That if I do it, that I wouldn't be allowed to come on the trip," Camilo insisted, "What do you know, I'm on the trip, that threat doesn't work anymore," he narrowed his eyes at his Abuela, "You're lucky that Dolores intervened before I did at the zoo. Not only did you almost cost Mirabel her life, but you gave her a panic attack while we were suppose to be on vacation."

"How was I supposed to know that a simple reminder to someone else will give her a panic attack, sometimes that nina is just too sensitive."

"Seriously, you're going back to blaming Mirabel for everything?"

"No, I'm just saying that it's impossible to predict what will upset Mirabel," Alma insisted, "I don't like upsetting her, or you or your madre. I'm just trying to look out for us. Not everyone will be as accepting of our magic here as they are in El Encanto."

…

"Mami!" Antonio cried out in delight, "Did you see how Dumbo just started to fly? He jumped off the tower, and zoom, he was in the air," he bounced in excitement as he used his hands to show how Dumbo had jumped and flew away.

"Si, I saw," Pepa admitted, it had taken her a while to calm down with the help of Felix, but once she was calm enough and the cloud over her head gone, she had returned to the movie, and discovered that it was a fairly fun movie. It wasn't fair that the poor bebe was left on his own and only visited his mother on occasion, but it did have a happy ending with them being reunited and everyone stopping teasing Dumbo for his ears.

"Did you like the movie, Tonito," Felix asked.

Antonio nodded his head, "I felt so bad for Dumbo, having his Mami taken away from him like that, but then he had Timothy to help him out and make him a star."

Valentina watched them in intrigue, she had noticed Pepa leaving with a cloud over her head during the movie, and how Luisa and Isabela had reacted to her mention of magic. If she was to guess she would have to say that the entire Madrigal family probably had magic of one sort or another, although the only one she could sense was Mirabel's. Maybe she was the only one without training. But if the others had training it wasn't very good training because they lost complete control rather easily. Maybe she's just reading more into this then she should. What she really needed to do was talk to her sobrina, maybe find out what exactly was going on with her family, just how much training did she actually need, and how much could her family provide her with.

"Hey, Gussie," she called out to her younger brother, "Is it okay if I talk to Mirabel for a minute, I want to ask her about something pertaining to school."

"Can't you do that during the open house she's planning on taking us to tomorrow?" Abuela demanded.

"It's not like she's asking to talk to you," Camilo muttered.

"It will only take a little while," Valentina insisted, "I'm probably am going to be working rather closely with Mirabel, I want to get to know her, especially now that I know that she is my sobrina."

"Just make sure that she gets back to the hotel safely," Agustin insisted.

…

Valentina had took Mirabel to a secluded area of a nearby park, before plopping down on a bench, and said brightly, "I'm going to assume by the reaction you and your family gave me when I mentioned magic, that it's a fairly common thing in your family."

"Yeah, sort of, the rest of my family, they weren't born with magic, like I was, they were given a magical gift when they turned five."

"That explained why I couldn't see your hermanas' magics until they actually used them in front of me."

"So you're really are a witch?"

"Si, a stitch witch, to be precise, just like you, I'm assuming. That's why I really work at Escuela de Moda, I teach stitch witches how to use their magic."

"Why didn't you just say that?"

"Because Mirabel, there are those who will do whatever they can to get a hold of someone with magic. Your Abuela is wise to worry about people finding out. You can trust me with your secret, after all we're family, but I won't trust anybody else, especially if they are offering you a job. They might be there to enslave you. I think that it will be in your best interest and in the best interest of your family if you start training sooner than later."

"You can really train me in magic?"

"Si, that's my job."