Chapter 12: The Teenagers Take Charge

"We can't just sit and wait around!" Dolores quietly lamented. She, the other children and Mama Coco inside the Rivera hacienda. She was standing by the window, looking (and hearing) any news from the adults. "We gotta get out and do something!"

"Yes, but what can we do?" Camillo asked his sister. He was reading a Little Folks comic strip through a newspaper. "I don't have any ideas!"

"Yo tambien," Isabella said, sadly. Sitting by the table, she had been reading The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer. It was her only way to get her mind off of that bespectacled boy. "All I do is grow roses."

"I feel useless just by sitting on this couch and doing nothing," Luisa J. replied, looking up from her book, The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. "Abuela always asks me for help, why can't she ask for my help this time?"

"Now, now, now, Luisa," Abel said, sitting down on the couch next to her. He put his arm around the muscular girl, which made her blush. "The grownups told us to stay here and I think we should respect their wishes."

"Are you sure?" Luisa J. raised an eyebrow at him. She moved a bit away from him and turned back to her book, not catching his look of disappointment.

"Por supesto!" Abel nodded, trying his best to smile. "As much as I want all of us to help them with the search, we have to obey our parents. Isn't that right hermana?"

"Yes, that's what they told us," Rosa nodded. She had been looking at Little Orphan Annie from a newspaper. "Besides, we can't all leave. Mama Coco is too old and the boys are too little."

"We're not little!" Antonio piped up. He and the twins were at the table besides Isabella, coloring on paper with crayons.

"Quiet pipsqueak!" Camillo shushed him.

"Unless we can find someone to watch over Mamá Coco and the niños, on a short notice, I do not see how we can go," Abel added.

"Oh!" Dolores perked up. She nudged her head toward the window. "Mariano Guzman and his mother are home!"

"Yeah, what of it?" Camillo asked, annoyed.

"I can call them on short notice!"

"Oh, can they come over for tea?" Mama Coco suddenly spoke. She had been sitting in the living room with the grandchildren. Although the woman had been reading the New Santa Cecilia Times, she had been listening to them.

"Of course!" Dolores beamed.

"Huh!?" The rest of the grandchildren said. Their eyes widened as saucers.

"Gracias for coming over on short notice, Senora Guzman and Mariano," Dolores smiled as her two guests stowed into the hacienda.

"Oh por supuesto!" Mariano grinned.

"We are always happy to help," his mother added.

"Do you have any experience in babysitting?" Rosa asked. She was uncertain that someone could handle her rambunctious little brothers.

"Of course!" Mariano said. "I'm very good with children. I babysat the Darlings, the Andersons, the Joneses, the Lopezes, and the Montoyas!" He bent down on his knees and made eye contact with the boys. "We are going to have so much fun today, aren't we?"

The little boys stared at him as if his nose was the size of a papaya.

"Fantastico!"

"He's so reliable," Dolores sighed a bit happily. She turned back to glare at her brother and Abel when she thought she heard them snickering behind her back. All she saw was their sheepish looks with their hands behind their backs.

"Well, he's good," Abel approved. He turned to Senora Guzman. "Do you have any experience with watching women with memory problems?"

"You won't have to worry ," the older woman grinned. "I used to be a nurse in my younger years. What is their bedtime routine like?"

"Well, Mama Coco goes to bed at nine-" Rosa began, before being interrupted by her grandmother.

"12!" Mama Coco spoke up, quickly.

"Although she insists on midnight, Abuelita says 9 sharp," Rosa continued. "Benny and Manny go to bed at 8."

"And so does Antonio," Dolores added.

"Bed!?" Antonio squeaked. "But I'm not sleepy!"

"I don't want to go to bed!" Benny protested.

"Yo tambien!" Manny piped up.

"Oh dear," Isabella grumbled to Luisa J. She felt a headache forming in her head. "What are we going to do?"

"I can handle this," Luisa J. smiled, assuredly. She bent down and met the little boys at their eye level. "Come on chicos, we have to go to bed. You need your sleep."

"No!" The boys shouted.

"We're not sleepy!" Antonio repeated.

"Would you boys like a bedtime story?" Mariano said, kindly. "If we get ready for bedtime, I can read you a story. How does that sound?"

Antonio and the twins both eased up a bit. Storytime doesn't sound so bad to them. "Okay," they replied.

"And Mama Coco," Senora Guzman said. "We can stay up an hour later if you like. We can play a game of chess before bedtime. How does that sound?"

"Sounds good," Mama Coco smiled a bit. Playing a game of chess sounded pleasant to her.

"Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, was the farmer's wife." Mariano read out loud. After he and Dolores had helped the boys brush their teeth and wash their faces, they tucked the toddlers in bed. The boys listened as Mariano read from their favorite book, The Wizard of Oz.

Dolores smiled as she watched the scene from the doorway. The young woman was touched at how patient and loving he had been toward her brother and his friends.

"We need to go!" Isabella whispered to her.

Dolores nodded while trying to hide her disappointment while following her cousin down the stairs.

"So where are you children going?" Senora Guan asked. "If you don't mind me asking."

"We're just going to get some medicine for Mama Coco," Cammilo smiled through his teeth.

"We are?" Abel asked her, only to be elbowed in the stomach by Camilo. "Oh I mean, yes we are!"

"But the drugstore is closed," Mama Coco frowned. "Isn't it?"

"Actually it is now open 24 hours," Luisa J. smiled.

"It is?" Abel asked her. His foot was squished by her foot. "Ow, I mean, it is!"

"Oh yes," Mama Coco said thoughtfully. "I must have forgotten…I think."

"We are ready!" Isabella said as she and Dolores had descended down from the stairs.

"Great, vadamos!" Rosa said.

"Don't stay out for too long!" Mama Coco advised them.

"We won't!" Abel said as he and other kids shut the door behind them.

"Why do I get the feeling they are up to something?" Mama Coco asked herself.

"I feel so bad for lying to Mama Coco," Rosa groaned. She and the other teenagers had snuck out of the Rivera hacienda. They traveled toward the town plaza but have no plans on going to the drugstore.

"Well how else are we supposed to leave, then?" Camilo asked, annoyed. "If we told your bisabuela where we're really going, even she would have said no!"

Isabella squinted as she looked toward the horizon. "The sun has gone down. Dolores, how would we find the love potion?"

"Good thing I brought my lantern," Abel commented, also looking at the sun. He had been carrying a glass lantern that had a handle.

"Oh, me too!" said Luisa J. as she carried her own. They both exchanged a smile, glad that each one had been prepared.

"With my super hearing, we should track down that monkey with the love potion in no time!" Dolores smiled confidently.

While the teenagers were talking, the Madrigal sisters were walking beside themselves. Luisa J. looked over to her sister, who was lost in her thoughts.

"Isa, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Isabella sighed.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Well…," Isabella began, quietly. "It's just that…I still can't believe that Bubo is a criminal!" Her tone switched from weariness to anger. "Has he lost his mind? I don't know what's worse. Using our first meeting to spy on us or kidnapping our aunt!"

"Don't worry, you dodged a bullet," Luisa J. assured her.

"Yes, but I felt that it was my fault," Isabella continued, sadly. "Had I known he was working for the Princesa de Mafia, I wouldn't have let him inside the house!"

"No one else knew, either," Luisa J. nodded. "Not even Dolores!"

"Do you know what's worse?" Isa sniffled. "I still kind of like him!"

"Sister, you're much better off without him," Luisa J. said. "There are plenty of other men out there."

"But they all think I'm a piece to have!" Isabella complained.

"Well, if it makes you feel better, I'm not having much luck with other guys, too," Luisa J. revealed. "I can't even get Abel to court me because I'm alway catching him ogling at other women who are prettier than me." She dared not to say who Abel was ogling at because she did not want to hurt Isa's feelings. But her older sister already sensed who she was referring to.

"Luisa if you want Abel, you can have him!" Isabella sighed exasperatedly. "Believe me, I'd rather marry Héctor than Abel!"

"I know that but Abel-"

"-Needs to get over me and court you!"

"You are right," Luisa J. sighed. "But it's not going to be easy." She quickly changed the subject. "Were you really serious when you told Bubo about marrying Héctor?"

"Kind of..," Isabella said. Her mind drifted back to a memory last year.

"Chica mica mamacita!" one young man shouted as he blew kisses at Isabella. The girl sighed and rolled her eyes. She knew it was a bad idea to walk down the street toward the drugstore. If it weren't for Alma asking for her prescription, Isabella wouldn't be walking. The girl couldn't ask why Camillo or the girls do the job, but she did not want to be disrespectful. Now every other boy was either wolf whistling or cat-calling her. At first, she didn't mind it. Now it was becoming annoying. She glanced at Mariano Guzman who was washing windows of his mother's flower shop. He sighed romantically as he stared at her. She gave him a polite smile, as she walked by. She didn't like him back but the good thing was that he was still civilized toward her. Unlike the other boys. "Hola Isabella, my beautiful flora!" Ercole said, as he came up to her, so suddenly.

Isabella did not like the way he talked. It sounded sleazy and creepy. What did the other girls, including her little sister, see in him? She tried to walk away, but felt her arm being grabbed by him.

"You're so gorgeous and I'm so handsome. Therefore, we should be a couple. It would be a shame if you do not marry me," Ercole blabbed, tightening her arm.

"It would be a shame if you don't marry me!" said Sticky Webb, who appeared at her other side. Then another boy strolled up to her side. And another one. And another one. And another one. Soon, they were all surrounding her.

Isabella felt trapped. "Do you mind?" she said with an edge in her voice. Her face held a fake smile. "I'm trying to get to the drugstore."

"Oh, let me escort you," said Ercole, pushing Sticky out of the way. He grabbed her other arm. "You don't need them!"

"Let me escort her!" shouted Sticky, fighting for Isa's arm.

"Hey, she's mine!" another boy yelled.

"Too bad!" Ercole yelled. "I saw her first!"

Soon, all the boys were fighting over her, not caring that they were messing up her perfect hair in the process.

Isabella really wanted to do something, anything! She felt like shooting vines at them and making a getaway. But that would mean revealing the family's secret and she didn't want anyone tracking her or her family down.

"OYE!" a familiar deep male voice shouted.

Isabella and all the boys turned around to see Héctor Rivera standing there with his arms crossed. Mariano Guzman had been standing beside him too. It was clear that Mariano heard the fuss and told someone.

"What's a pretty boy doing here?" Ercole said, trying to insult the shoemaker He and the other boys shrank when they saw Héctor pulling a throwing knife out of his sheath.

"Don't you boys have anything better to do than to harass this young lady?" Héctor chastised them, while pointing his knife at them. "Leave her alone and go home!"

"Si, Don Héctor!" All the boys said. They all left without a second thought. Even Ercole.

"Gracias Héctor!" Isabella said, feeling relieved.

"Don't thank me," the shoemaker smiled. He put his throwing knife back in his sheath. "Thank Mariano. He saw you and notified me."

"Gracias Mariano," Isabella said gratefully.

"Anytime," Mariano grinned back. "I have to get back to work now, but you're welcome!"

After Mariano left, Héctor was about to leave too, when Isabella quickly grabbed his hands.

"Héctor, marry me!"

"Que!?" The young man was taken back by surprise. He never expected Isabella to be another girl that tried to seduce him or flirt with him.

"Marry me, so that I won't have to be chased by men anymore!"

"Sorry but no," Héctor said, prying his hands away from hers. "Adios!" He walked away out of the plaza but Isabella kept following him.

"Por favor!"

"No!"

She followed him out of the plaza. The actress knew she wasn't going to catch up to the shoemaker so she sneakily used her powers to create a long vine on the ground. It made Héctor trip and lose his balance.

Héctor yelped as he tripped but quickly regained his balance. That was enough time for him to be grabbed by Isabella.

"Please Héctor, I want you to marry me," she pleaded. "Besides my father and my uncle, you're the only man that sees me as a person instead of an object!"

"Isabella," the shoemaker sighed. "I'm too old for you; you're still a child. You're not even 18 yet!"

"And you're not 30 yet," Isa grinned. "So, you're still young!"

"The age gap between us is still large," Héctor said bluntly.

"Other girls in my age group marry older men like you," Isabella pointed out.

"That is true," the young man sighed, dejectedly. It was common in their town that young girls would be married off to men older than them. This was done because parents were worried about their daughters' financial security. Not to mention that the older men are the ones with jobs and can give them a dowry. Héctor remembered giving Ernestina his dowry as a test to see if she would marry him, which almost worked. Now, he would think twice before giving a future bride a sum of his income. "Well, has your grandmother promised you to someone?"

"No."

"Has anyone asked your grandmother permission or offered her his dowry to marry you?"

"No."

It is true that they are both single and are not yet married like other people in their age group. Héctor thought of a plan to give Isabella more time to find her own true love.

"How about this?" the shoemaker proposed. "Wait and see what happens. By the time you are 18 and I am 30, and we are still not married, then we can marry each other."

"¡Oh gracias, Héctor!" Isabella was so happy that she gave him a big hug.

"Whatever you say, gordita," Héctor smirked.

"Oye!" Isabella frowned and punched the laughing shoemaker in the arm.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Isa!" Luisa J. dropped her jaw. "You and Don Héctor are engaged!?"

"No, no, no!" Isabella shook her head. "We just made a back up plan in case we can't find other people." Her eyes held a hint of dreaminess. "But he's the only man that respects me so I may consider it!"

Luisa J. grew concerned that her sister may be developing a crush on the shoemaker.

"Well, let's hope you find someone before you hit 18 and he hits 30!"