More than a Dream

Doretha and Guillermo find out

Half the month had passed, and now it was February 14th, Valentine's Day. Everyone in Rainbow Palette was dressed in red, white, and pink, and they exchanged Valentines. Tonight, Doretha and Guillermo were going on a date, their first-ever Valentine's Day date. For now, they were putting away tubes of paint. Chotu had snuck into the store, and he was ready to do something to play a little prank that Doretha and Guillermo would blame each other for and get so angry that they'd call off the wedding. Chotu took a pair of scissors and cut the bottom of a paint tube and removed the cap, then placed it on a cart. Guillermo was putting away the tubes of paint, and Doretha put a box on the cart—on top of the tube of paint. The paint squirted onto their faces.

"Ay, Dios mio, ¿que fue eso?" Guillermo gasped.

"Yo no sé," Doretha replied. She picked up the box to find the squished tube of paint. "What's this tube of paint doing here, and why does it look like the bottom is missing?"

"Maybe because someone did this when we weren't looking," Guillermo surmised. He found the scissors Chotu used to cut the tube and the stub he'd cut off, not to mention the cap.

Elena and Enrique came around.

"What's going on? What happened?" Elena asked.

"Someone's been playing a joke on us," Guillermo said.

"And I think I might know who this someone is," Doretha frowned. "We'd better scan the entire store for anyone suspicious."

"But first, you'd better go wash that paint off your faces," Enrique told them. "Paint can stain very well."

"Right," Doretha and Guillermo chorused. As they were on their way to the restrooms, they couldn't help but wonder what was happening.

"I wonder if this is some kind of wedding curse, something weird happening out of nowhere," Guillermo surmised.

"I honestly hope it's a curse," Doretha said. "It would've been better than Chotu playing jokes on me just because I'm getting married to another man. I mean, he was the one who broke with me in the first place."

"Everything happens for a reason, Dorie—and something is sure to happen if we don't wash this paint off," Guillermo told her.

"Right," Doretha said. "I'll see you in a minute." She entered the women's restroom and Guillermo in the men's.

What nobody knew was that Chotu was leaving the store discreetly, not wanting to get caught trespassing, let alone playing a prank on Doretha and Guillermo.

After Doretha and Guillermo had completely washed their faces, they went back to work. They found the employees meeting up near the entrance.

"Did you find anything?" Guillermo asked.

"No, we looked all around, but we couldn't find Chotu or Amber, or at least anyone in the mood to play a prank," Enrique replied.

"Okay, this is weird," Doretha frowned.

That evening, Doretha and Guillermo went out to a simple restaurant. They wanted to save money for the wedding, so they decided not to do anything so big and fancy. Love songs were being played in the spirit of Valentine's Day, and one of them was "Your Song" by Elton John. It was enough to bring Doretha and Guillermo closer together. What they didn't know was that Chotu and Amber were nearby, and they were green with jealousy of Doretha's happiness.

The rest of February and March went by rather quickly, and it was now April 18—the wedding was in less than a week. Twenty-year-old Doretha and Guillermo were teaching a painting class, and the students were more than excited for them. All they could do now was paint pictures having to do with weddings, and some of the paintings were even of Doretha and Guillermo.