Before the actual chapter, I would like to thank @mari0123tilan again for the amazing fanart they made of young Angie (I'm feeling kinda guilty for changing bit her appearance when she gets older, But I had already written most of this chapter). Their bio has their social media and I really indicate their Instagram, because I'm totally in love with all of their artwork.
Gracias por tu arte!
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Angie took her time in front of her mirror trying to get her hair in place, it was short now, just barely hitting her shoulders, it was a huge difference from when it hit the middle of her back the year before, but after sometime living with her tia Angie realized that if she would tend her hair mostly by herself, it would be easier to keep it short.
Once she got her curls in place, Angie put on her shoes and took one last look to the mirror. Sometimes, it was hard to recognize herself on the mirror. Her clothes weren't the same, her hair wasn't the same, even her posture seemed straighter than before thanks to her tia's etiquette classes.
But this version of her was what made her family in that house happy, so it would be the version she would give them.
"Keep burning bright." Angie mumbled to herself as she plastered a bright smile in her face as she came off from the room.
She skipped around walking through the big house, one of the few habits she kept even through her aunt's disproving glares was sliding down the handrail every morning - An habit that made Agustín look at her with admiration, because he could never try to do it without ending up bruised.
"Morning familia." Angie said coming into the dinning room where a huge table was set for breakfast.
"Good morning dear. The ribbon bow in your dress is a bit out of place." The older woman said taking a sip of her coffee.
"I'm on it, tia." Angie moved the bow the half millimeter it took to get it into the place that made her aunt nod in approval.
The girl took her place sitting beside her cousin - They should seat in front of the other, but the older woman was quick to realize that if they had closer seats they would be quieter. -And served from the coffee.
"Good morning, Angie." Agustín said once she took her place "You were right about that book, it was amazing." Agustín whispered to the girl trying to avoid annoying his mother.
"Oh my dear primo, when was I wrong about anything?" Angie said with a smirk and the duo was soon immersed in a discussion about their last readings.
"Everyone to the table." Alma Madrigal commanded her children and soon the four members of the family had taken their place around the table.
Bruno had always loved the meal times with his family, it was the bit of time they had only between them, no neighbors, no chores, just them enjoying their time as a family. It was a habit that the girls would start discussing something silly about what they needed to do for the day, and as soon as he had an opening Bruno would get in the way teasing one of them, most likely Pepa, which would result either in a cloud over his head, or the casita moving his late far away from his in punishment for messing with Julieta.
And only when the table was already enough of a mess, Alma would ask for silence and then explain their plans for the day.
They were a bit of a mess, But Bruno loved his family.
Angie's days were busy, to say the least. Normal classes, etiquette classes, taking care of her homework with her cousin. But on her free time it was easy to know where she was.
The library of the house was bigger than anything she had ever seen before. Bookshelves who reached the ceiling filled with the most diverse titles, it was everything she could ever dream of. She would spend hours there just looking through the tiles and search for her next reading.
There was a special corner of the library that Angie loved the most, it was a small table right under a paining of her mother's family. She could see her grandparents, each one with a hand lying on the shoulder of one of their daughters.
It wouldn't be an unusual sight to find Angie staring at the painting, her book long forgotten on the table. She didn't have many pictures of her mother, and had even less of her as a teenager, so the painting was different from anything she had of her mother.
Sometimes, Bruno caught himself staring at his father's portrait above the stairs. I was a weird vision, he wanted so hard to feel a connection to his father, but it was hard to miss someone you never met. Even talking to him by the river seemed a bit pointless.
Alma wasn't one to talk much about her husband, it hurt too much, so the little bit Bruno got to know about his father came from outside, from the other citizens from Encanto. He knew that his father was a writer, a Poet more precisely. He was kind, he was fun, and above it all, selfless.
Everyone remembered him as an amazing man, except for his own children, he was so selfless that he gave up the chance of seeing them grow. And now they had to deal with every weight that came with the Miracle.
Bruno knew this weight way too well.
"Que estas haciendo?" Angie asked griping her cousin's shoulders as he stared at the piano, the boy jumped almost closing the fallboard over his own fingers.
"Ay! Someday you're going to give me a heart attack!" Agustín said taking deep breaths to calm his hearth.
"Sorry, sorry. I was just curious because you stopped playing." Angie said sitting beside him on the stool.
"I'm just not very confident about this bit of the composition." The boy said adjusting the position of his glasses as he stared into the sheet music.
"It is your composition?" Angie asked smiling at him and the boy nodded "Let me hear it."
Her cousin opened the fallboard again and got into position. The boy started laying a happy tune, a melody worth of being a party song, Angie hummed to the melody taking in every note. It was good, very good.
"So, what do you think?" Agustín asked once he concluded the song.
"I think..." The girl offered a dramatic pause "That it sound great. What were you worried abut?"
"My mom wasn't particularly excited with this piece...'
"Your mom is the woman that only likes a music if it's a classic, of course it wouldn't be exactly of her taste. But it is a great music, you're going far my friend." She said offering him one of her bright smiles.
"Thank you, Angie. You are a great friend." Agustín smiled back at the girl.
"Hey, since you are such a great pianist. Maybe you could teach me how to play it?" The boy's eyes sparkled at the request, he loved his piano and would love to share it with his best friend - Even if she had always denied the title by saying she couldn't retribute it.
"I would love to!"
After the piano classes started, time seemed to pass much faster for Angie. Soon days turned weeks, then weeks into months, and soon enough years had passed. Angie just had to grow used to the life her family had, trying hard to make the best out of it, making it work when her father was away and enjoying as much as she could his short visits.
Her tia liked to travel, each summer was a different place in South America, she liked to say that this kind of experiences would be the real difference in their lives.
Angie learned how to act just as her aunt expected on social events, and as time passed Angie and Agustín became the stars of every party the older woman hosted.
On the other side, back in Encanto, Bruno grew loonier. The more prophecies he offered trying to help people the more people feared and avoided him, as he grew up others gave up trying to be actively mean to him, instead established this web of respect that grew out of fear.
He wasn't happy with it, out as this situation became part of his routine he had less and less requests for prophecies. Giving him time to hide in his tower that now had even more stairs than before, the more distant he felt from the village the more steps appeared on the stairs.
But even if the neighbors didn't want him around, Bruno would always have his sisters, and he was aware of that, and not only that, he had a future, a friend, to wait for. He was sure he would be fine, in the right time.
The music played around the room softly giving the atmosphere to the party as the cousins performed. Agustin was playing the piano excitedly with Angie's soft voice as company. All eyes on the room focused on them in admiration.
It was a common sight during the event, Angie would softly spin around as she sang turning dancing a compelling proposal to the guests. Every movement and smile perfectly planned to bring happiness to everyone around her.
The duo performed for half an hour before getting a pause, and s soon as she was out of the microphone she was surrounded by guests who thought of themselves as suitors, invested in having a conversation with the Martinez jewel.
The girl had been stuck for almost an hour in a conversation about the three farms a man's family had before someone came to her rescue.
"And then one of our donkeys got out, it was such a mess-"
"Excuse me, could I steal my cousin for a while? That is her favorite song." Agustín lied as the band had taken their place.
"Of course, when can finish this story later." The man raised his glass in the girl's direction.
"Thank you, it has surely been... Entertaining." The girl said with a bright, fake, smile.
Agustín pulled the girl to the dance floor and soon the two ere silently laughing trying not to get much attention, which was a hard thing when all eyes were always on the girl in these events.
"For how long have you been this dead inside?" The man whispered as he focused trying not to step on her dress - A thing that happened dozens of times before.
"From the moment the sentence 'You know, I'm quite wealthy myself' came out of his mouth. And I must say, it was a long time ago." It was hard for them to not just burst out laughing.
"Dios mio, where does my mother find these suitors for you?"
"I've been asking this to myself for the last three years. Does she even tell them that I'm just the daughter of a sailor?"
"Angie, I don't think they would give up on you just for that."
"We should try to tell them, just to see what happens." Angie suggested with a smirk, but both of them knew that it wasn't an option.
"How about a break? I distract my mom, you get us a drink?" Agustín suggested in a low voice.
"We meet in the balcony in fifteen?" The two shared a nod and as soon as the music was over they parted ways.
It had been a habit since they were seventeen, whenever an event seemed to be too much for one of them, they would just go to the balcony and talk for a while, just to recover their energies before coming back to the party.
Angie grabbed a big bottle of juice and two cups and fund her way to the upper floor, just as she reached the top of the stairs she heard a loud noise coming from the party. Agustín had knocked over the ice statue his mother had requested for the party.
Angie took the mess as her cue to get to the balcony where she could laugh as much as she wanted.
"Agustín, when we agreed on a distraction, I wasn't thinking f destroying the party." Angie said smirking as her cousin finally got to the balcony.
"Well, what would be the fun in that?" He laughed as both of them knew fully well that the whole thing was just another one of his accidents.
Angie poured him a cup of juice, and the man raised an eyebrow at her.
"That was not what I thought when I said drinks." He said teasing her.
"You know fully well that if you drink a single drop, Your mom will know and it will be my fault." Angie pointed out for what seemed like the thousandth time in her life.
"But, maybe if I get you to drink something, you will finally admit that I'm your best friend." Agustín said happily.
"You know well enough that this title is not for grab." Angie took a sip from her drink.
"Oh I know, it belongs to this guy who was your friend for a week. Nine. Years. Ago." The man said dramatically.
"What can I say, he was just better at causing strong impressions."
"Come on, I'm unforgettable." He said before loosing his balance trying to make a pose and dropping his juice on the floor, thankfully Angie was quick enough to save the class.
"You sure are, the scar you left on my hand when you accidentally stabbed me with a fork is there to guarantee it." She said dramatically raising her hand to show off the scar.
Agustín took some time to stop laughing "But really, do you even remember the guy?"
"I mean, some bits are getting blurrier with time, but I can remember clearly of how it felt to bi his friend, even if I can't really see his face. It is like trying to remember the day I moved to this house, the memories are a bit messy, but I still know what happened and how I felt that day. Does it make any sense to you?
He frowned dramatically just to make her laugh "Yeah, I think I can comprender."
Latter that night, after the party was over, Mariana invited her niece for a conversation.
"A few families have contacted me about proposals for you, dear. But they have been a bit hesitant about your historic." She explained "I need to know if you are interested into any of the suitors that visited today."
"Tia. I've explained before, I don't think I'll meet the right guy here." Angie sighed sitting in front of her aunt.
"I've heard you, niña, but you said this about Buenos Aires, you said that about São Paulo, you said that about every single place we have visited."
"It is not about the place, it is about this kind of life. I've given a chance to every suitor you set on my way, I've gone into dates, I've heard them speak, I tried as much as I could to make a connection, but it never seemed... Real enough." Angie tried to explain and something in her aunt's demeanor changed.
"Mi hermana, your mother, said something like that a long time ago, before she left with your father. For a long time, I thought she was crazy for doing it, for doing whatever she wanted. I thought that until the day she come to introduce you right after you were born. She was so happy, I guess she was smarter than me and saw something outside this life that I hadn't realized. You are just... So much like her. So I'll trust you and ask, what do you want to do next?"
Angie's eyes went wide, there had been a long time since someone had asked what she wanted to do. She didn't need more than a minute to be sure of her answer, she knew where she wanted to go, what she wanted to do with her life.