We searched the cafeteria and didn't find Camilo there. It was odd for him to just disappear like that but I knew that he was still on school grounds, his bag was still at our table.
"Let's split up, we'll cover more ground that way" Amelia said.
"Okay, let's go," Ruben said, going in the other direction with Emilio.
"Didn't I just say that we should split up?" Amelia asked, placing her hands on her hips.
"That doesn't apply to couples," Ruben said, still walking away from us, his arm around Emilio's shoulders, "Begone, single people."
Amelia gasped.
"Oh whatever, those two can go off on their own then" Amelia said "We'll meet back here if we don't find him, okay?"
I nodded and then walked upstairs. Nobody ever really goes upstairs during lunch except maybe a few teachers that need to get supplies from up here. Then I spotted a familiar figure sitting on a bench at the end of the hallway. I walked over to the figure and smiled when I confirmed that it was Camilo.
"Oh, Y/n" Camilo said "So...Did you decide to go to the dance with Hugo? Because if you did, I'm honestly kind of mad at you because he has said things that-"
"Cami, calm down" I said, cutting him off "Of course I didn't decide to go with him."
Camilo let out a sigh of relief.
"Oh, good" Camilo said, a small smile appearing on his face despite his sad eyes "So, what happened?"
"Well, I said that we could try to be friends" I said "He basically said that he wanted to get to know me better."
"Oh, okay..." Camilo said "I just...Maybe it's because I'm a little scared of Hugo but him confessing to you just puts a really bad taste in my mouth."
"Aw, don't worry, Cami," I said "If Hugo and I do end up becoming friends, the first thing I'm telling him to do is apologize to you."
Camilo gave me a soft smile, sun rays falling onto his face from a nearby window.
"Thank you, valentine" Camilo said, his cheeky attitude bouncing back.
"You don't have to call me that, Cami," I said.
"I know but I want to" Camilo replied "It's a nice little reminder to myself that you are my valentine!"
"Are you really that happy about having a valentine this year?" I asked.
"No, it's not that" Camilo said "I'm happy because it's you! I'm happy because I get to take you to the valentine's dance tonight! Anyone would be this happy if you were their valentine."
My heart fluttered. Seeing that I was the one making him this happy made me feel like I was going to be swallowed by the butterflies in my stomach.
"Hey, you bought tickets for that, right?" I asked.
"Of course!" Camilo answered "I took care of everything, tonight will go great, I promise!"
"Or at least, I really hope that it does" Camilo added, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I trust you, Cami," I said, giving him a genuine smile.
"By the way, where are the rest of the gang?" Camilo asked "Weren't they with you?"
"Oh, we all split up to look for you" I replied "Let's go to where we were supposed to meet up!"
Camilo nodded and stood up from the bench. He turned towards me and reached his arm out as if he were a prince asking his loved one to dance with him. Camilo was a prince in his own way, or at least he was to me. The thought made my face grow warm.
"Shall we?" Camilo asked, his playful smirk on his face.
"Yes, we shall, Cami" I said, a soft laugh bubbling between my words.
We walked downstairs and made it to the intersection where we had decided to meet up. I saw that Amelia was already there.
"There you are!" Amelia said, grabbing Camilo's face and bringing it down towards her.
Amelia was quite a bit shorter than Camilo so this was her way of forcing him to look her right in the eye.
"Where did you go!?" Amelia said "You can't just storm off and disappear like that!"
Amelia pinched his ear, similar to the way my mother would to Miguel whenever he used his gift to get free things when he was younger.
"Ow, ow, ow!" Camilo yelped "That hurts, let go, let go, let go-"
"Ugh, fine" Amelia sighed "But you really can't just disappear like that, okay?"
Camilo gave her a nod, wincing as he massaged his sore ear. Amelia shot a smile in my direction, I smiled back.
"Now, where is Emi and Ruben?" she asked.
Just then, we spotted Emilio and Ruben walking towards us from the end of the hallway. Emilio waved towards us tiredly. Once the two of them made it in front of us, I could see that Emilio's hair was parted oddly, it was still curly but it was more dishevelled. He rubbed his eyes tiredly and was wearing his uniform coat even though it wasn't cold.
Ruben's hair was the same, it didn't change much in texture but now it was all over the place as if someone had messed it up. He was busy fumbling with the buttons on his uniform shirt. My mind immediately went somewhere bad and it made me giggle.
"Where did you guys just come from?" Camilo asked, tugging on Emilio's uniform coat "What's with the coat?"
"We...Uh, I don't-" Emilio said "We uh, we were just looking for you and Ruben got distracted by something."
"Me? I didn't get 'distracted' by anything" Ruben said "You're the one that started the ki-"
Amelia groans and shudders.
"Oh god, stop" Amelia said "I-I don't care, I don't want to hear it, just- Just stop!"
Emilio nodded and turned away from everyone, Ruben didn't seem to care, Camilo seemed clueless to the whole situation and I simply decided not to say anything.
"Oh." Ruben exclaimed "Oh! Oh, no! No, Em and I didn't fuck! We just made out!"
"Oh my god, Ruben, we had moved on from the conversation. Why did you bring it up again?" Emilio said, burying his face in his hands.
"Sorry, Em" Ruben said, placing a kiss on Emilio's cheek.
"Ohhhh! That's what we were talking about!" Camilo exclaimed "I was so confused..."
"You're clueless Cami" I said, jokingly.
All four of us began laughing. It was nice to laugh like this with them. That moment was when I realized that I had truly found good friends here in Encanto. Of course, I still missed my old home and my old city but I realized that I really enjoyed my new life here. I knew that even when all of us are adults and maybe some of us might have children of our own, we will all still care about each other. I will be forever grateful for them.
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Yuh, this chapter was boring, apologies lol. I'm leading up to the valentine's dance so don't worry too much.
Also, I've decided which fanfic I'm going to make after I finish this one.
-Kolour