"Pepa got to the school before Félix could calm her down. Apparently, Camilo was rather reluctant to help him." Agustín fills you in with the situation as you both sit on your bed, comfortably installed with the tray full of delicious food your mother had cooked for you and brought you a few minutes ago. "Anyway, she might have traumatised a few teachers, but they got the message. Apparently, one of them had already stood up in your favor, I think it was the math teacher..."
"Mr. Diaz." You smile to yourself imagining the poor man trying to defend you, the assaulter, against Angela, the victim that everyone always praised for her social abilities. You were thankful nevertheless.
"Yes. So, now they know about it, and they plan to have a meeting later this week to talk about your punishment -you still hit someone, mija-, but it won't be as severe. They also consider giving Angela a sanction, but they'll have to investigate the matter."
"Thanks for the infos, dad." You lean back into your pillow with a satisfied sigh. You were getting pampered by your parents, and even though you knew it was partly because they felt guilty, you couldn't refuse. Plus, they probably brought you food so that you wouldn't have to exit your bedroom, risking meeting Abuela.
You didn't know what she thought of the situation, and you decided not to care. Everybody was probably angry at her right now, but you knew they couldn't really tell her anything. So everything would probably go back to normal after one or two days, except she'd hate you a little more.
A knock on the door made the both of you turn your heads towards the sound, and Casita opened it to reveal Carlos leaning against the wall with his signature smirk.
"Aye, prima. It's time for a movie night."
___
Agustín was mercilessly thrown out of the room by Casita itself, and a TV soon appeared in your room. Carlos sat next to you, stealing some of your food as you both decided on what movie to watch. In the end, you both agreed on one of Bruno's favorites, because it was so funny to reenact afterhand. You never did with Carlos, but it was always a happy memorie to revive.
After a little while of silently watching the movie, another knock on the door is heard. You motion to Casita to open the door, and it creaks open. Mirabel was shyly standing there with guilty yet hopeful eyes, waiting for an invitation you gladly give her. You open your arms, and she runs to you, throwing herself in your embrace. You both hug for a while, you stroking her hair softly, as always.
This reassured Mirabel, showed her that behind the secrets you kept, you were still her big sister. Nothing had changed.
"I'm sorry." She whispers in your ear.
"I'm sorry too."
She adjusted herself to watch the movie, leaning her head on your shoulder and your arm still around her. Carlos doesn't even react to the newcomer, blankly staring at the screen to give you some privacy ; after that, he moves his legs on top of yours to annoy you, which brings up the mood of the room a little bit.
What brings it up more is yet another knock on your door, this time announcing Luisa bringing a snack supply with an awkward smile. You all invite her and she happily sits on the other side from you, constantly offering you new snacks, to the point you have to basically beg her to pay attention to the movie or else you'd explode.
The following knocks on the door don't even surprise you anymore. The rest of your cousins and Isabela join you for the rest of the movie, and you have to imagine a larger bed so your room creates one that can allow all of you to comfortably sit, and eventually give someone enough space to try suffocating their twin with a pillow for even daring resting his head on their shoulder.
Antonio falls asleep pretty fast on your lap. He ran to hug you as soon as he stepped in the room. Dolores had roughly explained your situation to him. The older sister sits between Isabela and Camilo and tries to tell the twins to shut up every once in a while. As for your older sister, she steals a few glances at you during the movie, hardly succeeding in being discreet trying to look over Luisa, in whose side you were snuggling and soon fell asleep as well.
In fact, all of you fell asleep.
___
"KIDS WAKE UP !" Agustín bursts into the room (with Casita's help, obviously), panicking once again. "SOME OF Y'ALL'RE GONNA BE LATE FOR SCHOOL !"
You groggily open one eye, then the other, and groan as come to the conclusion that your first sight of the day is Mirabel's undoubtedly gracious sleeping face laying on your stomach. You shake her awake as your father grabs the first ankles he sees and pulls them out of bed ; Camilo's and Dolores', who fall face first onto the floor that you barely have time to make soft enough to avoid some unfortunate bruises.
If you know those kinds of mornings well enough, used to waking up a bit too late, most of them never encountered Agustín in those situations. It was always one hell of a ride. Dolores covered her ears as he began shouting again.
"COME ON, EVERYONE OUT ! CARLOS, CAMILO, MIRABEL, (Y/N) ! GET DRESSED AT ONCE !"
Everyone relatively confusedly escapes your room, leaving you alone to change into your daily clothes. You're the first to join your dad in the kitchen, and you help him displace the leftover arepas for breakfast. Antonio, Dolores, Isabela and Luisa probably went back to bed already.
"Are you sure you want to go back, mija ? Things are-"
"Don't worry, Pa. Everyone's probably scared of me now, so I'm positive they won't try anything. And if they do, well..."
Mirabel enters the room, not leaving you time to answer. It might have been for the best, because you weren't sure your father would have approved of your decision.
Now that everything had gone out, you had no more reason to hold back. You'd make sure whoever tried to mess with you would only do it once. Even if that meant getting into more trouble.
___
"It is my duty to keep you out of trouble." Luca affirms when he has to hold you back when a fourth-grade student greets you with a slap on the back of the head and you try to retaliate with a kick in the balls. Instead, Leta takes care of him by replicating the exact same thing he had done to you and warning him not to find himself alone in a room with you because they wouldn't be here to stop you. "The teachers are going to watch your every move this week. We don't want you to get expelled."
"So what ? It's my last year of school anyway."
"You still have so much to learn."
"Like what ? How to react when those people stare at me like I'm an attraction ?"
Luca turns to where you were looking, and incidentally flipping people off, to find three younger girls looking away with wide eyes.
"No, more like, how to be decent at math."
"Ugh, I hate math." Leta sighs, only now taking part in the conversation.
"Me too !" You both fist-bump, and you smile at Luca in victory.
"Thanks for your help, Leta." The boy rolls his eyes, but the shadow of a smile plays on his lips.
"No problem."
"Anyway, let's just try to keep (Y/n) out of the headmistress' office."
___
"(Y/n) Madrigal, to the headmistress office please."
You raise your head from your literature test in confusion. Who had spoken ? Oh, that one teacher that stood at the door of the classroom. What were they asking ? That you headed to the dean's office. Why ?
"What did you do ?" Luca asks with wide eyes, as confused as you. He had been extremely careful not to let you traumatize any student during the last hours. You shrug, trying to remember as well, until Leta turns around to remind you of the teacher that was sent to fetch you.
You hastily stand up and make your way to the headmistress' office, closely follower by the teacher, who gives you a polite smile before knocking on the door for you and walking away before you could ask what the fuck was going on.
"Come in."
The headmistress was just a former teacher that was elected as such by the majority of the village. She was a middle-aged, understanding woman, but still sharp enough to figure when she was lied to. You didn't see her often, considering she wasn't here everyday. It was not needed.
You quietly shut the door behind you, and even more quietly stand there, arms awkwardly trying to find what to do with themselves. Your hands eventually end up finding your pockets. The headmistress was reading something from a folder. Your folder ?
"You can sit, (Y/n)."
You sit. She looks up at you with a small smile. You realize you never bothered to learn her name. That was awful, because you were a Madrigal and supposed to know almost everyone in the village, and that you were pretty certain to have heard it countless of times. You simply did not judge it important.
You might be doomed.
What were you supposed to say ? She was still looking at you with some mysterious little smile. You weren't sure you liked it.
A knock on the door. An occasion to look away from her. She tells them to come inside. It's Angela. Shit.
You turn back to the headmistress. You hadn't seen the girl since your mother handed her an arepa and pushed her out of the room, impatient for her screams to end. Now you weren't sure you were ready to hear her insufferable voice again. You didn't have a tray to smash her face with.
"Good afternoon, Mrs. Estrada." She says with a sad smile, not forgetting to rub her nose with a little wince.
At least now you know the headmistress' name.
"Good afternoon, Angela. Does your nose still hurt ?"
Angela acts surprised before humbly lowering her head. "Yes, Señora."
Mrs. Estrada raises an eyebrow. "Really ?
I thought (Y/n)'s mother had healed you."
"Ah, well..." The girl really was taken aback this time. "I guess it didn't work that well."
"Hmm. That's weird, because I've had a taste of Julieta Madrigal's cuisine before, and it completely healed me."
"Maybe... Maybe it wasn't as serious-"
"My arm was broken in several places, but let's not waste time on this matter anymore. You can stop pretending now, Miss Espejo. Have a seat next to (Y/n)."
Angela opened her mouth in shock, then closed it and angrily sat next to you, offended. You contain a giggle of both amusement and surprise. Maybe this wouldn't go too bad.
"Yesterday, some terrified teachers informed me of the treatment (Y/n) has been receiving from you and your classmates."
Oh, this was going to be funny. You bite your lip to keep yourself from smiling and sit back comfortably, watching the scene prevail.
___
"So ?"
"So ?"
"So what happened ? Why were you called ?"
It was the end of your first school day since you broke Angela's nose. It went pretty well, no problems, at least until you were called to the headmistress' office. You were now with Luca, standing under a tree that had thick enough branches to shelter you from the light rain that wouldn't stop falling since this morning. You felt guilty for Pepa's mood.
"Ah, this." You mindlessly play with a fallen leaf you had found on the ground. "I'm expelled from school."
"WHAT ?"
"Definitively."
"WHAT ?"
"And I can't even approach the building anymore."
"WHA- Okay, that's a load of bullshit, isn't it ?"
"Absolutely."
"Fuck you." He hits your shoulder with a bitter smile. "You need to stop doing that."
"You're too gullible."
"Because I trust you !"
"Never trust me. You should know."
"And for some reason, I'll do it anyway. You gotta get used to it."
"You may be the only idiot to put their trust in me. Ah, maybe not, actually..."
"Really ? Who ?"
You give his curious eyes a genuine smile. "The headmistress believes my side of the story. I'll still get punished, of course -I'm a criminal or something-, but Angela's in danger. I don't really know what Mrs. Estrada can do but maybe, I say maybe, everyone will know the truth about the rumors one day."
"I really hope so."
Wanting to fully share your joy with him, you turn to look at him, eyes shining with the light of a new hope. At the same time, a ray of sunshine falls right on the tree you were standing under and patches of golden light begin dancing on your skins.
But you don't see it, too focused on the weird ass gaze Luca gave you. It seemed so kind, so tender, that it seriously made you doubt the real status of your relationship. You forget any of the unimportant words you were about to say, and that's for the best, because you were pretty sure they would have stayed stuck in your throat.
Dang it, brown really was his color.
Before you could decide whether to mercilessly mock him for it or not say anything, he engulfs you into a hug and you let out a strangled sound that you wouldn't identify as human if you weren't the one producing it.
It's warm. His arms carefully wrapped around you. His face was too, because he was blushing really hard right now, wondering why he had acted on a whim and what he was supposed to do next.
"Sorry." He blurted out. "It's just that, I, uh..."
You watched him with a little smirk, knowing he was waiting for you to say it was just a hug, no big deal. But it wasn't, neither for you nor him. It was the first time he had hugged you, and the fact he grew more nervous by the minute only made the corner of your mouth rise higher.
"Yeah ?" You say teasingly, clearly amused. "Keep going."
"Thank you for being my friend !" He exclaims.
Then runs away.
"LUCA, WHAT THE HELL !" You yell, knowing he wouldn't want you to run after him. He was way too embarrassed. When he gets out of sight, you keep talking, but to yourself. "What was that ? What was th- did I just get friendzoned ? 'Thank you for being my friend'? What's this about ? You're fucking welcome ! But then don't you hug me like that boy ! And don't look at me with those ey- Ooooooh."
You stop pacing around when you realize something.
"Shit. Dolores."
___
words : 2504
note : have you ever taken a 'which Encanto character are you' test? if so, who did you get?
I've just taken one for fun and I got Abuela 🤨 not satisfied with the results, took the 'fun' out of 'for fun'
hopefully it's not accurate 🥰
love ya!