"Hey," says an Arcana Famiglia member to one of his friends, "I heard that we'll be having a new member."
"Yeah, I heard." says another.
"They say it's a girl. . . and she's actually quite gorgeous." bickers another to the other.
"Hehehe," chuckles Debito as he passes by them, "I never thought that a rumor of a girl could actually be that viral." he continues as he adjusts his shades.
"Yeah," says Luca and continues, "Well, she is quite a charmer."
"I still feel bad from yesterday." says Pace scratching the back of his head.
"Nah, don't you worry about it." says Debito putting his arm around Pace's shoulders, "She doesn't seem to be the type who holds grudges on people."
"Yeah, he could be right." agrees Luca. But Pace remained glum.
"I shouldn't depend on that. . ." he says, "What if she'll exact revenge?? It's far worse that she's now one of us?! Not to mention that she was pretty fierce yesterday. . ." he says throwing his hands up and falls to his knees in despair.
"Poor Pace," says Luca, "What'll we ever do with him?" The three, though they may not know that they all actually had the same thoughts, found themselves surprised that they are thinking about Angelica, a stranger in their lives.
"Nah, he's just overreacting," says Debito and continues while holding his chin, "But I wonder how she'll look like with the uniform on?" He imagines her wearing the exact same uniform of Felicita except with her cleavage showing in a seductive pose when suddenly Felicita comes out of no where and slaps him for the first time in history, "Ow, Bambina. What was that for??"
She looks at him with pure hatred in her eyes. Debito looks at her with a puzzled look then gasps when he came to a realization, "You dare think such thoughts!" she scolds him, he only chuckles.
Debito looks at her calmly and says in a joking manner, "What is wrong with imagining her in a uniform?" Pace and Luca looks at him with a shocked expression when they, too, started imagining her in a uniform. Pace imagined her wearing the uniform but was wearing shorts instead of a skirt, black gloves that reached to her elbows while holding a whip in her left hand in a cute pose with the pointer finger of her right hand on her lips. While Luca imagined her wearing a similar uniform as his except it had a white bow tie, she was wearing white gloves, had the same boots as Felicita's but had net stockings. And mini shorts. She looked quite alluring since even her cleavage was showing. She was even wearing a top hat. Felicita slapped them almost at once.
"Ow!" They said in a chorus. She glared at them with crossed arms.
"I'm so sorry, Milady!" apologizes Luca, "I promise I won't think such thoughts ever again."
"You shouldn't such thoughts of Angelica," says Felicita, "She's not actually wearing any of those kinds of outfits. I don't even think she'd think twice to even try one of those."
"I hope you're saying that not because you're jealous right?" says Debito, smiling.
"I had no such thoughts! She's so nice and optimistic!" exclaims Felicita, "I bet that there's not a single person out who even hates her--or even holds a grudge on her!"
"Okay, okay. I get the idea."
"Where is she now?" asks Pace while Debito rubs his cheek from earlier.
She completely changed her mood at this, "She went out to get some 'things'."
"Oh. What are they?"
"I dunno."
"Well, I better be going," says Luca putting his hands together, "I have help make the feast tonight." he says walking away.
"I'll be helping with the decorations actually," says Pace as Luca disappeared around the corner, "See ya all later!" he waves at Felicita and Debito and ran off.
"Well," says Felicita a moment later, "I have to go look for Liberta and Nova. See you later." she waves and walks away. Debito watches her disappear through the corridor. He sighs then smiles while he looks out the window.
It was a really beautiful morning with birds singing outside. The sky was clear and the sea seemed calm. It's been hours since he had seen Angelica's dazzling smile. She wasn't at breakfast actually. . . nor in her room when he decided to visit her earlier. He found himself missing her, a total stranger. But not for long.
************
That night in the lobby where Papa usually has his meeting with the family, the members were all murmuring among themselves. Excited to meet their new family member. Though this time they were obviously more excited since the new member was rumored to be a girl.
"You guys seem very excited." says Dante as he walked to some of the boys.
"Of course. It's a new family member isn't it?" shot Jolly who walked beside him.
"I wasn't asking you." replies Dante coldly.
One of the boys clears his throat hoping that it would catch their attention. Which did, "Well," he says as they turn to him, "it's just as Jolly said. We're just excited to meet her. Even Luca said she's charming."
"He did, did he." he says as he turns to Felicita and her group's direction. They, too, were having their own chit-chat. Felicita along with Nova, Liberta, Debito, Luca, and Pace, were just enjoying their time while they waited for Papa to appear. After a while, the boys noticed that Felicita was acting strangely. She fidgeting and always glancing at the staircase. She seemed pretty excited which contrasted to her usual calm self. They boys assumed that she was just as excited to see Angelica. But it was most unlikely since she only saw Angelica that morining.
"You ever asked her why she was being chased by those men?" asks Nova.
"Yeah--"
"She refused to tell us why actually." interrupts Luca while holding his chin. The rest were just about to throw questions at him when the other Arcana Famiglia members started shouting and cheering Papa's name. The group quickly rushed to the front to see him. Everyone was clapping and cheering as he walked down the stairs alongside his wife. Once he reaches the bottom, he raises his hand to silence them.
He smiles and clears his throat, "Good evening, everybody. I see that you are well aware of our new family member. Well. . . you all heard the rumors that the new member has the strong possiblity to be a girl. I am here to confirm that. . . it's a girl. She is now the third female in the Arcana Famiglia!" Loud cheers and whistles roared across the room. Papa raises his hand again to silence them and he continues with his speech, "Last night, there was a small problem actually. It's not that she had any trouble making a deal with a card. In fact the trouble was four cards--" he gestures them by showing four of his fingers, "Four I tell you, in fact, wanted to have her as a host," he chuckles in amusement while everyone else were in awe, shocked by that fact.
*****Mondo's Flashback as he was with Angelica*****
"You would be a perfect host for me."
"No! She's mine! There are rare kinds of people who catches my attention so quickly!" says nother card. Angelica watches the cards argue who will have her as the host. She notices that on card didn't seem as persistent as the others were.
"Who are you?" asks Angelica to the cards one by one.
"I am L'imperatrice, the Empress."
"I am La Sacerdotessa. The High Priestess."
"And I am Il Mago, the Magician. You'll make a lovely host for me." The other two cards start arguing Il Mago at his comment on Angelica. Mondo watches Angelica throughout the argument and was surprised to see her approach the silent card.
"Aren't you going to fight over me?" asks Angelica gently to the card, "Who are you?"
"I am La Stella, the Star," replies the card, "And no. It's not really the card's choice to whether one would accept or not. It's true that we choose our host, but the one we choose should also accept us. So I shouldn't force you to say yes to me."
"A card like yourself would be the card I accept to become it's host," says Angelica, "one that waits on someone would be the best companion there could be." smiles Angelica. The other three cards become silent at Angelica's words, shocked at her decision. The card happily accepts and the two become one.
****End of flashback*****
Everyone gasps at this. The Star is the seventeenth card of the Arcana. It even ranked higher than Felicita's. Nova glances at Felicita who only seemed happy for her. Well, she's just being Fel. No one can read her mind except Jolly who can't do there and there by will since he will need to hypnotize his victim first.
"The cards didn't seem happy, but they did decide to just accept the fact that she can't carry all of their weight," he chuckles, "Well, enough of the details. Okay, everybody. Since she is our third female member and she came very long after Felicita did and you all know that fact. I--I mean we," he eyes Sumire who only smiles with pure joy, "decided that our new family member should pull off a performance for us. What do you think?" His statement was followed by cheers of agreement, "Okay, that settles it. Ladies and gentlemen it is an honor to present to you. . . our newfound member. . . Angelica!!" Papa proclaims as he throws scarlet colored dust on the floor.
A cloud appeared and as it dispersed they saw a woman with long wavy black hair which was tied with a white ribbon in a high ponytail with messy side-swept bangs. She had a slender figure and was apparently tall. She seemed to be Mama's height. She was wearing black boots the same kind that Felicta wears with the same black stockings. Unlike Felicita, she had two white belts to hold daggers. Though one each leg had a long daggers nearly as long as her thighs. The same black skirt like Felicita's. A black suit jacket though it had a tailcoat, the one with pointy ends, with a white, high collared shirt and white bowtie. And a little corset around her stomach. She was also wearing white gloves like the ones Luca wears. And she was wearing a top hat with a tiny gem. Everyone was surprised with what she was wearing. They kept quiet however.
Once the cloud completely disappeared, she took of her hat and pulled out a pigeon. Once she let it lose several other pigeons folowed it out of the hat. Pace nudged Luca at this. Once the last pigeon flew out, she all of a sudden through a dagger at one of them. They gasped at this sudden cruelty, but they were maveled when the pigeon, istead of falling down dead, exploded like a fire work, lighting the room with many colors.
Followed by the rest of the pigeons. When all the pigeons disappeared, Angelica quickly formed a bird flying freely and the other colors turned into a meadow. They could actually see the sky. The Arcana Famiglia actually even heard the bird sing. They watched it fly across the meadow, above the flowers, through the trees. Not long after that, it finally reaches a nest. And in the nest there were baby birds. And they bird started feeding them.
The image stopped and exploded once again, only for the colors to rain on everybody. Everyone looked at Angelica who only smiled and bowed, indicating that it was the end of her performance.
*********
"That was amazing!"
"Astounding!"
"I never thought that we'd have such a lovely member!" Boys crowded around Angelica as they toasted and ate the food Luca had prepared alongside the cook. They were filled with awe amd admiration for the new family member. She clearly made a good first impression.
"Hehe, thank you very much." she says, smiling.
"Have you decided what division you'll join in?" asks one.
"Well," she replies coolly, "I was thinking about joining Swords."
"Ah, with Felicita."
"Hehe, yeah." she says.
"Ann!" cries a feminine voice. Angelica turns to the voice calling her and sees Felicita waving and motioning her to come over.
"Haha, well. It was nice meeting you, guys. Let's chat later." Angelica says, smiling. She walks over to Felicita. Felicita becomes surprised when she realizes that Angelica has changes in her outfit. She wasn't wearing the white gloves anymore but instead black ones that revealed her fingers. And instead of a bow she had a black necktie on, and she no longer had a top hat.
Angelica immediately notices, "Ah, what I was wearing earlier is a local entertainment magician's outfit," she says, "I wouold agree that I look better in this. What do you think?" she comments with a cheerful and joking tone as she whirls around and glancing at her outfit. Felicita only chuckles and smiles. She told Angelica that she was happy that she's welcomed warmly by the members.
"I can't believe that you've got so much attention on you." continues Felicita with a sarcastic tone as she drank some wine.
"Hehe, me either." replies Angelica laughing a little.
"Angelica, I'm so sorry about yesterday!" apologizes Pace behind Angelica, "I--" he is interrupted by the blade of Angelica's dagger. He trembles as he looked into Angelica's glinting eyes.