After my much needed shower I put on a skirt and blouse from my bag. I have to be honest its a little embarrassing dressing different from literally everyone around you. Grabbing a book from my backpack i lay back on the bed and start reading.
About half an hour goes by until a knock comes on my door.
"Its unlocked!"I yell in response. The door swings open to reveal Camilo. He sees me and runs down the hallway of mirror, jumping on his bed landing right next to me.
"Hola Princesa Fellcee," he teases with a smirk on his face. I scoff and hit him with my book. "Dinners ready, Julieta made a feast!" Camilo exclaims, obviously excited about all the food. I almost start drooling at the mention of food. Over the past few days I've learned to deal with the ache of hunger, tuning it out.
"Lets go then!" I say putting my bookmark in and jumping off the bed. He follows quickly and we head down stairs. We both walk into the kitchen and one word I can use to summarize the scene in front of me is chaos. Pepa has dark cloud hovering over her head, small lightning bolts appearing and crackling. She's muttering something to herself as she sets the table trying to control Antonio who is chasing a bug around the room. A younger girl with short curly hair and big round glasses was in the middle of what seems like a very heated argument with a taller girl with long silky hair and a beautiful purple dress. Agustin, Felix and my father where all standing in the middle of the dining room, talking and laughing incredibly loud causing everyone to compete with them. I look to the table to see an annoyed Dolores sitting at the table, her fingers deep in her ears trying to block out the pure pandemonium around her. She makes eye contact with me and just mouthes the words 'help me' with an annoyed scowl. I giggle and it causes her to crack a small grin herself. Abuela then comes out from around the corner with an already full wine glass and looking exhausted.
"Tranquilla a todas! La cena esta lista," she yells.( the translation is 'Quiet everyone, dinner is ready.' I'm sorry if the grammar is wrong I used google translate) The room suddenly becomes quiet and Dolores unplugs her ears and sighs. Everyone goes to their chair and starts talking again breaking the awkward silence. I see my father already has a seat in-between Agustin and Felix.
"Come on," Camilo nods and picks up a chair that was propped up against the wall. I walk over to Dolores and he sets the chair down between Dolores's seat and an empty one. He pulls out the chair and says dramatically, "Your seat, Señorita." I snicker at him and take a seat. Casita rolls the tiles under the legs of my chair pushing me in. Camilo takes a seat In the empty chair next to me. Julieta appears with two plates filled with delicious looking food, smelling even better than they look. She sets them down and everyone immediately digs in. She then places an empty plate in front of me, giving me a warm smile.
"Thank you, this looks amazing!" I say quickly as I start to fill my plate with food. Both plates were quickly empty. I than realized I had no idea what any of this food is. I turn to Camilo, to ask him what everything was, but he was already stuffing his face. He turns to me, his cheeks full of food and tries to swallow it all at once. He's not successful to say the least. He starts choking and with each cough he turns into a different person. I see the entire Madrigals family before he is done.
"Aye Cami," Pepa sighs rubbing her forehead with her hand. Antonio starts to slap Camilo's back and Camilo just responds saying,
"Tonito, you do that while someone is choking, not after its done. It kinda defeats the purpose." Antonio takes the information into account before he starts eating again. This must be a relatively normal experience because everyone immediately goes back to eating and talking.
"Sometimes I wonder how he is still alive," Dolores whispers in my ear. I turn to her and we both giggle. "Anyways, this," she says pointing to a piece of bread on my plate. "Is an empanada, it's just bread filled with beans, rice and meat." She picks one up off of her plate and takes a bite. I do the same taking a bite and the flavors explode on my tongue. I haven't had food this good in forever. "And this," she says pointing at the bread from the other plate, "Is an patacones, twice fried plantains." I pluck one off my own plate and take a bite. It might just be her gift, but Julieta can cook! I'm about halfway done with everything on my plate when Julieta carries out a mammoth tray, filled with different types of meat, rice, beans, tortillas, and vegetables. The entire platter was almost empty minutes after she sets it down. I get so many toppings they don't fit in the tortilla so I just eat it as a salad.
"You have a beautiful voice by the way," Dolores says before taking a bite of her food. I freeze at the mention. I was singing in the shower, she heard me obviously.
"What?" I say trying to play it off.
"In the shower, you were singing. You did sound good, like really good." she looks at me nodding with her words.
"You sing?" Camilo pokes into the conversation, mouth full of food.
"Chew and swallow your food Camilo, that's all I ask. And try not to die in the process." Dolores rolls her eyes at him. Camilo swallows all his food, barely even chewing and asks again,
"I didn't know you can sing Felicity!" He says it a little, too, loud. I open my mouth to respond before my father enters the conversation.
"Oh yeah, Felicity is a great singer! In our old town she used to sing all the time, everybody loved her voice," I could tell he was a bit tipsy by the way his words slurred and his unsteady body language.
"No one said that, only you did. And you're obligated to 'cause you're my dad." I say quickly, I could feel eyes from the table start to shift towards me and I felt my face get hot.
"No, no no the children would follow saying 'Ms. Cece sing us a story!'" My dad persisted, obviously drunk. I grimaced at the old nickname and I heard Camilo chuckle quietly.
"Felicity, don't be shy honey. It's something to be proud of not ashamed off!" Pepa attempt to comforts me.
"I- um. I just want to thank you guys for letting us stay here, you've been so kind, we can't thank you enough!" I say rapidly changing the subject. My dad raises his glass and shouts,
"To the Madrigals," everyone at the table repeats and lifts their glass. A wave of relief sweeps over me as I sip my water. I look over at Camilo who is starring at me. Once I meet his gaze he looks away.
"What?" I ask giggling slightly.
"Oh, nothing I just zoned out for a minute" he says avoiding the question. I nod and go back to eating. Although I can't shake the feeling I got in that split second our eyes met.
YOU ARE READING
My Favorite Chameleon
Fanfiction"I don't speak Spanish, I don't understand what you're saying!" "that's the point mi amor," Felicity Connors is forced to move out of her hometown and travel to a completely new world revolving around a family who are all given gifts. She soon find...
