Camaleón dorado (English)

Chapter 1

The sun began to rise behind the mountains that surrounded the town. A new day began and in the Madrigal house, the first person began to wake up. She rubbed her eyes, stretched out her arms, and jumped to her feet, ready to dress and get ready.

Mirabel put her hand on the doorknob and took a deep breath.

"Bring pride to your family." She said with a broad smile before opening the door wide and exiting excitedly, heading to the other end of the upper corridor.

She had been the first to wake up, although it was quite an important day and she was sure that the others would be up soon too. She reached her destination and knocked on the door several times, waiting for one of its two occupants to open it. Seeing that, after several attempts, there was still no response, she put her hands on her hips and shook her head before opening the door on her own. As she imagined, her two cousins were still sound asleep in their beds, but like it or not, it was time to get going. She carefully entered the room, so she went to the window and opened the curtains wide, letting the morning light into the room, earning a couple of groans from both beds.

"Good morning!" She exclaimed before turning to her younger cousin and crouching down next to his bed to hug him, rubbing light circles on his back. "How are you? Ready for your big day?"

Antonio's response was nothing more than another tired growl, accompanied by a movement that Mirabel assumed was because the little boy was shrugging his shoulders. Yes, no doubt he was still half asleep. When she released him, she turned to go to the other bed, where the other person had pulled the covers up to his head and was turning his back on both of them, probably to escape the light from the window.

"Wake up wake up! Come on, sleepyhead! Up!" She exclaimed approaching Camilo and starting to shake him after grabbing his shoulder with both hands.

"Oh, Mirabel... Leave me... It's still very early..." Was the response from her cousin, with a rather sleepy voice. Although, at the moment Mirabel grabbed the sheets and pushed them away until almost throwing them off the bed, Camilo woke up in a few seconds. "Mirabel!" He complained again as she grabbed his arm and pulled him out of bed.

"Come on! You promised you would help me with the decorations today! Now you can't back down!" She answered by opening the closet and grabbing his cousin's clothes to start throwing them at him. Camilo managed to grab some of the clothes. Others ended up on the ground. And his shirt landed on his face.

"Yes, yes, I know... But you didn't have to come to wake me up, I would have gotten up myself in a while."

"Well, better to start as soon as possible, don't you think?" She answered crossing her arms and tilting her head to one side. Camilo smiled and walked over to her, placing a hand on her back and guiding her to the door.

"Yes, yes. Whatever. Go down now. My brother and I have to change."

After this he opened the door and Mirabel was soon out and heading for the stairs, although she paused for a moment in the middle of the corridor to turn and wave to them. Camilo returned the greeting before closing the door with a sigh. He was about to start changing when he turned around and noticed his brother. The little boy was standing still in the middle of the room, his head down and staring at the floor. He wasn't that sleepy anymore, so most likely the nerves of the day ahead were starting to kick in. Camilo walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze and offering him the warmest smile he could at the moment. Antonio responded by looking up at his brother and returning his smile, before heading to the closet to start pulling out his clothes for the day. He couldn't do much more to reassure him. Right now he couldn't think of words of courage to say, and he also knew that if he managed to relax him, by the time Abuela and his parents came looking for him, his effort would have been for nothing. The best thing was to wait until the moment of the ceremony was near and talk to him then.