Book 2 - The Chameleon's Song

Chapter 5: Amigo

"Mi Mamá, Pepa, her mood affects the weather. When she's unhappy the temperature can get a bit weird. Mi Tía Julieta can heal anything with a meal."

"So she's the one who made those arepas and empanadas that you two ate earlier?"

"Yeah. Ah... mi primas, Isabela and Luisa. Isa grows... plants. Flowers, trees, fruit, berries, vines, everything. You know it she can probably grow it out of the palm of her hand. Luisa is super strong. Like, you were able to throw that body around, but she can throw like ten donkeys at the same time."

Whoa.

"Mi hermana can hear like really well. We'll be at la casa Madrigal and she'll be able to hear someone coming through the crack in the mountain on the other side of the village. Oh, and Antonio talks to animals, but you knew that one, too."

"Yeah, I think I'm going to need Mirabel's song to remember all that. You don't have any primas or primos from your Tío?" Camilo asked though immediately felt bad for it. "Lo siento! I didn't mean–"

"It's okay," Bruno said and smiled back at him. "And the answer is no."

"Really?"

"Life in Encanto is different in that regard to what you're used to here in the city," Señorita Catherine explained.

What did that mean?

"Oh, and Tío Agustín married Julieta," Camilo Madrigal continued and cut into their conversation. He gestured to the family tree in front of him. "Mi Papí, Félix, married Pepa. And Señorita Catherine is engaged to Tío Bruno and will be mi tía one day. None of them have gifts."

"So, you have to be born into the family, to have a gift?" Camilo López asked.

"Clearly."

"No one's discovered another way for it to happen," Bruno answered.

"Yeah, and when we all turned five years old, we got our gifts."

"That's pretty cool," Camilo López said.

The four of them ate dinner, and then Catherine and Bruno went to bed. Milo stayed awake a little longer, and Cami began to wash their soiled ruanas.

"What are you doing?" Milo asked as he approached him outside.

"I know a trick," Cami explained. "Don't worry about this."

He looked up and saw the horses grazing not far from him. Content.

"Mind if I sit with you?" Milo asked.

I'm going to regret this. "Sure."

Camilo Madrigal didn't say anything as he sat down on the ground beside Camilo López. Neither of them said anything but the weirdest part. It wasn't awkward. Milo either watched Camilo López clean the ruanas, or looked up in the sky. And when Milo wasn't looking at him, Cami could only look at Camilo Madrigal. Milo.

The arch of his shoulders, the frizziness of his hair that made Cami want to touch and feel it between his fingers. The roundness of his face told Cami that Milo was still young.

"How old are you, Milo?" Cami asked.

"Fifteen. You?"

"Hah. Eighteen."

"Wh-"

"Yeah, I know. I look young for my age. I get that a lot."

"I thought you were my age."

"Fifteen isn't that bad. I've been mistaken as twelve before."

"Nah, you're too well built for twelve."