The Fuentes Family: Yasmin

25

"What's wrong, princess?"

"She's being over dramatic porque she wants more toys," Mom tells Dad and I cry harder.

He scowls at Mom and i'm happy that he takes my side, but I don't want them to argue. I hate it when they do that.

My small legs dash up the stairs and into my bedroom where I curl up in my My Little Pony blanket.

As I expected, Daddy comes to my room. "Princess? May I come in?" He knocks lightly. It's a game we play – I make him and my brothers ask to enter my palace before opening the door. Dad and Santiago are the only ones who play along.

"Yes," I whimper.

He comes over and sits beside where i'm lying with my face underneath my blanket. "What happened?"

"Rebecca was mean to me again."

"Again? I'll talk to her parents-"

"No! You can't, Daddy. She'll be even more nasty!"

"Hey, no one makes my Yasy cry and gets away with it." He pulls the blanket from my face gently and wipes a falling tear from my face.

"She said that no one will be my friend – because i'm different. She said our family doesn't belong here."

Dad tenses, looking away with an angry expression. "Listen, princesa," he pulls me up into a sitting position and I wrap my arms around him. "You are Yasmin Fuentes. You don't let anyone talk to you like that, understand?"

I nod.

"Now stop crying. Remember, if it won't matter in five years-"

"-Don't spend more than five minutes being upset about it," I finish and he smiles.

"Good girl. Now, why don't you clean up and we'll go get some ice cream?"

"With a chocolate cone? And sprinkles?"

"Anything you want, Princesa."

I look up at him lovingly and he smiles down. Life would be so bad without Daddy.

Sliding off of my bed, I jump onto the floor then sprint out of the room to wash my face. Everything around me begins to disappear and go dark. I'm confused, then my mind understands what's going on. I'm dreaming.

My eyes open and I lay there for a few minutes, just wishing I could go back to sleep and continue the dream. It's weird, because that happened before. A few things were different, but it still happened. 

It makes me wish I could just go downstairs and see Dad working on his laptop like I did most mornings when he wasn't away. Or sometimes he'd be sleeping after being out late and I'd climb into his bed and tell him about my dramatic life.

I end up staying in bed, thinking, for the full day. Mom comes in and checks on me before going to work, and some of the guys go out places. I hear Alex and Amelia arguing from the other room and I try to block it out but it's hard because they start full on screaming at each other until Amelia leaves and Alex soon goes out too, slamming about fifty doors on the way.