Disappeared once or twice

23. Water turned to ice

Terrified. No other word could describe the expression of the winners of the Porto Rosso cup better than that. Dead ass fear. Anxious, afraid, scared, fearful, distress and apprehension. Abuela looked intimidating to the three of them, even though she was barely an inch taller than Alberto.

"Sit down, please." She gestured to the table, casita had placed the chairs in a circle, that way it felt less like an interrogation and more like a conversation. They did as she told, abuela herself sat down too. Her fearless and dominant eyes pierced through their souls, every single bit of information she would get could be crucial to their independent investigation. The three friends needed to filter their words carefully. 

"I am not particularly fond of strangers in my home, but since you are such big fans of our famous Encanto. I'll allow it." A sigh of relief escaped Luca's mouth. "HOWEVER." He held his breath again. "In order to stay here I do need to know who exactly you are. I want not a detail to be spared. Start with names and age please." She commanded. 

"Luca Paguro, I'm 14!"
"Alberto Scorfano, 15."
"Giulia Marcovaldo, 14 years old too."

Abuela nodded, "very well then." She looked around the room, trying to come up with a question that would benefit her knowledge. "Any reason in particular why you wanted to come to Encanto?" "It is as we told you," Luca replied. "We were highly fascinated by the wonders and stories of this beautiful place. We wanted to see for ourselves. We stumbled on some stories about humans with magical powers, that piqued our interest and that was the main drive to travel this far." His words were amplified by the enthusiastic nodding of his friends. 

"I see, where do you guys come from if I may ask." She continued her questions, showing genuine interest in the trio. "We came all the way from Italy, miss." Alberto said, "Porto Rosso to be exact." As if Alma knew where this was, she had abandoned school a long time ago and let's just say, she wasn't exactly the best in geography. "And Luca and I attend school in Genova." Giulia added, to simply fill up the silence. 

Abuela nodded once again. "I'm sure you know the story of this Encanto, thanks to Mirabel." The three of them nodded. "Then you should also know that I truly love this family. One mistake, one teeny tiny thing and I'll ban you. You may not hurt this family in any way possible. Am I clear?" The three of them nodded. "Am I clear?" She repeated louder this time. "Yes Ma'am." They replied in unison. "Very well, now go make yourselves useful." 

The woman stood up, her chair was immediately brought back to the table. Casita didn't make one scratch on the polished floor. Abuela left the room with wide and big steps, every time her heels hit the ground they would hear the click of her shoe against the wood. They looked at each other, not one of them daring to speak up until the clicking could no longer be heard. 

"What the actual..." 
"Gorgonzola." 

"That woman is absolutely nuts." 
"Yea no shit."
"We still continuing with our plan?"
"Yea I want to find out if Bruno's my dad or whatever." Alberto used his iconic grin to lighten up the room. The heavy atmosphere abuela left behind wasn't exactly pleasing. "We do need to hurry though, maybe even tonight. At 5." The other two agreed, they would inform the people who helped with the plan.

Tonight at 5 pm, their future could take a big turn. 

"So what are we going to do until then?" Giulia asked, she was not the type to sit down all day. Except when it came to school. "I guess we'll put our talents to use?" Luca hesitated to say so, mainly because he didn't know what his talents were.

"I totally wasn't eavesdropping on your convo..." A fourth voice joined the party, a smooth young sound. It was Camilo standing at the door. "So we planning to help the town? I can show you guys around, if you want me to.." He smiled widely, his pearly white teeth flashing. Alberto followed the other boy's gaze, Camilo was looking at Giulia no doubt about it.

Alberto always had a jealous nature. He thought it was because he never really had anything of his own. And at the same time, everything he had he never had to share. He lived alone for so long, every bit of food he captured was for him. Every human object he found, was claimed by him. Every thought he had, was his. He had felt so incredibly alone and abandoned all these years. He didn't go to the surface, so he started to think he was alone in this world. 

Deep in his heart he knew there were others like him. But he never needed to acknowledge those people. Until he met Luca, a lively young boy with a heart of gold. It made him less lonely, he had something to look forward to again. Those hours spent were the best hours of his life, he was sure that it could never get any better than this. 

You all know the story, Luca's parents disagreed with him coming to the surface so they ran away to the city. They met Giulia. 
We, humans, all have a little jealousy in us. Some tend to show it more than others. Some know how to deal with the emotion, some don't. Alberto didn't know what to do with it, he expressed it as anger. 

The hours with Luca were the best ones ever, but now Luca was spending time with some girl. He was doing shit Alberto didn't understand or care for. It was Luca's other side, Alberto was deep down jealous on Luca's smarts and how he would get along with others perfectly. As for Alberto himself, he was wary around others, continuously facing the fear that they would leave him.

That is where his jealousy came from, the fear that Alberto would get replaced.

Back to the point, Alberto was feeling a little jealous right now. Since he lived with Massimo as his father, that meant Giulia was his little sister. He was fine with her now and they turned out to have much in common. But they still weren't best buddies, that didn't take away that Alberto's protective nature would rise. He swore to always protect his family and at this moment, he wasn't sure whether he trusted Camilo enough with her or not. But he was probably just overthinking things. As if those two would fall in love, right?

"Camilo, what do you think our talents could be?" Giulia asked him, her eyes locking with his. He brought his mouth closer to her ear and whispered. "You are full of talent mi vida." 

Giulia had no idea what mi vida meant anyways.