Mirabel's Best Friend

10 Years Old

Mirabel was really tired of crying. She loved Antonio but she was really tired of hearing him cry all the time.

She had thought she would get peace when she decided to go to visit the future Casita, that turned out to be untrue.

As soon as the older version of Luisa wrapped her up in her arms the screaming began.

"NO! MY ABUELA!"

Mirabel's ears began ringing and she covered them as she glanced at a very amused Maximiano as he put down his little 5 year old brother, Julian, as he started crying and looking up at Abuela with little tears behind his glasses.

"Abuela, those are my hugs!" Julian cried more.

Everyone in the room watched this in hilarity as Mirabel looked very uncomfortable at this.

"Julian, I have enough hugs for both," Abuela Luisa tried to tell him as picked him for a hug in her other arm.

This just led to Julian pushing annoyingly at Mira and crying, "My Abuela! My hugs"

Mirabel grimaced at this as Abuela Luisa tried to explained that wasn't nice and Julian's parents, Ed and Dafne, tried not to laugh as Ed got the camera to take a picture.

Mirabel made a deadpanned face and looked at her olderself, "I can see now why we only have one kid."

.....

Mirabel was told at 10 years old you had to make one of the most important choices of your life.

She didn't think the choice would be choosing between a plant dinosaur, fire lizard, or water turtle.

Today was what Mirabel would call a "future day" where Cas and some of the future kids would be showing her something that blows her mind. These happened occasionally and usually involved movie on the TV or some other thing that just didn't exist in her time.

That was how she was now holding something called a Gameboy in her hand and was playing a game called Pokemon. Apparently a gift sent from Casandra's mother that she had received in the mail a while back.

"Can I get them all?" Mirabel asked confused as sat in between Cas and Diana as they helped her along in the game.

"Nope, only one," Diana warned sternly, "This will affect your entire journey."

Cas laughed a little and just pointed at the tiny screen, "Just pick the one you like."

"But which one is better?" Mirabel stressed as she kept flipping between the three.

"They all are good choices," Cas replied.

"Squirtle," Diana replied.

"Di, stop that," the 11 year old glared.

Diana smiled and pointed, "I got the Squirtle and I named it Maxi to pretend I'm ordering Maximiano around."

Cas couldn't help but smiled at this as Mirabel looked down at the plant dinosaur again. She could get it and name it Isabela. She thought of naming this cutely ugly thing after her sister and bossing her around but she had already named her rival character Isa after her.

She looked at the Cas, "what did you pick?"

"Hmm. Oh the fire lizard charmander. I named him Sol," Cas pointed to the lizard, "I liked him a lot. He had that cute flame on his tail."

Mirabel looked at the little flame on the tail of the lizard. It reminded her of The Candle. So she selected the lizard and named it Vela.

Two and a half hours later Mirabel will have to have the Gameboy ripped from her hands as she was about to throw the game across the room as she got the first gym and realized fire wasn't that useful against rock.

But hey, she did catch what would end up being her favorite pokemon though. A butterfree that of course was named Mariposa.

.....

"Mom, can I have an arpea?"

Julieta looked confused up from her basket to see her youngest daughter with a girl her age.

The girl was holding her hand that she could see was swollen and an ugly red.

"Ay, what happened?" She asked as she handed the girl an arepa and looked over her hand.

The girl looked confused at Julieta and Julieta couldn't help but be surprised to look at her. She looked a lot like Mirabel, probably more liked sisters than Mirabel and Isabela.

"Cas punched a building," Mirabel scolded glaring daggers at her.

The girl glared back as she took a bite of the arepa, "So, I wouldn't punch a kid!"

"Why would you want to punch a child?" Julieta sighed in a 'ay, these children way.'

Mirabel looked sheepish as Cas looked at Julieta with anger, "They were calling Mirabel useless! Telling her she wasn't really your kid! Implied she was really Bruno's kid! I was going to punch them but Mirabel stopped me!"

Julieta looked aghast at this. Cas flexed her healed hand and then Julieta looked over to Mirabel, "Is this true, Mirabel?"

Mirabel kicked her feet, "Yes...."

"Tell me their names and I'll talk to them later. Okay?" Julieta said as she kneeled down and kissed her daughter's cheek, "Never be afraid to tell me things. I'll fix them."

"Okay," Mirabel softly smiled back and hugged her mother.

"Now, is this your friend?" Julieta smiled at Cas as she was reaching over to pick up a second arepa to snack on.

Mirabel smiled brightly, "Yes! My best friend! I've been trying to introduce her to the family forever!"

Cas was yanked over to be in front of Julieta, food still in her mouth, "Mama, meet my best friend! Casandra-"

Suddenly, Abuela's voice cut Mirabel off, "Julieta! Joseph fell onto his machete! Come quick!"

Julieta hopped into action calling back to the two, "I'll be back!"

Mirabel stood slightly disappointed as she glanced at Cas, "Do you think she's coming back?"

Cas swallowed the rest of her food, "They never do."

That was true as Mirabel thought back to all the times lately she had tried to introduce Casandra to the family. Tia Pepa had run off after handing Antonio cover cause she was storming, her father had been attacked by bees, Isabela had not even stop to look at them, and Tio Felix had been pulled away by Pepa having a melt down, were just a few of the almost meetings.

Though Mirabel was getting a kick out of them never remembering Casandra's name if they vaguely remember her. So far they had called her Catalina, Carolina, Celeste, Chelo, and her favorite Yoel.

"Want to go back to my Casita?" Cas offered as she grabbed one more arepa.

"Sure, can we watch another movie?" Mirabel asked as she and Cas started heading to Casita.

"Sure, have I shown you Beauty and the Beast yet?" Cas nodded.

....

Sadly, they were right as Julieta barely remembered later the friend Mirabel had with her early because she had gotten busy later. While she did talk to the parents of the kids picking on Mirabel she hadn't really remember Mirabel's friend.

Though Mirabel did laugh as she got to add the name Crescencia to the 'names that they call Cas list.'

Notes: