Family Meeting
Chapter 11 - Family Meeting
Charlie goes to her room and gets dressed from her pajamas to her regular clothes. She got her bag and stepped into her shoes. Finally, she walked up to her bedroom door and put her hand on the knob.
Then the blue bow blonde stopped. “Wait. How do I save a miracle?”
Turning to the window, Vivienne only gave a shrug with the tiles.
Charlie tries thinking about it. Then, “I figure out what’s happening to the miracle.”
More shaking of the tiles, plus the window shutters.
“Oh, I have no idea. But! There is one person in this family who hears everything about everything.”
At that, the blue bow blonde lifts up a family picture she has, one where she’s actually included; in this picture, it has her brother holding the girl in a friendly headlock. At the furthest end on the right, there was the super listener of the family with a hand to the ear.
“So, if anyone would know what’s wrong with the magic, it’d be him.”
The morning arrived - since Charlie realized soon enough that it was still the middle of the night when she drew up her conclusion on what to do - and breakfast was being prepared. Pentious was okay now that he got his coffee and Husk was trying to walk around as he was followed and climbed on by lemurs. Then the accident-prone man saw that his watch was being taken and tried to take it back. ‘Arackniss’ was at the table, getting all kinds of food on his plate and in a rather big pile.
Well, Charlie didn’t pay it much mind to what he was doing and swooped in on him. “Arackniss, hey! You know, out of all my older cousins, you’re just about my most favorite cousin so I feel like I can talk to you about anything, ergo you can talk to me about anything. Like the problem with the magic last night that no one seemed to worry about but maybe you heard about that and maybe I should know about it.”
‘Arackniss’ just slowly placed more foods on his plate while his eyes darted from left to right. It was like he wasn’t sure what to say or do.
Then Molly came in, not pleased at seeing this guy where he is. “Angel! Stop pretending you’re Arackniss just so you can have seconds!”
Sure enough, when the sharply-dressed lady gestured to behind her, the blue bow blonde saw that the super listener she wanted was actually some feet away. Turning back, Charlie saw that the Arackniss she thought she was talking to had transformed back into Angel, who then got down from the stool he was on.
“Worth a shot,” was all the shapeshifter had to say.
Vivienne wasn’t amused and so whacked him with the window shutter behind him, effectively chasing him away. Molly rolled her eyes and got to eating some of her food as she walked over to the table. Charlie huffed, rather upset that she couldn’t tell the difference like how Molly could.
Then she heard Arackniss whisper to her. “The only one worried about the magic is you and the rats talking in the walls.” The super listener began to walk away, too, but then remembered something and went back. “Oh, and Ozzie. I heard his eye twitching. All night.”
Finally, the super listener left with a squeak, although the blue bow blonde immediately turned her head to find her brother and managed to do so in just a second. Ozzie had a plate of food in one hand and the entire family table in another, placing it down so everyone could enjoy eating outside for this breakfast.
Vaggie came in, commanding, “everyone, to the table! Let’s go, let’s go!”
At Vaggie's word, everyone still standing around carried their food to the table, Vivienne helping by providing chairs thanks to being able to control some extent of the outside around the house in question. The muscle-bound Madrigal was helping himself to five glasses of juice in one hand. Probably only natural that the one indulging in physical labor practically 24/7 would need to eat a freaking lot.
Charlie knew that she would have needed to talk to Ozzie and so swooshed over to his side. Pentious was going to sit there and so was rather peeved, to which his niece could only send an apologetic smile. Well, the weather manipulator decided to let it go, not wanting to create a storm over his niece's kind of strange insistence on where to sit. Besides, his wife was there to cheer him up with a smile and an affectionate gesture.
Then the blue bow blonde started, “Ozzie-“
“Family,” the Madrigal matriarch spoke up, cutting her off, “we are all thankful for Collin’s new-“ a grunt, particularly at feeling something in her seat. Then at seeing some lemurs in her chair, “…Gift.”
Upon getting his grandmother’s attention, Collin explained, “I-I told them to warm up your seat…”
Vaggie was less than amused but had the common sense to not let that be shown. She smiled and said, “thank you, Collin.”
While the Madrigal matriarch shooing away the animals, Molly gave Collin an approving thumbs-up, since she was seated in front of him.
Then Vaggie sat down and continued, “I’m sure today we’ll find a way to put your blessings to good use.”
Charlie couldn’t wait for this meeting to be over and she went out of her way to lean over to Ozzie, as subtly but as much as she could. So she whispers to him, “Ozzie, Arackniss says you’re totally freaking out. Any chance you maybe know something about last night with the magic- You do!”
Since the blue bow blonde ended up exclaiming the last two words instead of whispering them at some signal from her brother, it had gotten everyone’s attention.
“Charlie! ” Vaggie exclaimed. At getting the girl’s attention, “if you can’t pay attention, I will help you.”
“Oh, actually…”
“Vivienne!”
At that, Vivienne had pulled back the chair Charlie was sitting on, pushing the ones with Pentious and Molly on them to the side and then placing the blue bow blonde where her aunt just was.
“As I was saying…” Vaggie resumed, as Molly took her plate back and gave Charlie hers. “We must never take our miracle for granted so today we will work twice as hard.”
The blue bow blonde leaned back, eyes locked on the muscle-bound Madrigal. He noticed his sister’s gaze and tried ignoring it.
“Agreed! I will help Ozzie,” Charlie tried, beginning to get out of the chair.
However, Vaggie disagreed. “Stop.”
The magical house just tucked the blue bow blonde further into the table, to the point of leaning forward over the table. Then the Madrigal matriarch stood up.
“First, an announcement. I’ve spoken to the Guzmans about Moxxie’s proposal to Verosika.” Vaggie approached Verosika, who instantly plastered on a smile when she had her chin cupped. The former turned to Arackniss, who was on the latter’s left.
“Arackniss, do we have a date?”
The super listener directed his ear up to the sky, everyone quiet so that he could properly do his thing.
Then Arackniss confirmed, “tonight. And Moxxie wants five babies.”
Verosika had a shocked face, letting out a gasp and creating eight small flowers over her head. Seven pink and one white.
In contrast, Vaggie was delighted. “That's wonderful! Such a fine young man with our perfect Verosika…” She removed the white flower and hugged her eldest granddaughter with hands on the shoulder. “… will bring a new generation of magical blessings and make both of our families stronger.”
Verosika tried to keep a happy face but, if one bothered to look in the eyes, it’d be obvious she was anything but happy. It didn’t help her mood when she suddenly found Moxxie seated right next to her. Of course, the flower-producing blonde recognized who it really was, since she remembers it was the shapeshifter who was seated next to her since the start of this family talk. So she just blasted that freckled kissy face with a little explosion of petals. Angel, now back to himself, was annoyed at having to spew out the petals from his mouth but otherwise let it slide. It’s not like this is first time he’s poked at his family like this, after all. Or the first time he had to spit out flower petals.
Vaggie declared, “okay, our community is counting on us. La familia Madrigal!”
The rest of the family repeated, “La familia Madrigal!”
Now seeing that the meeting finally concluded, Charlie got up and was finally allowed to stay up. She turned to where Ozzie should be, going, “hey, Ozzie- huh?”
Although the muscle-bound Madrigal was gone now. The blue bow blonde quietly groaned and got moving to find her brother.