chapter nine

With everything that was going on with Carla the whole day from her chasing after Mirabel to her finally talking to her and her somehow embarrassing herself by blurting out some things that weren't meant to be blurted out, it was safe to say Carla forgot that tonight was a for a that involved them with a family.

And that was how Carla — who was sitting in between Dolores and Antonio because Abuela didn't want to give her and Camilo a chance to possibly ruin the night — somehow didn't notice the growing tension in the air during dinner. She was too busy trying to not look up from her food and accidentally make eye contact with the other family.

Although that didn't last as long as she would have liked when her father suddenly spat out his drink all over the guests.

Carla couldn't help the small snort that came out of her lips because of this. She and Camilo shared a look before looking away from each other before they could both burst out in fits of laughter.

And that's when Carla finally noticed the strange atmosphere around the dinner table.

Carla thought to herself in confusion, watching her tio and prima's strange behavior in front of her.

"Uh... what's happening?" Carla leaned down a bit to whisper to her little brother.

Antonio just looked up to her with an incredulous look on his face. "You're asking me — who's the youngest and the likely to know anything — when the one who hears everything that goes on is literally on your other side?"

"Good point." Carla said, before turning towards her older sister. "So, what's happening?"

Seeing that Mirabel's attention was on their father — who was whispering to their mother — Dolores decided to fill her little sister in on what's going on.

"Mirabel's in Bruno's vision—" Although Dolores immediately shut up when Mirabel shot her a look, it was too late as the information was already enough for Carla to feel uneasy as she stared at her prima with her mouth agape.

She thought to herself.

"Pepa. The cloud." Her Abuela's voice managed to bring her back to the dinner that was currently taking place and she suddenly took notice of the growing thunder cloud that was hovering over her mother's head.

"Uhm... do proposals usually go like this?" Antonio innocently asked Carla quietly.

"..I don't thinks so..?" Carla whispered back, the uneasy feeling only growing as the two watched their youngest prima bump her head under the table.

"Everything okay?" Mariano, the man that was proposing, asked.

Carla was too busy worrying about everything going on in this dinner to even feel nervous about looking at the guests.

"Hahaha, everything's great!" Carla couldn't help but wince at the obviousness of the lie that slipped past her Tio's lips. "She's just excited... for you to propose, which uh.. you should do—"

"Yes!" Mirabel added, helpfully.

"—as fast as you can!"

"Uh... I was actually gonna—"

"You were actually gonna, great!" Mirabel cut in, turning her sister's chair towards the guy.

Now Carla wasn't an expert in proposals, but she was fairly certain that this was not going as smoothly as everyone hoped. Antonio seemed to think the same way as the two continued to watch everything unravel in front of them — not entirely sure if they should be amused or worried.

Carla didn't think the former was appropriate at the moment so he decided that she should be worried.

Now, she was watching Luisa looking like she wanted to cry after being asked to bring over the piano.

Carla thought in confusion.

Mirabel suddenly started laughing awkwardly, turning everyone's attention back on her.

"Uh... It's actually family tradition to sing ... heh." She said, going over to Mariano, pulling his chair out with him and tipping it over so Mariano was forced to his knees.

Now, Carla was being forced to watch a proposal happen in front of her and couldn't help but think that if she was going to get proposed to — she highly doubted this would ever happen — she wanted it to be private with just her and the poor guy that was unfortunate to like her enough to want to marry her.

Mariano stopped and everyone's attention went back to Mirabel who was now lying across the floor. "You're doing great!"

And so Mariano — and everyone else — decided to just ignore her and whatever just happened, and proceeded with the proposal.

Now it was the thud of a heavy piano and Luisa's cries that interrupted the proposal.

Ever the resolute soul that he was, Mariano continued with the proposal, deciding to just skip the rest of his speech and get straight to the point, but it wasn't meant to be as Mirabel exclaimed "No", before diving under the table.

More of Luisa's crying, before

Pepa had started to get worked up and the thunder cloud only grew and boomed, startling Antonio's friend toucan, who flew towards the matriarchs of the two families, startling them.

"What is happening!?" Mrs. Guzman exclaimed.

At this point, Luisa was lying on the floor crying, Pepa was trying her hardest to calm herself and the thunder cloud that only kept growing, Dolores had her hands covering her ears, Camilo had his arms covering his head that was now on the table, Antonio's bird friends were flying around in a panic with everyone else trying to duck for cover from them, and Abuela Alma was at the head of the table, staring at everything in shock.

To make matter's worst, Dolores — who was overwhelmed and just couldn't keep it in anymore — blurted out the very information that caused the whole incident to happen in the first place.

"Mirabel found Bruno's vision. She's in it. She's gonna destroy the magic and now we're all doomed!"

And then there was Mirabel... who suddenly popped out from under the table... along with more of Antonio's animal friends... and a glowing green prophecy that just to slide across the table and stop in front of Abuela.

The booming thunder stopped and the animals have paused. Everyone was silent as their gazes went to the prophecy, to Abuela, and then to Mirabel.

The silence was disrupted as Casita's walls started to crack. Antonio's gaze followed the cracks as it stretched to the walls behind him. Carla, who finally saw the cracks she had been worried about first hand, panicked and in a very Carla fashion tried to disappear but found that she couldn't as the cracks passed behind her. Dolores, once again, tried to block out the loud sounds by covering her ears. Camilo's shifting then malfunctioned when the cracks passed behind him. The cracks then stretched across the room, to the floor, and in between Isabela and Mariano, startling Isabela to the point where she accidentally sent a flower to attack Mariano's nose.

"Felicidades!"

Okay so this wasn't the most proposal Carla's been to. Granted, she hasn't actually been to any

On the bright side, she manage to get through the whole dinner without having to hide her face the whole time. Of course, that was only because of the growing tension in the air... which eventually led to the unfortunate events that happened right after...

Oh, who was she kidding!? This was the worst dinner the Madrigals ever had and what now!? Were they actually going to lose their magic?!