#fepa

But why had it to be controlling the weather that I was gifted with? It was burdening at times. I mean, it is nice to produce sunshine, and everybody is happy to sunbath and play in the open with the warm rays tainting their skins and making them feel good.

But there were those days when I felt miserable, or tired, and then, the slightest incident made me explode and the result? A cloud, rain, or worse, thunderstorm….

And Mama would not tolerate it, frown at me, and tell me to calm down and relax.

But it was so difficult, and still, I wanted to please her, make her proud of me…

Maybe it would get better when I turned older, wiser, more known to life?

And that other day was no better.

And I had hoped that Mama would allow us Madrigal children to get tutored privately, not being exposed in public school. But she said that we get treated as all the other children and to mingle with them was important to get to know everybody in Encanto.

I felt embarrassed so many times. I mean, Julieta could easily heal a bruised knee on the schoolyard. She was making others feel better. Bruno was making the other kids go all obsessed with his adventurous visions. He was the mysterious guy with prophetic skills. They were magically gifted heroes. And me? When I got teased, I started raining, and then they laughed… Only when I then freaked out and showered the schoolyard with an unstoppable hail shower, everybody started screaming and running wildly inside. The result? I got scolded for risking the other kids catching a cold… It was a vicious circle.

I did not want to go to school. Until that one miraculous day.

I sat in class with drenched skirt and hair, once again, miserably glaring down on my desk, watching the raindrops crashing onto my book, and the lines got blurred. Certainly, my tears were not really helping to save the disaster, when I felt something warm, gently wrapping my shoulders, and I noticed a poncho covering my wet body.

“Hey, Pepa. It´s already autumn and you should not fetch a cold. You might suffer harder from a runny nose than any of us? I am worried for your health."

Felix!

He was such a dear. Always considerate and yet, not taken fully earnest himself because he was slightly chubby and rather small. Not necessarily the Don Juan from the fairy tales. But I did not care. Felix was genuinely a friend.

And I was no sleeping beauty, either…

Since then, Felix had walked me home, had helped me with physics since I did not get it. In return, I helped him with Spanish grammar. We were a good team and we understood each other so nicely.

And then, there was this day when our teacher announced a test. A test! About the physical terms of a rainbow. I hated it. I didn´t understand it. And everybody shook their head. I should be totally the professor on that topic. But I wasn´t, and it made me furious. In turn, I produced a thunderstorm, in the middle of the classroom.

Julieta tried to sooth me with her pie, Bruno tried to give me a pleasant prospect of my bright future where physics-test wouldn´t matter anymore. It did not help. I simply felt anxious, embarrassed, and frustrated. And most of all, misunderstood… And like always, everybody left me alone, out of sheer helplessness. Of course, I could not blame them, and I covered my face in my arms on my desk, the dark cloud above me my only companion.

“Hey!” a soft voice echoed through the wind in my ears and a gentle hand was stroking the back of my head, “you can do it. Remember how you explained to me the process of a rainbow near the riverbank on that sunny afternoon?”

Felix did it again. Only that I had no idea of how he did it. He calmed my nerves and temper only by… being there.

Instinctively I lifted my eyes, and the smile that I met was the kindest. My heart leaped and my belly flipped. And then I knew it. This man was the completion to my magic. The only one who made me handle it!

I brushed that nasty cloud away and smiled back at him.

Felix took my hand, and the touch was thrilling. I flung my arms around his neck and pecked a kiss to his soft cheek. It felt so nice, so… home.

“Thank you.”

“Pepa, don´t you know how lovely you are? You need not be so nervous. But know that I will always be there for you.”

“Oh…. Why? I am such a temper, and you risk of getting drenched.”

His smile captivating, he pecked a kiss directly onto my lips. It was incredible, and I felt like melting into that voluminous and yet so sturdy figure.

“Because I love you.” Felix shrugged shyly, but still running a finger along my cheekbone.

And then, everything seemed unimportant and the surroundings dissipating in meaninglessness. I was not aware at that moment what happened, but my complete core calmed, and my heart grew warm with… oh my gosh… love!

And then it appeared above us both… miraculously.