10 years later...

Mila woke up as she felt someone licking her face.

"Okay, Chika. I'm up." Mila giggled, and the brown poodle barked as her owner got out of bed to get ready for another day. She looked at the clock and had a feeling what was coming next.

"And three, two... one." There was a knock at the door. "Buenos dias, prima." Mila knew the only one who got up as early as she did was her cousin Mirabel.

Mirabel and Mila had quite a special bond just like sisters.

Mila was older than Mirabel by eight minutes, and she acted like the big sister Mirabel needed.

By now, each girl discovered a special talent that did not require magic.

Mirabel turned out to be pretty great at sewing and embroidery. Mila had the beautifully hand-stitched lab coat she always wore to prove it.

Mila, on the other hand, was a little different from the rest of the family. At age three, she was found to be very intelligent for her age. She learned to read at age three, knew how to multiply four-digit numbers at age five, and had an extensive vocabulary for a child. Now, Mila found her passion was inventing.

Everyday, Mila had some new ideas to put into her journal, but actually building them was another story. To put it simply, Mila was used to at least twenty setbacks before an invention finally worked right.

Flashback to a few incidents with Mila's inventions...

Age 8: Invention goal: Create skin serum that would repel bees and protect Tio Augustine from bees

Mila was innocently mixing a few liquids together and taking notes on all their effects on each other. And then Camilo, being the jokester of the family, got a little too curious around Mila's experiments, and shapeshifted into Abuela, knowing Mila was scared of her yelling at her for an experiment gone wrong causing trouble.

"Milagro!" Shouted Camilo, startling Mila and making her spill the wrong thing into her beaker, and then poofing smoke into Camilo's face, and turning it orange.

"Camilo! How many times have I told you not to scare me when I'm doing experiments?!" Mila said angrily.

Camilo transformed to normal and coughed all the smoke away.

Mila sighed and took Camilo to the bathroom to wash the stuff off, but it wouldn't rub off. She scrubbed harder, but it wouldn't come out. She even tried mixing a stronger cleaning solution, and it still wouldn't come out.

As expected, Tia Pepa thundered up a storm when she found out. It took an entire week for the orange face dye job to wear off.

Age 12: Invention Goal: create a soothing aroma therapy humidity solution that would help people sleep better, namely her father, whose visions sometimes made it hard for him to rest peacefully.

"A little bit of lavender. A dash of eucalyptus with a smidge of vanilla." Mila listed to herself. "Sweet and very soothing. Now it just needs a little spice to make it strong."

Mila borrowed a few spices from the kitchen and tried to deduce which would be the best to use. That was when Mirabel came in.

"What are you working on, Mila?" Mirabel asked.

"Just some aroma therapy for my papa." Mila said, picking up another spice. "Definitely not this one."

"What are all the spices for?"

"I'm seeing if adding a spice will make the scent pop. You know, so it lasts longer and has the best effect possible."

Mirabel tried to pick up a spice to help, but Mila quickly tried to stop her from touching it, only to knock her solution and some black pepper together. Somehow, it created a big gas cloud that filled the entire Casita, and the next thing they knew, everyone was sneezing like crazy. In other words, Mila invented sneezing gas instead of soothing gas.

That was the one time Abuela couldn't yell at her for an experiment gone wrong. Everyone was way too busy sneezing to even get a word in. Luckily, Mila's super fan invention worked well enough to air the place out faster.

The most recent incident, just a few weeks ago:

Invention goal: a security system to keep Camilo out of the cookie jar

If there was one thing that bugged Mila and the other kids, it was Camilo always sneaking himself some polvorosas and leaving barely a few crumbs for the rest of them. So, Mila invented a trap to guard the cookie jar at night, when Camilo liked to sneak midnight snacks.

The cookie jar was under a system that involved an invisible string attached to the lid. Once someone picked it up to get a cookie, it activated a series of pulleys and gears Mila stashed in the kitchen, and covered the thief in blue glitter.

And, it worked. But Camilo wasn't the one who got hit. This time it was Isabela. Mila could hardly keep from laughing when she found out "golden child" Isabela was the one trying to sneak herself a cookie.

"Don't tell Abuela about this, por favor." Isabela begged, embarrassed. She knew Mirabel would never let her live this down, even more than Abuela.

"My lips are sealed." Mila promised, making the zip motion across her mouth.

Present day...

Sure, Mila's inventions did face a lot of trial and error. Well, mostly error. But she had a lot of inventions that did make it. Like, one of her best was one she called the Uplift of the future, which was basically an elevator that worked with a pulley and a big platform that she built for Bruno's tower so he, or anyone else could get up to the top in a matter of minutes instead of walking up literally a thousand stairs. She even built a huge slide to get down. Sure, it probably seems silly because Bruno might be a little old for slides, but he loved it anyway. And Mila had a lot of fun testing it out when she first built it.

Mila grabbed her invention satchel before heading out with her dog and meeting Mirabel to have breakfast and then head out to the village with the rest of the family.

Mirabel and Mila walked together as many children of the village followed them, asking them about the family's gifts. Of course, Mirabel was happy to share how amazing her family's gifts were.

Tia Pepa's mood affected the weather, so the temperature could get pretty willy nilly if she was unhappy. Tio Bruno, or Papa to Mila, saw the future. Mirabel's mom Julieta had recipes that were remedies for real. And of course, there were many children in the house.

"Time for a grandkid roundup!" Mirabel exclaimed.

"First off, there's Tia Pepa's kids," Mila began.

"Cousin Dolores can hear a pin drop, Camilo shapeshifts, and Antonio gets his gift today." Mirabel listed.

"Then there's me," said Mila. "My dad Bruno first had me. And I have siblings, the twins Rosella and Pedro, who won't get gifts for two years, seven months, and three more days."

"And my older sisters, Isabela and Luisa. One strong, one graceful, perfect in every way."

"Isabela grows a flower, the town goes wild," said Mila, picking a few flowers Isabela just grew, and some made Chika sneeze when she sniffed them.

"She's the perfect golden child," said Mirabel, and then she and Mila felt themselves being lifted as the bridge they stood on rose. "And Luisa's super strong. The beauty and the brawn do no wrong."

Chika barked.

"And let's not forget my dog Chika." Mila said, scratching the dog's ears.

"Mila rescued her, and Chika's stuck by our side ever since." Mirabel laughed as the dog jumped up and licked her. "So that's everyone in the family Madrigal. Adios."

"But what are your gifts?" One kid asked.

Instead of answering, Mirabel played the accordion and then began running off, Mila following.

Mila knew it was a touchy subject for Mirabel being the only kid without a gift, but the former insisted that it wasn't any better for her.

Keeping her gift secret, Mila was constantly bombarded with people asking her what her gift was. Her door didn't give them a very obvious answer.

On Mila's door, it just had the name "Milagro," and a picture of Mila, but with an image that looked like a picture of her brain, and there were question marks surrounding her head. People had all sorts of guesses. Basically, they knew that her gift had something to do with her mind, which made sense since Mila was known to have a very strong mind.

Some thought Mila's gift was reading minds. Some thought her power was just asking a lot of questions or answering them. Some thought super advanced intelligence was her gift. And some thought her gift was having a lot of ideas.

They were partially right. Mila was a very intelligent young woman, but she was already smart on her own. She was the brains of the entire casita, she was the top of her class in school and graduated two years early. No one had even been inside of Mila's magical room. Not even her parents had ever been in there.

"Is your gift having a really good memory?" One kid asked Mila.

"Nope," said Mila without even looking at them.

"What about Mirabel?" The kids asked again.

"Run," said Mila, and she, Mirabel and Chika ran, ran, ran as fast as they could back to Casita, the children following suite.

The kids asked once more about the twin cousins' gifts. "Well..." Mira and Mila began, only to he interrupted by...

"Mirabel! Milagro!" That turned out to be Abuela, who looked confused at the girls. "What are you two doing?"

"Oh, they were just asking about the family and-" Mirabel started, only to be interjected by a little girl. "MIRABEL WAS ABOUT TO TELL US ABOUT HER SUPER AWESOME GIFT!"

"Oh. Mirabel didn't get one," said Dolores, and she squeaked before leaving with Abuela.

The kids all looked at Mirabel.

"You didn't get a gift?" Asked one girl, sounding surprised and sad.

Mirabel was about to say something, until a man with a donkey came, bearing a big basket of treats.

"Mirabel. Delivery. I got you the special since you're the only Madrigal kid with no gift." Said the man as he gave Mirabel the basket. "I call it the not special special, since..."

"Since she has no gift?" Mila raised a brow.

"Your gift is mind reading, isn't it?" The man guessed.

"Sorry not sorry to burst your bubble, but not even close." Mila said.

"Thanks." Mirabel said.

"Oh, and tell Antonio good luck. Last gift ceremony was a bummer, the last one being yours."

"Way to rub it in," said Mila with sarcasm and a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"If I was you, I would be really sad." Said a girl.

"Well, my little friend, I am not because the truth is gift or no gift, I am just as special as the rest of my family." Mirabel said.

"Exactly. Just like I don't need a gift to be a great inventor, Mirabel doesn't need a magical gift to be an important member of this family." Mila said.

Inconveniently, the family started using their gifts.

"Who wants more pink?" Isabela called, growing more flowers on the casita.

Pepa made a rainbow, and Luisa lifted a cart with a donkey.

"Where should I leave the cart?

"Maybe Mirabel's gift is being in denial." Said the same girl from before.