𑁍༆𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐘𝐨𝐮...!
ᶠᵗ ᵃˡᵉˣ ᵃˡᵛᵃʳᵉᶻ
008. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁🌠.•✩

VALERIA'S POV !

I was in the kitchen helping Lydia and Alex cook. "Papito, taste the pollo con ajo. My Abuelita taught me how to make this when I was a little girl. They key is to add just a little bit of cigar ash." Lydia put the spoon his mouth. Alex squinted his face at first but then shook his head indicating that it was good.

"My Abuelita used to put vicodin in her coffee. And her lemonade and her sandwiches." Schneider stated.

"Sounds like she had a problem." Matt said.

"That woman had many problems." Sofia shook her head. "So, you and Alex..." Sofia trailed off as she looked up at me.

"What about us?" I asked, chuckling. Matt and Sofia smirked at me. "I hate you guys." I laughed. Penelope walked through the front door and slammed her keys down on the table.

"Mami, where have you been? I've been cooking these frijoles for 20 minutes." Alex said. "Ugh, I try to make a house a home." He sighed. I grabbed his face and squished it.

"Ay pobrecito." I smiled as he frowned at me.

"I was driving in freaking circles, looking for a spot. I had to park by the lake again and get chased by the geese. That big one either hates me or is in love with me. Either way, I don't like it." Penelope rambled.

"Why don't you just park in you garage?" Schneider mentioned. I went up to Alex and hugged him from behind.

"What? We don't have a garage." Penelope took a sip of her coffee.

"Yeah you do... it's part of the lease." I said. Lydia was by the table making werid movements.

"Is she having a seizure?" Matt whispered.

"Matt, you dumbass. That's not what a seizure looks like." Sofia said in a duh tone. Matt rolled his eyes at her and shook his head.

"I figured Schneider was using all the garages for storage." Penelope said. Lydia was still making werid faces and movements with her hands.

"Don't be ridiculous. I use my garage for pickling and sea horse breeding." Schneider walked in front of her. "Anyways, of course you have a garage it's downstairs. It's-."

Schneider was cut off by Lydia slapping his butt. "Oh..." he trails off. "There seems to be a misunderstanding." He turned back to Penelope. "See, um..." He clears his throat. "Little parched. Let me just hydrate here." He starts chugging a glass of water.

"Why did I not know I had a garage?" Penelope asked as she glanced at Lydia.

------

Before we knew it, we were all standing in front of a garage entirely full of boxes. All of our jaws drop and we turn our heads to look at Lydia. "I may have put a few things in there."

"What the hell..." Sofia said shocked as she stared at the insane amount of boxes. We moved a couple of boxes out of the way since we couldn't even go inside.

"I cannot believe that you've been hiding this from me all this time." Penelope scoffed.

"Oh? I thought I have mentioned it." Lydia shook her head. We wandered around the garage looking through a couple of boxes.

"Come one everybody let's get all of this junk out so I can park my car!" Penelope yelled.

"No, no! This is not junk. I need everything here!" Lydia shouted. She put her hands and one of her legs up attempting to block us from coming near the boxes.

"You need a whole box of gardening gloves? You don't have a garden." Matt questioned.

"What if papito wants to be Micheal Jackson for Halloween?" Lydia asked. Alex picked up a white glove and spun around.

"Hehe." He said trying imitate Michael Jackson's voice.

"Please don't do that again." I shook my head.

"I'll be spiderman." He said. He took the glove off and dropped it back into the original box it was in.

"There are, like, four boxes of dusty old magazines. We could at least recycle them." Elena mentioned.

"Instead of your own Abuelita you think of the planet?!" Lydia yelled, waving her arms around. She took the magazines from Elena's hand and put them back. "Keep your filthy green hands off my Vanidades magazines."

"Come on! There has to be something in here we can get rid of." Sofia said.

"There is." Lydia looked at Sofia before looking at Penelope.

"I'm not letting this go, mother. I'm done parking ten blocks away and being chased by the geese!" Penelope raised her voice.

I walked away and started rummaging through boxes. I found and old photo album and started looking through it. "What's that?" Alex asked coming behind me.

"An old photo album." I flipped through the pages. "He kinda looks like you." I pointed to a man in a picture posing with a young girl who looked like Lydia. I assumed it was her and Berto when they were younger.

"That's my abuelo." Alex smiled.

"He's handsome, just like you." I smiled up at him. He pulled me into a hug.

"Okay I will get rid of some stuff. And papito and Matt will help me." Lydia said grabbing their hands.

"You make sure she does it." Penelope pointed at them.

THE NEXT DAY !

Sofia came dress shopping with me since  homecoming was coming up in a few weeks. I wanted to match with Alex but he still doesn't know what he's wearing.

"How about you wear white. It goes with everything." Sofia mentioned. I shook my head and began searching for things in my size.

I picked up a couple of things that I liked and went into the dressing room. I tried on a couple until I saw this one

"I think I found the one!" I yelled from behind the curtain. I walked out and showed Sofia. She smiled.

"You look so good. Alex will love it." She said. We bought the dress and stayed out for a while. We don't really get much time to hang out anymore so I'm glad that we could today.

MATT'S POV !

"So, did you get rid of some stuff?" Penelope asked as we stood in front of the garage door.

"Even better than that. No." Lydia smiled. "But we rearranged everything so there is plenty of room for your car."

------

The car slowly drove into the garage. Penelope tried to get out of the car but couldn't because the boxes were in the way. "Can the gaege door even shut?" Penelope asked.

Alex tried to closed the door but it stopped on top of the trunk. "Kind of." I said.

"Now back up so I can get out." Lydia demanded.

------

VALERIA'S POV !

"We're back!" Sofia yelled as we walked into the Alvarez apartment.

"Ooh, let me see the dress." Lydia smiled. I took it out of the bag and showed it to her. "That is going to look beautiful on you."

"Thank you Lydia. Where are the boys?" I asked.

"They are with Lupe at the thrift store. Looking for my magazines." She replied.

------

Elena, Sofia, Lydia and I were all sitting on the couch looking at Lydia's old VHS tapes. "I am sorry you are sad about your job." Lydia kissed Elena's forehead. Apparently, Schneider fired her. "Let the love boat set its course for happiness."

"I don't know if I want to watch this." Sofia said.

"Pretty progressive... that Julie, the cruise director, was so openly gay." Elena said.

"W-what? Huh?" Lydia studders.

"Alright, mami, we found the Vanidades!" Penelope exclaimed walking inside with the boys, they all had a box in their hands. I went the hug Alex but I quickly stepped back. He smelt kinda bad. I realized Matt smelled the same.

"Why do you guys smell like that?" I squinted my face.

"Penelope shoved us into a dumpster." Matt said.

"Well I'm sure as hell not hugging you until you take a shower." Sofia stepped away from Matt.

Alex looked at me and tapped his cheek trying to tell me that he wanted a kiss. I shook my head. "Yeah, no." I said. He pouted and took the magazines out of the box.

"Okay, I will start dinner." Lydia walked into the kitchen.

"Wait, where are you going? We have to find your savings bonds! Everybody, grab a stack and start looking. Mami, come on. Let's look for the bonds!" Penelope exclaimed. We all started looking through them.

"There are no bonds." Lydia said an evil tone.

"Excuse me?" Penelope questioned.

"The things you are looking for? They do not exist. Haha!" She smiled.

"You lied to me?" Penelope turned to her.

"Do you think if I had secret money I would be shopping at Marshalls? The answer is yes. I love Marshalls. And I will shop there even more." Lydia said.

"What about my college?" Elena asked.

"You'll get a student loan." Lydia replied.

"What about my modeling school?" Alex asked.

"You'll get a scholarship."

"You want to be a model?" Sofia giggled.

"Don't judge me!" Alex huffed and stuck his tongue out at her.

"Are you freaking kidding me right now?" Penelope yelled.

"Don't mess with my stuff." Lydia got in her face.

"We spent the day in a dumpster!" Penelope said getting in her face aswell.

"We!" Alex and Matt yelled in unison.

"You threw us into the dumpster! You did nothing." Matt said frustrated.

"Calm down, you have to watch what you say around her before she kills you one of these days." Alex said.

"You threw away tu mami's most cherished cositas!" Lydia pointed her finger in Penelope's face.

"Oh, I'm about to drop a match in mi mami's most cherished cositas!" Penelope replied.

"And I'm about to to take a baseball bat to your precious car!" Lydia threatened.

"Try me, vieja." Penelope slammed her hand on the counter. Lydia gasped at Penelope's words.

"I will. And I have six bats to choose from in the garage. Wood, Wiffile, metal-" Lydia said in an evil tone.

"Mami." Penelope cut her off. "I work my nalgas off to support this family, and I deserve a place to park my car! And besides, you never use any of this stuff anyway. You just pack it away forever!"

"Some of them are for special occasions!" Lydia yelled back.

"Oh, like the precious China we've never even seen?" Penelope asked.

"I was keeping it safe for you, to pass it down to Alex and Elena, so they can pass it down to their children." Lydia tried to defend herself.

"Why don't we just pass down and empty box that says 'china' it'll be lighter." Penelope suggested. "Mami, you have a problem." Penelope calmed down a bit. "There is an entire television show devoted to people like you."

"I know, and it's called Dancing with the Stars and it is fabulous!" Lydia waved her arms around.

"I meant, Hoarders." Penelope said. "It is a sickness to keep worthless things."

"I came to America with nothing! All is valuable when you have nothing."

"I get it... But this broken lawn chair? A cracked teapot? Mami, what is this? This ratty, used umbrella. Mami, what kind of value could this possibly have?" Penelope stammered.

Lydia picked up the umbrella that Penelope was holding. She began to explain that, when she was pregnant with Penelope she announced it to Berto under that exact umbrella.

"That's beautiful, Mami." Penelope looked down.

"Would you like to know what papi and I did on this lawn chair?" Lydia asked. Elena quickly took her hand off of the chair. Sofia faked gagged and scrunched her face up. We all looked at her in horror. "It may sound silly, but even these old magazines mean something to me. They were all I could read when I got here, because they were in Spanish. And it made me feel like a girl again."

Lydia began to cry and so did Penelope. "So, what do we do?" Penelope sighed. "You want to keep these things that matter to you, and I want to park my car without being bitten by a goose. I don't know how to fix this."

"I think I do." Elena said.

------

It was the next day. Elena built shelves in the garage so Lydia could store her boxes and Penelope could park without any trouble with the geese.

Karissa's messages...!

So I decided that chapters of this book are going to be posted on fridays and sometimes if I have the time I'll post twice a day. And I couldn't find a song for this chapter):