*Sam's POV*

It was Saturday mid-day, most people would be at work, or out having fun, but we waited anxiously by the door.

Tommorow was the first day of the patriotic fiestas! And that meant-

"They're here!" Cathy shoved me onto the ground and opened the door.

A bus similar to the one we came on parked by the park, and out came, Abuela, Tía Elena, Tío benjamín, Martin, María, Mariposa, Diana, Lucía, Rosa, and Marco, oh and, the rest of the people on the bus too.

  "Ay! It's been so long! Come give me a hug mijas!"

"Abuela, it's been a week." We laughed as we hugged her.

As soon as we got done hugging her, Mariposa and Maria attacked us.

"I missed you aunties." She was hugging Cathy's feet and looked up to speak.

Her lisp had gotten better.

"Y los chúchos?" Someone asked.

"They're fine! We left 'em with the neighbor."

"Well, come in! We have to see who's sleeping on the floor tonight." I just realized that would be a problem, how are we all going to sleep?

"What about the futons?"

"The what?"

"Whenever we came over, your parents had two or three futons in the closet!"

"What closet!?" Cathy and I were very confused at this point.

"Aish, let's go show you your own house." 

Everyone chuckled at that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

So apparently, there was a closet in the main area, behind a couch. It was no surprise why we'd missed it.

And sure enough, two huge futons were in there. Luckily, we had extra bedsheets.

"Ok! So I have things planned! Go decide where everyone sleeps, we're gonna clean for a bit, and then change into active wear!"

"Oh God."

Cathy came over and stood next to me.

"Are we taking them to the river?"

"You bet."

"This is gonna be so much fun! I'll go change in advance!"

And that we did.

The house still wasn't extremely clean, well everyone sure did change that. We blasted some music while we swept and mopped.

"Es, can, da, lo!"

"Girl, you're so off-key."

While we did that, the kids took care of the dusting, surprisingly they were good at it. We polished the table, and cleaned the bathroom, and even washed down the mirrors. When we were done, the house looked like it had been cleaned by Mom.

"Qui'oras son?!" Yelled Cathy.

And on time the bells struck five times in a row.

"Nevermind!" She yelled again.

"Who the heck just died?" I think Tio asked.

"Oh um, in the town, the bells ring every half hour. It's been broken for a bit though. They ring every hour, like right now it rang five times, that means it's five. In a half-hour it'll ring once, meaning five-thirty." The concept wasn't easy to explain, but I sure tried.

"Speaking of five! Are y'all ready to go!?"

"Um, where?"

"You'll see! Now go change!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We decided to leave Tio and Abuela at the house, honestly, I don't think it'd be too safe for them to walk this terrain.

"Can anybody tell us where we're going?"

"Once we get to the cemetery I'll tell you."

"But didn't you just- ok, nevermind."

So we walked for a bit, some people were already complaining, others enjoying it. If only they knew how much longer was left.

"Ok, so something me and Cathy like to do, is walk down to the river! We decided to take you there too!"

"Ugh! But its more walking!" Complained Lucia.

"Girl, it's good for your health, plus, rivers are always fun! Look on the bright side!"

"Thank you, Rosa! Now, let's continue."

With that, we ventured on, very quietly for some reason. So once we got to the forest, Cathy decided to make it a bit more fun.

"Bienvenidos! A, chuñas y perdidas!"

She immediately got some laughs.

"Pero no estamos chuñas!"

"Ni perdidas!"

"That doesn't matter right now!" She started walking backward as she spoke.

"We've been lost in this forest for a long time now! We've yet to find a water source- Crap! Ow! What the heck! Don't step there!"

We immediately stepped back, and we saw there was a huge ant colony where Cathy had stepped.

"Girl, you ok?"

"No! Help me wack 'em off!"

So for a good three minutes, everyone watched as we wacked her leg.

"Anyway! Let's move on! But be careful."

And once again, we went forward. And once again, Cathy started her skit.

"Yes, yes, we just passed the deadly, um, Goliath ants, yes. But they were no match for us! Right team!"

Most of us were chuckling. Goliath ants. Sure.

Once we got to the river, we separated into two parts. Some of us took the vines, others crossed on rocks. Neither Cathy or I fell in the river this time. This time... It was Maria.
Luckily, she fell softly and was just having a good time. We got her up, and she insisted that the show must go on!

Lucia was the one most desperate to get back home, so, she decided to walk ahead. Bad idea.

"Ok be careful there's some wiring!"

"Some wha- OUCH!"

Needless to say, she cut the in-between of her eyebrows with it. And now she was even more pissed.

"We've reached our final view! The field of cows!"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, our first time coming here we noticed there were cows."

"The best way to get out is chest to land!" Someone yelled. 

"Wait!"

Too late. Diana lunged herself to the ground, Lucia got in the way, and they ended up pushed against a tree. They looked funny to us, but they probably weren't having the best time.

"Seeing as we've gotten nowhere, that concludes today's episode of Chuñas y Perdidas. The title today was, hormigueros y heridas!"

Finally, we left the cows, and were walking back home. But Rosa decided to have some fun.

"Look at that mango!"

We all looked up to see someone's tree with a really round mango.

"Sam, come here!"

She pulled me and I stood under the tree. She then, with a huge stick, started wacking at it.

"Catch it and run!"

So I caught it, everyone saw I caught it, then everyone booked it along with me. Until we saw we had done that whole thing in front of a policeman.

"Um, good day, sir."

He smiled playfully and left.

Now let's go home and eat it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

We came home, and sat down immediately. Those hikes really take a toll on your legs.

"Anyone up for some bread and coffee?"

Well, it turns out everyone was.

"Welp, someone go put on the coffee, Maria, Mariposa, Cathy and I will go get bread."

They looked at each other happily and rushed to hold our hands.

"Here girls, this should be enough." Abuela pulled out five dollar coins and gave them to us.

"Thank you. We'll be back soon!"

"Why did you bring us?"

"Cause it's fun." I started swinging my arm along with hers.

"It smells good too."

"Can I get, a, dotun?"

"Aw, you meant a donut?"

"Yesh!"

"Sure, love. You too Maria, if you want one."

"It's fine."

So we went to get bread, mostly semita, and went back to the house. The bakery was only a little uphill anyway.

And as we all sat down in the main room, having some pastries and coffee, laughing and talking all whilst the sun shone through the balcones of the door, I realized that there was no place I'd rather be.

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