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countessofravenclaw · 5 months

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Puede la ondulación cambiar una marea? part eight

Have you ever imagined what would happen if instead of of making Ambar Sol, Sharon would have aproached her problem with more level-headedness? What if, instead of throwing her daughter's life into a curve she just fires the Valentes, in hopes that they go back to Mexico and never find out the truth? Well, it was never going to be that easy, "everything you want you can achieve" being the family motto and all the for the Valentes after all. Monica and Miguel, could easily find another job, and so they do, with another family. A family that ends up being a bit of a surprise for Luna and all her friends.

“Lass uns später noch einmal darüber reden. Danke dir übrigens!” Gastón heard his mother speak on the phone as he entered the dining room. It had been a while since he had heard her speak German.

Both of his parents spoke few languages outside of English—because who didn’t know how to speak that? They both spoke Portuguese, German, at least moderate French and Gastón wasn’t sure which Scandinavian language it was, but his Dad knew some of that as well.

“Darling,” Isla took off her handsfree earpiece as she saw him and looked at her watch, “you’re up already?”

“Yeah,” Gastón nodded, “Did I interrupt your business call?”

“No, it was ending anyway.” Isla shook her head and walked closer to him around the table, “How are you feeling? Should you be up?”

“I’ve spent the last 36 hours staring at four walls, and I’m getting sick of it,” Gastón sighed, “I’m good.”

“You sure?” Isla looked at him, “You’re not having any chest pain?”

“No,” Gastón shook his head again.

“Blurry vision or any memory problems?”

“I can recite for you the full fire department ranking system if you want,” He sat down on a chair, “Mom, you’re just going through a checklist.”

“You bet I am,” Gastón had never seen so much worry in either of his parents' eyes than during the past few days. “Two days ago, you were in the hospital. I’m sorry if we're being a bit cautious, but that is our right.”

“Okay,” He sighed again, “Where’s Dad?”

“Calvin gave us a contact in the OFI, so he’s talking to them. We are not going to wait for any official report from the school to know what actually happened. You’re not going back in there before we do.”

“Morning!!” Luna jumped into the dining room.

“Morning,” Isla looked at her, “How are you feeling?”

“100 percent!” Luna jumped up briefly. “I texted Juliana last night, and the training starts back up tomorrow and since the school is still canceled so we can train for longer, which is amazing. I thought I’d go to the rink today to get a feel for it back. I’ve been away from the rink for a few days, and I honestly feel like I can’t breathe.”

“That is maybe not the best idea.” Isla responded to her.

“What?” Luna stared.

“That you go to the rink,” Isla crossed her arm.

“Why?”

“You were in the hospital too, let's not forget that,” Isla looked at Luna, “Smoke inhalation is serious, no matter what level. My father taught me that a long time ago, the biggest reason for fire fatalities is the smoke and carbon monoxide, not the actual fire. That is why they wear those masks. The doctors said that you should take it easy for a few days, and since you don’t even have practice, you shouldn’t go.”

“But I feel fine,” Luna tried, “I’ve been resting for two days. I need to train. It’s important!”

“Your health is much more important. I’m sorry Luna, but this isn’t your decision to make. It’s ours, and the answer is no. You can go tomorrow, when you’ve rested today and let the antibiotics do their job. There is no reason for you to try to exert yourself as soon as you can.”

“But…” Luna sat down.

“No buts. We’re responsible for you, and you have to allow us to do that.”

“It is very pointless to try to argue with her,” Gastón said to Luna, “I’ve tried for almost 18 years.”

“And you haven’t succeeded many times, have you?” Isla looked at him slightly more amused.

“And this is just one of them, it is worse when there are two.”

“What was that?” Marco walked into the dining room.

“Nothing.” Gastón said quickly as his dad looked at him. “And if you’re about to ask me the same checklist, don’t bother, Mom already did that. I’m good.”

“Good.” Marco nodded as he placed his hand on Isla’s back.

“What did they say?” She asked him.

“The investigation has been completed, and the report that they will give to the school classifies the fire as an accident caused by flammable printer inks being stored improperly. The storage unit had a distribution board that short circuited and the sparks caught on the fluids. They never should have been stored there.”

“So, Blake has a logistic issue?” Isla shook her head, “Someone could have died.”

“It is unbelievable,” She and Marco looked at Gastón, “It is a big hit for the school administration that can’t just be damage controlled. They’ll be forced to take a hard look at things now.”

“So, am I allowed to go to school anymore or not?” Gastón asked, “Because it's kind of hard to graduate if I’m not allowed to step into the building.”

“We’ll talk to the school board tomorrow,” Isla responded, “but as of now if all the necessary security measures have been taken, which they have promised they’d do, Luna can go on Tuesday. Gastón, the doctor signed you off for at least 12 days, so you’re not going anywhere before that. Don’t you even dare to think about the rink.”

“Wasn’t planning on.” He sighed while looking at his phone. He could admit that much that he was in no shape to actually skate right now.

“Oh, and Luna,” Marco changed the subject, “I also had the chance to talk with Lukie.”

“Who?” Luna looked confused.

“She’s the associate that Alexei has in the case of your visitations,” Marco explained, “Unfortunately, the in-person visits are being pushed to one time every three weeks.”

“That’s like once a month!!” Luna exclaimed, “I can’t see Mom and Dad more than that?”

“It is extremely unfair, but they’re arguing the severity of the case. Lukie said that this should be temporary, and she’ll set it straight, because it is infringing on your rights. Important thing is that you have rights and one of them actually is phone times.”

“What are those?” Luna asked again. All the legal terms had gone right over her head.

“You’re entitled to one hour phone calls, twice a week.”

“I’ll get to talk with Mom and Dad?!?!” Luna jumped up from the table.

“Yes,” Marco handed Luna a phone. “I scheduled one for you for today, at 12. The call will come from the detention facility, there is someone surveying it on your parents’ end and it will be recorded, so you can’t plan a jailbreak, but that’s better than nothing. We can go over later how you can schedule the calls yourself. It will come to this.”

“Why can’t they just call my phone?” Luna asked, even if she was almost too excited to care.

“We are not giving the detention facility your phone number,” Isla shook her head, “We don’t trust the place, and the more it is out there, the more it can leak. That is an old phone that we got a temporary operator on, works for phone calls just fine.”

“You said 12?” Luna asked and suddenly checked her own phone, “OMG! That’s like in an hour. I need to call Simon about this!!” She jumped up from the table and turned to leave before turning back and looking at Isla and Marco, “Thank You.”

Then she ran off.

“This should have been disclosed as an opportunity from the beginning,” Isla said Marco. “Did Lukie say why it hadn't?”

“She promised to get to the bottom of this.” Marco nodded. “But honestly, I don’t know. The police and the facilities aren’t clearly thinking what sort of effects this situation can have on a child.”

“Hey! Luna just zoomed past me. Has something happened?” Suddenly Gastón heard a voice behind him.

“Nina?” He got up from the chair and turned around to see her walk into the dining room. “How did you get in here?”

“We gave her the key and clearances when you were in the hospital,” Isla explained, “Did we not tell you?”

“No,” Gastón shook his head as he walked to his girlfriend, “You didn’t tell me either.”

“I thought you knew.” She responded before he closed her in a tight hug—not as tight as he would have wanted though, given the burn on his arms was sensitive to pressure.

“We thought it would be best for you if she gets in here as easily as possible.”

“You thought right,” Gastón smiled—

He momentarily closed his eyes and had to place his hand on the table to steady himself for a moment, before he almost lost his balance.

“Sit down.” His dad had rushed to his side as soon as he had started feeling dizzy. He placed his hand on his forehead, “You’re looking really pale. Do you feel feverish at all?”

“No,” Gastón shook his head as he sat down, “Why would I have a fever?”

“It would be a sign that you’re developing an infection.” He felt three pairs of concerned eyes land on him as he sat back down on the chair. Marco’s hand moved to his shoulder. “At that point if there is a sliver of a sign, we won’t be having a conversation about why, but we’ll already be going. You wanna argue with me about alarm symptoms?”

Who wanted to argue about taking illness symptoms seriously with a person who had to look over his own parents his whole adolescent and young adult life while they slowly lost their battle with cancer?

“No,” Gastón sighed, “but I’m…”

“If you say that you’re fine one more time… We’re not taking any chances here, not with you.”

“Okay,” Gastón relented, “My head’s killing me, I feel dizzy and fatigued and my throat kind of hurts. Is that what you want to hear?”

“Yes.” The word came unanimously from his parents' mouths.

“Your condition was serious enough to warrant over 24 hours in the hospital. It is not gonna go back to normal in a few days, just because you got discharged.” Marco continued, “That’s not gonna be something we're gonna take lightly and nor should you, no matter how stubborn you want to be about it. Your grandmother was like that though, so I guess the genes make sense. You really should go lie down and try to at least drink something every hour to keep the blood sugar up.”

“I’ll take him,” Nina said and pulled Gastón by the arm. “Come on.”

“Well, it is good to know that when he doesn’t want to listen to us, he listens to her.” Isla remarked.

“We better keep her on our side.” Marco wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

“It does do good to see him be so love struck. I stand by my statement. He has your eyes, the light is shining from them exactly the same way.”

“We both have a good reason for it.” He kissed her one her temple before sighing, “I have about ten thousand emails I need to respond to.”

“I’ll join you in a minute,” Isla responded, “We haven’t picked up the post in at least a week. We really need to transfer all the bills into online ones.”

***

“Yeah, I get to talk with them!!” Luna sat on her bed while talking to Simon. “I miss Mom and Dad so much.”

“That is great,” Simon responded. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” Luna rolled her eyes, “I mean I felt like coughing yesterday still, but now it feels like I am bursting with energy. I miss the rink.”

“Why not come today?” Simon suggested, “Since you’re not sick anymore. Juliana has us working late even if we’re not training.”

“I wanted to, but I’m not allowed,” Luna sighed, “I can come tomorrow for the training, but today I need to rest.”

“You’re being kept as a prisoner?” Simon’s tone changed.

“Not like that,” Luna laughed slightly, “but it’s not like I can sneak out. The gate keeps a record of who opens it, I think, or something like that. I guess, I’ll have to admit that they’re right, kind of, and Mom and Dad wouldn’t want me to overdo it either.”

***

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Simon hung up the phone and sat on the stage of Jam and Roller with his guitar.

“Was that Luna?” Jim and Yam walked to him.

“Yeah,” Simon nodded.

“How’s she doing?” Yam asked. “I still can’t believe the whole fire thing. School is starting back up on Tuesday.”

“We thought we’d ask Nina, but she’s not here is she?” Jim looked around, “I guess we could call Luna herself too. We’d go visit her, but we don’t know where she lives.”

“You wouldn't be able to get in even if you did,” Simon sighed, “There is a heavy-duty gate there.”

“Was that what you meant when you mentioned someone being kept a prisoner?” Yam asked, “...or was that about her parents. That is still an absolutely horrible situation for Luna. How can the world be so unjust?”

“Yeah, I don’t think I could survive that.” Jim leaned her head on Yam’s shoulder.

“Luna is strong,” Simon nodded, “She’s alright, that's what she said. But they aren’t letting her come to the rink. Apparently Gastón’s parents are quite protective.”

“Gastón’s parents? Protective?” Jim and Yam stared at him. “He has never seemed like he has strict parents. From what we have seen, he has gotten to do what he wants most part.”

“Yeah, and it’s not like making sure she’ll rest after getting stuck in a fire is super controlling.” Yam continued, “My mom wouldn’t let me come to rink if it had been me, and she’s a doctor.”

“Mine too,” Jim nodded, “I mean, that she would make me rest and that she’s a doctor. Twinsies.”

“Wait, do you know them too?” Simon asked, confused.

“No not personally like Matteo does or how Nina does now too,” Jim shook her head, “But we do know that they’re kind of a big deal, I guess everyone does. Apparently Isla and Marco Perida are considered quite a power couple in some circles.”

“I’ve maybe looked them up a few times,” Yam admitted, “Not for Gastón’s sake or anything—he’d probably hate for any special consideration—but because Isla has such a beautiful style.”

“I think we can all agree that none of us could have ever predicted that out of every crazy scenario that’s out there, Luna and Gastón would become siblings.” Jim laughed.

“They aren’t siblings.” Simon noted.

“Good as, though. Nina must be happy. She’s getting to have her best friend and boyfriend at the same house and basically as brother and sister.”

***

“Thanks for saving me.” Gastón said as Nina pulled the door to his room shut. “Mom and Dad, they just—”

“I didn’t save you from anything,” Nina crossed her arms and looked at him disapprovingly. “I agree with them.” She walked closer and took his face into her hands, “You look terrible. You need to lie down.”

“Okay,” Gastón nodded and sat on his bed. Truth be told, he was feeling quite a bit of drowsiness and fatigue. “Only if you come here.”

“You should actually try to rest.” Nina looked at him skeptically.

“I feel worse if you’re not next to me.”

Nina laughed slightly before lying next to him on the bed. She ran her hand on his right forearm, on top of the bandage. “Does this hurt?”

“A little bit.” He nodded slightly.

“Sorry, I’ll stop.”

“If I make it to the competition, I’ll need to wear long sleeves.” Gastón remarked. “We don’t want to scare the judges. I mean my face alone will be a sight, because there is no hope that the scar will disappear in two months' time.”

“You can always ask Jazmin to cover it up.” Nina suggested while tracing the stitches on his forehead. Gastón was right that it wasn't the prettiest sight, but it was not like she cared. He was good looking either way.

“I’ll probably have to do that, but I do hope that it fades,” Gastón sighed, “For Mom and Dad’s sake if no one else. I don’t want there to be a visual reminder of all of this that they need to see every day. I mean they’re already so freaked out.”

“Anyone would be, especially in their situation.” Nina ran her hand through his hair, “They can’t stand the thought of losing you.”

“I know,” Gastón nodded, “I mean the feeling is mutual, especially now, as we get along so well at the moment.”

“When have you not gotten along with your parents?” Nina asked.

“Never, honestly, at least like that,” He nodded, “We don’t have any drama. But like, I guess what I mean is that, now as they’ve been forced to work more from here and not been able to travel as much, they’re so much less stressed and not overcompensating all the time…and I like that they’re home.”

“Of course you do.”

“I might even believe that they could soon be recovering workaholics,” Gastón continued, “And…Luna’s situation is not ideal in the slightest, but Mom and Dad were never meant to be one and done parents. They absolutely didn’t want to be but were forced to. Now that they have someone else dividing and redirecting that energy, it is helping them immensely. It is not all directed at me, which is actually really nice, because it could get a little overwhelming.”

“Not just anyone would be able to look after a child not their own so naturally.” Nina noted, “Luna’s also easy to love, but it is admirable. My parents weren’t able to take care of one kid, their own, me, together. I guess the fact that they barely could stand each other factors into it heavily, but that’s like the opposite of your parents. They can’t keep their eyes off each other.”

“Like I can’t keep my eyes off you,” Gastón brushed some hair out of her face. “I guess it is a family trait.”

They lied in comfortable silence for a while.

“Are you cold?” Nina ran her hand on his forearm. “I can grab a blanket…”

“I’m okay. Don’t worry.” Gastón laughed slightly as Nina started getting up from the bed.

“I’m gonna soon respond the same way your dad did,” She shook her head. “I’m gonna worry, especially when you tell me not to.”

“Okay, okay,” Gastón relented, “I’m not okay, but the only one who can tell how I am feeling is me too. So, you need to believe me as well. I’m not cold and that would be a fever symptom.”

“I’m sorry,” Nina sat back down on the bed next to his head and ran her fingers through his hair, “I just… I don’t know what I would have done if something had happened to you. I love you and I’m gonna worry about you. I never thought this could even be possible.”

“You need to give yourself some credit. I’m the one who had to chase you down.” Gastón looked up at her. This wasn’t the first time the thought of how beautiful a ring would look on her finger had crossed his mind. He was turning 18 next week, so obviously it was an absolutely loco of a thought, but God, he loved her. There were no limits or rules on love, but he would need to tough it out for at least a few years, before making that dream a reality.

“Gastón?” Suddenly there was a knock on the door and his mother’s voice, “Can we come in?”

“Sure.” Gastón pushed himself up more in a sitting position as his parents came through the door.

“Don’t. You don’t need to get up.”

“I’m not on bed rest,” He shook his head, “I read the doctor's note too. Anyways, what is it?”

“This was in the post.” Isla handed Gastón an brown envelope that had the crest of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina printed on it. He had applied to a few universities in Buenos Aires during the fall after deciding that he didn’t want to go to Oxford. He had completely forgotten about that during all the mayhem and that responses would actually start coming at some point.

“These come in post?” He turned it in his hands.

“Apparently from UCA they do.” Marco responded. “It’s still pretty early for acceptance letters for most universities.”

“It could be a rejection,” Gastón shook his head, “Those are probably easy to pump out.”

“Stop that. You don’t know before you open it.” Nina placed her hands on his shoulders.

“Okay.” Gastón shook his head again and ripped the envelope open. The letter was a few pages long. On the top of the first page there was the crest of the university again. The actual text started below it…

We are pleased to extend you an official offer of admission to the Class of 2022 at Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina in the faculty of Exact Sciences and Engineering…

“I got in.”

“That’s amazing!” Nina hugged him tightly and kissed him on the cheek. Gastón clearly wasn’t satisfied with that as he turned his head and lifted her chin so he could softly kiss her on the lips. Nina forgot at that moment that they were literally in front of his parents, but she didn’t really care.

“We are so proud of you.” But they still were there. “Not exactly surprised, you are so smart. We always had that faith in you. UCA is a good school.”

“But it’s not Oxford.” Gastón rolled his eyes.

“I thought we already had this conversation?” Marco looked at him.

“I guess we did,” Gastón sighed. “Tell me something. Would you even let me go?”

“Honest answer?” Isla tightened her grip on Marco’s hand as they glanced at each other. “It is always going to be your choice, but with everything that has happened, it would be extremely hard for us if you were across the ocean.”

“Well, it is a good thing that I don’t want to go.”

***

Luna groaned as she stared at the exercise sheet. Her head was completely swimming, and all the numbers were just looking like blobs. She was never going to get this.

Blake was not going to let it slide, she was sure of it. Luna couldn’t even blame her concentration struggles on the effects of the fire, because it had happened over a month ago.

SHE JUST DIDN’T GET MATH. These stupid numbers were standing in between her and the Roda Fest, which was the only thing she wanted to focus on. Skating was the one thing that had stayed constant in her life, and she needed it more than ever right now.

Luna blew air out of her mouth and threw her pencil across the living room. Instead of landing on the floor it landed in a vase next to the TV.

“Ups.” Luna got up from the couch and started fishing the pencil out, careful not to disturb the giant and gorgeous bouquet of sunflowers.

Marco had brought them to Isla last Sunday. Apparently, it was some sort of tradition they had going on for over 20 years and had something to do with the first rays of the summer sun.

Well, Luna thought it was extremely romantic. Sunflowers had some sort of a special meaning for them, when it came to love. Luna didn’t know what, but she maybe should ask Nina.

Luna quickly realized that she didn’t even know how long Isla and Marco had been married. Gastón was 18 years old, so longer than that…but technically that wasn’t guaranteed.

Anyways. Luna got her pencil out of the water and sat back down on the couch.

Nope, the numbers had not started to make any sense in the meantime.

“¡Esto es imposible!” She wanted to pull her hair out.

“What is?”

“Oh sorry.” Luna spun her head around and saw Marco standing next to the piano. “I didn’t mean to yell. Did I interrupt something?”

“That’s not important.” He walked closer. “What’s going on?”

“I’m just trying to do my homework,” Luna shook her head. “And I don’t get it, which is gonna put me in danger of failing the year… Again.”

“Well, you clearly didn’t fail last year.” Marco had walked around the couch and was standing next to Luna now.

“I almost did.” Luna huffed, “I lost my final project on top of a van.”

“What?”

“Seriously,” Luna nodded, “I was in a hurry and placed my laptop on top of a van and when I turned around it was gone. I never got it back and had to write the whole thing again. I did pass, in the end.”

“Okay,” Marco looked a little confused as he sat next to her. “You might wanna keep your computer in your bag, so you avoid that.”

“I learned my lesson.”

“So, are these differential derivatives that you are having trouble with?” Marco looked at Luna’s math sheets.

“Yeah,” Luna leaned back on the couch.

“You are taught to use the formula?”

“I think so…” Luna leafed through her math book. “It’s the thing with the lime or was it limena…? I don’t know.”

“Limit. They are called limits.” Marco responded.

“Yeah, but I still don’t get it,” Luna shook her head, “Nina has tried to teach me in like a thousand different ways.”

“You know that I work in finance and economics?” Marco asked her.

“Yeah.”

“Well, derivatives, bounds, terraces in flow diagrams are all the baseline of my job. We use calculators nowadays, but we didn’t have those in the start of the 21st century.”

“I’d love a calculator.” Luna remarked, “So you probably know how to do these really well.”

“Yes, given I’ve made my whole career on them,” Marco nodded, “but I can tell you a secret. I don’t actually understand that formula either.”

“Then how do you do it then?” Luna asked, extremely confused now. If a professional didn’t know how to use the freaking formula that she was supposed to learn, then how was she supposed to do it?

“There is another way to do it in practice.” Marco explained, “The schools teach the formula, which is the academic and “proper” way to do it with proofs and literature and all, it really works for people who think very academically. You seem to think on your feet a lot, so a more practical approach might work. See, if you just look at this one: The x is to the fourth power, so if you derive it, you just take the power, so four and it becomes the coefficient, and the power gets reduced by one. So, this would become four times x to the power of three. Do you understand?”

“Maybe,” Luna looked at her paper again and took her pencil in her hand, “So, you just take the smaller number that is in the corner and put it in the front, and then just the upper one becomes smaller?”

Luna drew the new equation on the paper and looked at Marco who nodded.

“That is exactly how you can think that. That is correct what you just did there. The answer is exactly the same as it would be with the formula, just with fewer steps.”

“Can’t believe it,” Luna did another problem. “How can you just understand it like that? It’s so much more easier.”

“Isla actually likes to say that I make numbers look like art,” Marco smiled slightly, “I don’t personally understand that, but she’s usually right and I am not good at arguing with her. Has she done your hair again?”

“Oh yeah,” Luna nodded while running her hand on what Isla had called something along the lines of three-way four-strand dragon braid. “It’s really pretty.”

“She has a magical eye for beauty. Has that effect in everything she touches, at least for as long as I have known her.”

“How did you meet?” Luna asked. She was actually genuinely quite curious.

“University, 1996 to be exact.” Marco answered. “I majored in Economics and Business Administration, she did marketing. Both of our classes for the masters took place at the same campus, and part of her studies she had to complete a few photography courses that I was taking for fun. She needed some help with those and that's how our paths crossed. Two years later, we didn’t really celebrate our graduations, we got married. The saying that you meet the love of your life when you least expect it is actually very true. That is the bare bones of it, ask later when there is more time and the two of us. I don’t even know all of it. You should finish your homework.”

“Okay,” Luna turned back to her math problems and again to her surprise, actually managed to complete all of them, within 15 minutes.

She had to tell Nina, so she grabbed her phone and was about to text her when her phone screen froze.

“Ugh, not again.” Luna groaned and tapped the screen again, to somehow revive it.

“What?” Marco had been writing some email on his phone.

“This has nothing to do with math,” Luna shook her head, “My phone’s lagging. I don’t know why.”

“Can I see it?” Luna handed her phone to him. “How old is this?”

“Two years, I think.” Luna responded.

“Then it definitely shouldn't just randomly freeze.” Marco looked at the phone.

“I mean, I don’t know, but it has started doing that a lot recently. Almost like it has gotten worse.” Luna continued. “Out of nowhere.”

“My wild guess would be smoke damage.”

“Smoke damage?” Luna asked, confused. “How does that work?”

“Smoke particles can clog internal components of electronics.” Marco went to grab a tablet from a shelf in the living room. “It very well could be it, given the fire and that the issue has just gotten progressively worse. What model is that?”

“I don’t know.” Luna shook her head.

“Okay,” The phone had stopped freezing, so Marco opened some sort of tab on it, “Galaxy J2. It’s an Android so you probably don’t want to change that. They probably don’t make that size anymore.” He took his own phone out and handed it to Luna, “Hold this. Is this sort of a size too big for you.”

“Yeah,” Luna held the phone, a little bit confused about what was going on. “My fingers can’t even reach the buttons. What are you doing?”

“Well, you can't have a malfunctioning phone. It is only gonna get worse.” Marco took his phone back from Luna, while typing something on the tablet. “Okay, this is the Note 8, which is a tad bit bigger than what you have now.”

“I’m going to Matteo’s. Don’t wait on me for dinner.” Gastón walked down the stairs at that moment.

“Wait, Gastón,” Marco stopped him. “Does your phone work?”

“Not a random question at all, Dad,” Gastón looked at them, “but now that you mention it, it has been kind of lagging. I should probably boot the hard drive or something—”

“You should have said. If both of yours are doing the same thing, then it definitely is smoke damage.” Marco noted.

“Smoke damage?” Gastón scrunched his eyebrows. “Okay, that would actually make sense.”

“Order a new one. Today.” Marco told him. “Get an X at least, but get in a delivery today, so it comes tomorrow at the latest.”

“Okay.” Gastón nodded and walked out of the door.

“Wait, is that what you're doing?” Luna asked as Marco had turned back to his tablet, “Getting me a new phone?”

“I can repeat myself. You can’t have one that doesn’t work. That is dangerous. So would this be okay?” He showed Luna a model on the tablet.

“Uh, sure.” Luna responded. She knew nothing about phone models and things were happening fast. Luna never realized that buying phones was this easy of a process…or it was with people with money.

The more comfortable Luna got with the whole situation, the more she kept forgetting that Isla and Marco in fact were millionaires and on top of their game with their careers. Luna had been expecting at the start that they’d hire replacements for Mom and Dad, but that had not happened. No one seemed to be bothered one bit that they didn’t have staff anymore.

“Good.” Marco nodded, “So it is the Note 8. You can look for some cases for it yourself, because you probably know better what you want on that front. You’ll get it tomorrow. Your old one will hopefully work for another 12 hours.”

“Okay,” Luna nodded. “Thank you—”

Isla walked out of the hallway to the living room, looking really annoyed.

“What’s wrong?” Marco turned his attention to her at once.

“The call I had with CICSA was supposed to last maybe an hour. A very simple job, but they are apparently determined to make it as difficult as possible.”

“Surely nothing you can’t handle.” He responded to her with a very affectionate tone.

“No, but they’re really pushing it.” Isla shook her head. She wrapped her arms around her husband’s neck and buried her face on his shoulder for a moment. “The contract has to now go through some other administrator branch, which is completely unnecessary. They are just messing things up and making it a hundred times more complicated. Who knows how long this will take now. Threw all of my plans out of order for today, because I very well couldn’t tell them that the call needed to be finished because I was late for my hair appointment. There would have gone all of my professional reputation down the train, but it was very tempting.”

“They don’t know what’s coming for them if they don’t start to be cooperate.”

“They definitely don’t,” Isla laughed, “I got a message out to Larol that I need to delay that appointment. It was possible, because I’m not getting dye or anything, just a cut. I do need to be careful, because anything close to shoulder length makes me look—”

“You don’t look old.”

“And you’re biased. Anyway, what were you talking about here?”

“It looks like their phones have suffered some smoke damage, effects of which are only coming apparent now.” Marco explained.

“Really?” Isla raised her head, concerned look in her face. “Good thing you caught that, before they leave for Cancun and everything.”

“It is,” They turned to look at Luna, who had been gathering her math papers. “Remember, if you need something, you can say it.”

“Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind.” She nodded.

“Speaking off, before your trip and everything, do you want any clothes?” Isla asked.

“Uh, I am not sure.” Luna shook her head. That was not something she had ever thought of.

“Think about it. It’s better to handle those things now than in two weeks' time when you're literally leaving and busy with that.”

“I guess,” Luna shrugged, “but I am terrible at shopping.”

“You want help?” Isla looked at the clock on the wall, “I’m just leaving for my hair appointment which won’t take long, so how about you come with me, and we’ll get some clothes for you afterwards.”

“Uhm, sure.” Luna responded. “Why not?”

“If you’re all ready to go, we can leave now.”

“Okay.” Luna got up from the couch.

“I honestly don’t really believe that anyone can be “good” or “bad” at shopping.” Isla said as Luna followed her to the garage. “It is not like it’s an art or a competition. Everyone has a different eye, but in the end they’re just clothes.”

“Maybe, but I’ve gotten a bunch of weird looks on how I dress.” Luna remarked.

“I think the way you dress is adorable,” Isla said as she pressed the car key and lights flickered on the car at the far left, the light blue car.

Luna had never ridden on that before, Gastón drove that black one when they went to school. When Luna had been driven to the prison and stuff it had usually been the dark blue car, which Marco was often driving even if Isla was with them. Obviously, she knew how to drive too. She was an adult after all.

“It is always nice to see color in kids your age. Some try to dress way too grown up. I used to be a talented drifter when I was younger and we had no money to go around, but some of those choices were a bit questionable. That was also the 80s and 90s, so everything was a tad bit questionable. The only thing I can truly not question that came from the 90s was my choice of husband.”

***

“Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho.” Juliana counted out steps while standing on the side of the rink, “Around, together, lift and stop.”

The team of Jam and Roller took the final pose on their choreography.

“Okay, well done everyone!” Julina nodded her head in approval, “I have to say, I wasn’t 100 % sure we would be able to pull this off. Some of the reasons obviously haven’t been your fault, so I won’t say another word about those. I am glad that everyone is okay. but right now I an say that, I think we are truly ready for the Roda Fest.”

Gastón was standing next to Matteo, who lightly patted his back as Juliana spoke. He had managed to get back into practice after a few weeks, and his arm had healed so no lifts had needed to be cut, although it had required a few extra training sessions into some late hours. Delfi, surprisingly, had been extremely patient with it, which was surprising in itself. Miracles could truly happen, and Pedro clearly was having a good influence on that. Anyways, they were in great shape now and ready to take Cancun by storm.

“Okay, I’ll see you all here tomorrow at 8:00 am sharp. So, everyone will be here on time, with all of your personal documents, luggage and NO ONE WILL BE LATE. If you are, you’ll be left behind.” Juliana eyed everyone in the team. “And please have your passports in order. Once we get to the airport, we are going to be in a time crunch. At Cancun we have a strict schedule.”

“Oh, you’d think we are joining the army.” Ramiro joked, “We are gonna kick some Slider butt, but can’t we also have fun?”

“There is time for that, but we need to take this seriously,” Juliana gave him a death glare. “Now, all of you need to go home and pack. Make sure that your skates are in your carry on. You cannot lose them, because there is no magical Skate Machine that will make you new skates.”

“Yes sir!” Simon made a mock salute.

“I will ignore that for now,” Juliana smiled slightly. “Go to sleep early. See you tomorrow.”

“Wait, guys, before you go. Come here.” Luna stopped everyone, “Do you guys understand? We are seriously gonna be going to the finale at Roda Fest!!! We’ve been through a lot as a team, and we have made it. It’s finally here!!”

“Bring it in here!” Ramiro threw his hand into the center of the circle, “We are gonna go, and we’re gonna show everyone, and we are gonna win.”

“FOR JAM AND ROLLER!!!” The team joined hands and threw them to the sky.

***

“Luna, how many different neon tops are you planning on taking?” Nina sat on Luna's bed while she was throwing clothes on the floor.

“I don’t know,” Luna shook her head. “All of them.”

“We’ll be there for two weeks, not moving permanently.” Nina noted. “Hey look, I’ll teach you a technique that Mom taught me. Count the days we’ll be away and pick an outfit for each one. Then divide the days by three and take that number of extra outfits. So, you need about 18 different outfits.”

“That is a lot,” Luna blobbed to sit down on the floor, “Hey, you sure you have time to help me with this? Won’t Gastón miss you?”

“I think he’ll survive if I help you for an hour,” Nina laughed, “It is all so much easier now that I can let myself in, almost like I am part of the family.”

“I mean you are,” Luna remarked, “I think everyone agrees here on that.”

“Hopefully someday officially.” Nina smiled as she looked down at a pile of Luna’s clothes. “What’s this one?” She held up a white skirt with a bunch of colorful flowers.

“Oh, Isla bought that for me,” Luna responded, “It’s really pretty.”

“It is.” Nina nodded, “If it was her, then I am not surprised. She has amazing taste.”

“Hey girls,” Isla walked into the room, “Everything okay here?”

“Yeah, we’re just packing,” Luna turned around from her closet, “Or trying…”

“I can see that.” Isla looked at all of the clothes on the floor. “You have everything else clear for the trip?”

“We’re taking the bus from Roller in the morning to the airport and flying to Cancun from there on a flight that departs at 10:25 am.” Nina read off her tablet.

“It is good that we can always trust you to be on top of things, Nina.” Isla smiled at her. “Are you staying for dinner, or do you need to go pack your own things?”

“I packed yesterday actually,” Nina explained, “Mom would nag at me all the time, if I hadn’t.”

“That sounds like Ana.” Isla nodded, “Okay, the reason why I actually came here was this.”

She handed Luna a plastic folder.

“What is it?” Luna asked, confused, “I already made sure 1000 times that I have my passport.” She pointed to her nightstand, where she had marked an area with her beads to hold that passport.

“More of a precaution,” Isla explained. “One of our friends is a social worker, so he gave us a few pointers on what we should be aware of as we are looking after you. It’s just a letter of consent that Marco and I signed that you are allowed to travel outside of the country without a guardian as a minor. It shouldn't be necessary as you aren’t in foster care and the custody agreement Alexei drew up is ironclad. It is just in case you run into some sort of issue.”

“Thanks.” Luna nodded.

“Are you excited to go?”

“Yeah of course I am!” Luna jumped up in the air. “I miss Mexico so much!”

“It is a good thing you have things to look forward to.” Isla smiled, “Well, I’ll leave you girls to it.”

“I haven’t really mentioned this, but it is really great how well you really get along,” Nina pointed out after Isla had gone.

“I mean yeah,” Luna smiled, “They’re really nice, you were right about that when you first told me and I was all freaked out.”

“They are.” Nina nodded.

“You know, it’s kind of weird that they don’t have more kids,” Luna pondered out loud while folding a shirt into the suitcase. “Because they’re really good at this.”

“You don’t know?” Nina dropped the socks she was rolling and looked at Luna.

“Know what?” Luna questioned.

“Isla and Marco can’t have children.” Nina said, looking at Luna.

“Wait what?” Luna looked even more confused now, “How does that even make sense? Gastón’s not adopted, is he? He’s—”

“He looks exactly like his father, and the golden streak in his eyes is from his mother. He also has the best qualities from both of them. Of course he is not.” Nina shook her head, “That’s not what I meant. I said it badly.”

“Then what did you mean?” Luna looked still extremely confused. “So, they had a kid and then couldn’t anymore?”

“When Gastón was one or so, Isla had some sort of serious medical complication. That was when they still lived in Cordoba. She had to have a hysterectomy, or she could have died.”

“Wow, that’s awful.” Luna sat on the bed. “How do you know this?”

“They told me.” Nina said simply, “I don’t think it’s a secret and they seem to have made peace with it, but it must have been devastating at the time. They were 24. One of the reasons that fueled their ambition to get where they are today and give Gastón a much better life. It’s not exactly a topic to be had over dinner or something so it probably just hasn’t come up.”

“I can’t even imagine going through something like that,” Luna sat back on the floor while sorting her suitcase, “I mean, it kind of sounds like Mom and Dad. They weren’t able to have kids, but then they adopted me. They left everything behind too, to give me a better education, even if it was after Senora Sharon.”

“That’s probably why you get along so well.” Nina noted.

{}

Well, look at that. We are back, because I write what I want whever I want. Not a lot of actually happened in this part (I had to split it because it was getting so long), but sometimes I nice to just breathe for a moment. Last part literally had a fire, so we dealt with the last of that aftermath and did some character interraction develobment. More often that not in the media, the Dad is often left as the least develobed charcter with least amouth of charcter building and interractions...We'll not in my house. Dads are important, even if the child is a girl. Also Luna learned some math in the process, and that was actually how I was tuagh to do deritaves, intead of the weird formula. Also, golden retriever husband energy, because Gastón absolutely has that in his gene pool. The way I determine is that he got his sentiviness, calming precese and artistic traits from his dad, while the headstrongness, sociability and chamingess from his mom. Something I live by while writing is that: normalize married couples being in love and acting accordingly, no matter how old (40 also isn't old in the slightest). Small public service anoucements here: I ahve actually written some original material about Isla and Marco specifically. Littel bit a stuff when they were 20, those afformentioned uni years. I am not gonna release that at that moment, because it is in my native language and because I've submited it into couple writing competitions. I'll uptate you on if some judge board declares that I am actually a good writer. Okay, next... Simon...We will talk about him little later, shall we. On the next part. We are going somewhere with this, I promise. Finally, again I am trying portray here that Luna is progressively getting more comfortable with the situation, that she's not the staff's daughter anymore, but basically family member. She's casually hanging in the living room while doing her homework and she doesn't call Isla and Marco "Gastón's parents" anymore.

#Soy Luna #soy luna fanfiction #Gastina #Lutteo #Soy Luna Season 2 #Gastteo #Au #Twist #This was just a stupid idea #But I am rolling with it #And having fun #and it's getting unhinged #because it has a plot now

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countessofravenclaw · 4 months

Text

Puede la ondulación cambiar una marea? part nine

“Jazmin, honestly, I don’t know.” Ambar shook her head while speaking on her phone. “Pack what you need so you don’t need to waltz around naked. I honestly don’t care otherwise. You aren’t even skating.”

“Ambar!!!” She stopped on her tracks on the stairs as she heard the voice of her godmother. “Dinner is ready!”

“Sorry Jazmin, I need to go,” She said to the phone, “I don’t know, Madrina is calling me, ask Delfi. See you tomorrow.”

“Ambar, you were late.” Sharon said as Ambar took her seat at the dinner table.

“Sorry, I was on the phone.” Ambar said shortly, she didn’t want to start anything with her godmother. Things had been, say the least, tense between them ever since the fire had happened. Ambar had maybe hoped that Sharon would have actually shown at least some concern for her, but almost nothing that changed.

Ambar started to honestly get sick of it. Luna’s parents were in the literal jail and still she was getting shown care, love and concern, by people who were complete strangers to her eight months ago.

Ambar's own mother couldn’t do that to her apparently. Sharon really didn’t care, especially as she was so obsessive over the whole legal battle. Ambar hadn’t even told her about the acceptance letter to the UCA, which she had applied to after the fire.

“Talking on the phone when you know there are other things is very disrespectful.” Sharon said coldly.

“Sharon, don’t be so uptight.” Alfredo appeared at the table. “Let the girl live. Who were you talking to?”

“Just Jazmin,” Ambar answered as Amanda brough the food to the table. Their new cook was terrible, but what could you do? They couldn’t starve and the food was edible. “We were talking about tomorrow. There are a lot of things to organize so we can leave.”

“Leave where?” Sharon raised her head.

“To Cancun.” Ambar answered, “The team is competing in the Roda Fest final. We’re leaving tommorrow.”

“Why was I not informed about this?” Sharon stared. “I haven’t given permission.”

“I did tell you, Madrina.” Ambar sighed, “And I don’t need permission. I am not a minor.”

Ambar had never shown Sharon any of the forms related to the Cancun trip—because she hadn’t needed to… She was 18 now, and tomorrow they would be boarding the plane, exactly like Juliana had required. She had written down Amanda as the emergency contact, because Sharon would have had her head if Ambar had started writing down her personal information, especially without asking.

She wanted this to go as smoothly as possible, because Ambar was really looking forward to actually going to Cancun. She wanted to flatten out the Sliders as much as everyone else, especially that obnoxious goth girl, but she also was just looking forward to some time away. Away from everything back home. Cancun also was a super pretty place, Simon had told her about super beautiful sunsets.

“You still should have asked.” Sharon continued.

“No, I didn’t need to.” Ambar decided to protest. “I won’t be going alone. We’re going as a team, and our coach will be with us.”

“So, Luna is going too?” Alfredo interjected.

“Yes, the whole team will be there.”

“I am still so glad that Valentes found such a balanced place of employment.” Alfredo continued and Ambar stared at her plate. How was he still so blissfully unaware that Sharon had gotten the Valentes in JAIL, and that Luna was cosplaying as a daughter of one of Buenos Aires’s most promising upcoming dynasties. Well, Ambar wasn’t going to be one to tell him that and deal with the fallout.

“Can we not talk about that family?” Sharon sighed, “We are at the dinner table.”

“I do not understand what you have against Valentes' new employers?” Alfredo—against his better judgment, at least in Ambar’s mind—continued. “Young and attractive people like them who are hard workers will go far for a reason. They seem like very nice people, and quite a couple.”

“Por favor Papa,” Sharon scoffed, “There is nothing more unprofessional than public shows of affection. But not surprising, considering where they are from. They don’t know how to act or control—”

“Well, Sharon, you can’t blame them for being in love,” Alfredo continued. Ambar tried really hard not to sigh. She agreed with him, but this wasn’t wise to aggravate Madrina. “Only rare people possess that true spark that lasts, and absolutely should let that show. Reminds me of Lili and Bernie. Oh, they were always such a joy to watch—”

“How many times do I have to say that we don’t talk about the past in this house!”

This time Ambar sighed almost audibly. Thank god she got out of here tomorrow. She had already agreed with Delfi that she would give her a ride, given that Delfi now had a fresh driver's license. Maybe Ambar should get one for herself as well.

***

“Rey!” Sharon called as the dining room became empty.

“What can I do for you Senora?” Rey walked in. “The solicitor called. They want to meet with you tomorrow to discuss—”

“I don’t care,” Sharon waved a hand to silence him. “You tell him that he needs to do his job.”

“Okay,” Rey nodded, “But I think it would be beneficiary… The case is sitting on a standstill Senora Benson and I don’t think we can move it on our favor if we don’t—”

“Like I said, I don’t care,” Sharon shook her head, “Now do as you’re told.”

“Well, what do you wish for me to do?”

“I need you to contact the Ministro Pistarini International Airport… Anonymously.”

***

“Okay, Isla and I know that you know Cancun, but don’t go wandering off. Also have your phone on all the time, so we can reach you. Are you sure you have everything you need?”

“Yeah, I got it. Thanks Marco.” Luna nodded toward him, who had driven her and Gastón to the Roller, as she pulled the handle of her suitcase up. “I made triple sure I have everything.”

“Good. I would give this same spiel to Gastón, but apparently, he’s an adult now, so he can handle it.”

“Hey!” Gastón, who had been pulling his own bags from the car, protested. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” Marco laughed, “Just some friendly advice: don’t do anything stupid.”

“Why would I?”

“Hopefully neither of us has to find that out.” Marco squeezed his shoulder briefly. “Have fun, both of you. Good luck for the competition.”

“Finally!” Matteo grabbed Gastón by the shoulder as he and Luna walked into Roller. “What took you so long?”

“Dad wanted to give a lecture,” he rolled his eyes. “I should have driven us here myself.”

“Then you would have needed to leave the car here for two weeks,” Nina, who had also joined them as they reached the cafeteria, noted after kissing him on the cheek, “You’re not late anyway, Jazmin is still not here either.”

“Nor is Simon…” Luna looked around.

“Oh, you can’t count on those three to ever be on time.” Juliana shook her head, “Simon, Pedro and Nico forgot a drumstick and went to get it. I didn’t want to ask why. Now, I can mark you two: Luna and Gastón, off my list. No one is allowed to leave this building until we leave for the airport!”

“I’m here, I’m here!!!” Jazmin suddenly dashed through the door.

“Good.” Juliana gave her a tight smile. “Now… I almost wanna leave those three stranded, if they don’t—”

“Never fear, the Roller Band is here!” Simon, Nico and Pedro crashed through the door like a three-headed dog.

“I wish your brains would also be,” Juliana sighed. “Okay, now, everyone! Make a circle. We don’t have much time.”

“We’re doing this as fast as we can,” Ramiro remarked, “Are we chased by fire…?”

The room fell dead silent for a moment.

“I realize that that was extremely insensitive. Sorry about that.” Ramiro quickly looked at Luna, Ambar and Gastón. “But, Juliana, what’s the rush?”

“I was informed this morning that many airlines in Mexico, specifically the ones operating in Cancun, are on strike this week, starting today.” Juliana sighed.

“Wait…?” Luna’s face grew worried. “Are we not able to go? The competition…?”

“You didn’t let me finish,” Juliana looked at her. “Most of the flights are canceled starting tomorrow, but thankfully, ours were booked enough ahead of time that this doesn’t affect us directly. Our flight is the only one to Cancun for this week. But if we miss it, because, I don’t know, someone does something stupid and we’ll be late, then there are no guarantees.”

“Well, in that case we won’t miss it,” Ambar crossed her arms and addressed everyone. “Right guys?”

“Oh, of course not,” Jazmin started blabbing, “I can’t miss my chance to be the chicest Argentinian in Mexico.”

“Don’t worry Juliana,” Luna nodded as well, “We are not gonna miss our chance to show the Sliders. So, are we gonna win or what?”

“Jam & Roller!!”

“Okay, now, let's settle down,” Juliana started speaking, “Now, you all need to get yourselves and your things into the bus that’s waiting outside. Everyone needs to have their passports on hand when we enter the airport. I presume all of you have flown before, so you all know how you need to behave while going through security and everything. Otherwise, I will leave you in the terminal”

“Woohoo, lets go!!” Simon yelled as the team grabbed their bags and started filing out of the Roller and toward the bus.

“Simon, can you believe it!!” Luna grabbed his arm. “We are going to Mexico!! Home!!”

“I honestly can’t wait,” Simon hugged her. “I get to see my family. We’re going home!”

“I’m so happy we’re doing this.” Luna jumped on the first step while getting on the bus and dropped her backpack. “Uuups!”

“Well, your trip’s gonna end really fast if you lose your passport.” Simon handed Luna her folder of important papers. “You have a lot of papers.”

“I know,” Luna laughed as she took the folder from Simon, “All the immigration stuff, visas, passport, custody agreement what nots… I can’t believe it honestly.”

“Me either,” Simon shook his head as they climbed onto the bus. “You are terrible at paperwork.”

“Okay, is everyone here?” Juliana climbed onto the bus. “Lets do this quickly, say here when I say the letter of your first name. A!”

“Here!” Ambar spoke.

“B! C! D!”

“Here.”

“E! F! G!”

“Here!”

“H! I! J!”

“I’m here!”

“Ready!!”

“K! L!

“Ready for Mexico!!” Luna yelled.

M!”

“Here!”

“N!”

“Here.”

“Here as well!”

“O! P!”

“Here!”

“Q! R! S!”

“Here!”

“T! U! V! X! Y!”

“Here!” Yam was the last one to speak.

“Okay, and I know that no one here is named after Z so we can go.” Juliana said to the bus driver and the vehicle finally started moving.

“Simon.” Luna said as the bus was driving on a freeway.

“What?” Simon looked at her concerned.

“I just, I just realized that I have never flown alone.” Luna continued. “What do we do when we go there?”

“Well, I mean I have an idea, but I don’t know how to explain it,” Simon scratched his head. “Uh, Nina!”

“What?” Nina raised her head, from the other side of the bus’s aisle where she was sitting with Gastón, about two rows ahead of Simon and Luna.

“Everything okay?” Gastón also turned his head.

“What do you exactly do at an airport?” Luna asked.

“We’ll do the check in at a counter, and then go through security.” Nina explained, “Then we board at the gate after they call us. Pretty simple.”

“That’s if you're traveling economy, which we are.” Gastón mentioned. “The other classes are actually usually more complicated, if you…but like it’s not important because we won’t be facing any trouble.”

“Everyone keep track of your bags!!” Juliana yelled from the front. “We’ll be there shortly.”

Luna held the handle of her bag tightly as everyone filed into the parking lot and then inside of the airport. She was going to Mexico!!! She was so excited.

Right now it felt like nothing could stop her. Everything was going to be okay.

“Luna, it is your turn.” Someone tapped her on the shoulder. Luna looked up and saw Juliana gesture toward the check-in desk.

“Oh, yeah,” Luna nodded and walked up to the desk. “Hi!”

“Passport?” The agent in the window asked.

“Oh here.” Luna handed the booklet to the woman.

“Valente, Luna?” The official asked. She opened and then looked at Luna and then the passport again. This happened a few times more, which kind of weirded Luna out.

“Yeah.” Luna nodded. “Everything okay?”

“Yes,” the official tapped something on the computer, looked at Luna again, but then gave her boarding pass and her passport. “Have a pleasant journey.”

Luna just shrugged and started walking back to the others.

“What took you so long?” Jim asked as Luna caught up with everyone at the TSA queue entrance.

“I don’t know,” Luna shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. So do we go there next?”

“Yep,” Juliana nodded, “Try to make this as nicely as you are able. We are on…”

“Yeah, yeah, we know,” Ramiro remarked, “We are on a time crunch.”

The TSA checkpoint went on without a hitch… Although Luna kind of felt like the agents were again kind of looking at her, but that was probably just completely normal. Weren’t these people supposed to look for anything suspicious.

They probably weren’t even looking at her specifically,

“Okay, we have about 40 minutes until we board.” Juliana said as the team got to their gate.

“Then what was with the rush?” Nico asked, while sitting down on a chair.

“I have had to factor in a margin of error with you lot.” Juliana sighed. “Okay, now, you can go see around the airport, but be here in 30 minutes, AND no one goes anywhere alone.”

“Simon, let's go grab some juice,” Luna pulled Simon by the arm after the group scattered. “I saw one booth not far away from here.”

“Okay, let's go.” Simon nodded.

“Wow, this is super good,” Luna exclaimed as she slurped her strawberry lime juice with a straw. “Honestly, I’d drink this every daa—Oh sorry.”

Luna had twirled around and almost crashed into some sort of person who clearly was an official of some sort of the airport. At least it looked like it according to the man's uniform.

“Excuse me.” To Luna’s surprise the official addressed her. “Are you Luna Valente?”

“Uh, yes.” Luna answered confused. “Can I help you?”

The official didn’t answer anything, but instead made some sort of hand gesture. Suddenly two big security guards appeared on either side of Luna, took her by the arm, and started dragging her following the official.

“Hey!!” Luna tried to protest, panic rising in her. “What are you doing?”

The guards released Luna as they got into an emptier area from the shops, into some sort of security desk.

“We need to check that you have the correct authorization to travel internationally, as an unaccompanied minor.” The official read something off his laptop.

“Oh, well I have permission.” Luna had zero idea what all what the official had just said to her had meant, but she most certainly knew that she had permission. She quickly pulled the plastic folder from her backpack and handed the appropriate paper to the official guy. It should settle things pretty easily—

“You really think we’re gonna believe this?” Luna's face fell when the official said those words.

***

“So, I asked Simon what time the best sunsets can be seen,” Gastón squeezed Nina's hand as they were walking toward their gate. “So, I thought we’d sneak out in the evening and go get some pictures.”

“That sounds amazing,” Nina responded, “I didn’t take the better camera with me though, I should have…”

“Don't worry about it,” Gastón stopped and brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear, “I took the DSLR with us. Dad gave me permission. Apparently, with the right settings, the picture can glow almost like it’s magic. ”

Nina was about to respond something, when Simon suddenly ran past them. “Juliana!!”

“What?” Juliana looked up annoyed at Simon from her papers. “Do I want to know?”

“Luna got grabbed.”

“What are you talking about?” Juliana sighed. “What did she grab? The last thing I need is dealing with one of you getting caught for shoplifting…”

“No, she got grabbed.” Simon repeated. “Some security people just took her.”

“What?” Juliana stared and Gastón and Nina exchanged glances. “Why?”

“I don’t know, but you need to do something.”

“Okay, where did they go?”

“There are some people gathered on that security station,” Nina pointed toward left of their gate.

“I’ll go see,” Juliana got up from her chair. “This is probably a mistake.”

“What happened?” Nina asked Simon after, while tightening her grip on Gastón’s arm.

“I don’t know,” He shook his head, “We were just having juice and then just some official looking guy came to us and asked if she was Luna Valente and then they took her away.”

“What’s going on?” Jim, Yam and Matteo had appeared at the gate. “Is Luna in trouble?”

“Hopefully not,” Nina looked at Gastón, “This could be a misunderstanding, right?”

“Maybe she mismarked her luggage somehow. Hopefully anyway, we don’t have much time.”

Nothing happened for almost 15 minutes, during which everyone had arrived at the gate.

“The boarding will start soon,” Ambar noted, “What’s taking so long?”

“Maybe we should go and see,” Matteo suggested. Everyone in the group nodded and they started walking closer to the security checkpoint.

When they got there, Juliana saw them and walked to meet them. “What are you doing here?”

“We want to know what’s going on,” Simon stated.

“Still trying to figure that out,” Juliana sighed.

“What are we gonna do?” Ambar asked, “We’ll soon miss our flight if this takes any longer.”

“You won’t,” Juliana looked at everyone sternly. “Okay, here’s what we will do. I will text our schedule, the hotel information, training rink’s booking and the competition forms to…to Delfi. Ambar, Delfi, Gastón, Jazmin, Matteo, Nico, Pedro and Simon, you will board the plane no matter what. Nina, Jim and Yam, try to get your parents to write you some sort of statement that you're allowed to travel as unaccompanied minors. Do it now.”

“What will you and Luna do?” Jim asked while holding her phone on her other ear for a phone call. “You said that there were no other flights due to the strike.”

“We’ll figure it out. We can possibly go to Mexico City and come by road, but we will lose time…”

“I am not leaving without Luna.” Simon stated.

“Simon, we need as full of a team as possible.” Juliana shook her head, “We don’t have time for this.”

“But what are they holding Luna for?” Nina asked again, “This doesn’t make any sense.”

“I don’t know if I am at liberty to disclose this to you.” Juliana looked very frustrated. “With her situation—”

“You need to tell!” Simon insisted.

“Simon, insistence doesn’t get you anywhere with this.”

“Juliana, I am the closest family member she has right now here,” Gastón suddenly spoke again. “I need to know, especially given the situation.”

“Okay,” Juliana nodded, “They are claiming that Luna does not have proper permissions to travel out of the country.

“What?” Nina stared, before looking at Gastón again “That doesn’t even make sense. She shouldn’t need any and she has a written statement of consent. I was there when your mother gave it to her.”

“Yeah, I know.” He said while looking at her, “They mentioned it to me too.”

“Then why on earth are these people questioning her?” Matteo joined the conversation. “There is no way the papers don’t hold up.”

“There is no way,” Gastón stared out of the window, “Unless…”

“Unless what?” Nina asked him.

“Unless the problem is not that the papers don’t hold up, but the fact that these people think that it is forged or something…” Gastón sighed.

“What do you mean?” Simon asked, confused.

“Well, my parents seem very childfree for the outside world,” Gastón shook his head, “So, to outsiders, it might seem very strange that some random girl is claiming that they are her guardians, especially given that we are talking about legal custody agreements. They wouldn’t be questioning my birth certificate…but I don’t know why they are questioning her in the first place.”

“Can you call your parents? So, they can clear this up?” Nina suggested.

“I mean I can, but if they are questioning their signatures, it won’t be solved over the phone. They need to come here, and that will take too long, and the flight will be missed.” Gastón shook his head again, super annoyed, “Dad is gonna hate this…”

“What? What are you thinking?” Nina asked as Gastón’s voice trailed off.

“There is something I can do.” Gastón nodded and started walking toward where the people were standing. He could identify the official, who had been running the whole “arresting” show, very easily, given the uniform. So that would be the one he would need to target. “Luna’s papers are completely legitimate.”

“I’m sorry, but who are you…?” The official, whose name tag read Simsom, and he was apparently some sort of passenger affairs manager, turned toward Gastón. As soon as he saw him, his face flushed at least three shades of purple and blue.

Good. The effect had already been achieved.

“Hi.” Gastón continued. “Gastón, Perida. I think you know my dad, or actually I know that you do.”

“Uh… I’m sorry, but…” The official staggered something.

“I don’t care, honestly.” Gastón interrupted him. “I can tell you though, that my father, Marco Perida—but you know that—won’t appreciate one bit that you are over here questioning the official document that he and his wife have signed about Luna, their daughter. Nor will he like that you’re wasting our time, making us miss our flight.”

Gastón knew that everyone, from the guards and the official to Luna and the team, were staring at him, but he did not care.

“I—I am so sorry…” The official staggered again, now flushed completely pale. “We had no idea… This…this has been a huge misunderstanding and I apologize profusely.”

“You better,” Gastón nodded, “We need to get going.”

“Of course, of course,” It was a good thing that the official didn’t bow. “I am sorry. Please have a pleasant journey.”

“Come on,” Gastón grabbed Luna—who had been staring with a confused expression the whole time the exchange had gone on—by the arm and started walking away.

“What was that?” Luna stopped on her tracks.

“Honestly I don't know either.” Gastón shook his head, “Dad has always said that people working here are a bunch of idiot snobs. They still would never risk destroying their reputation to their boss—”

“What are you talking about?” Luna still seemed really confused. “How did you come up with that?”

“With what?” Now it was Gastón’s turn to be confused for a sec…before he realized. “Dad’s part of the administrator board of this airport.”

“What? You weren’t bluffing?”

“Has that seriously never come up?”

“No,” Luna shook her head, “I thought he did something with finance. ”

“Oh, he does. Mom and Dad both work like a trillion different jobs, for other people and their own companies, individually and together. I stopped keeping track a long time ago.”

“Okay…” Luna stared blankly as they kept walking.

“Luna! You okay?” Simon reached them.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Luna nodded before she hugged Gastón, “Thank you.”

“I never thought I would get to see you pull “Do you know who I am?” at someone.” Matteo laughed as he patted Gastón on the back. “But that…was worth it.”

“My intention was never to do that, but we can’t miss our flight.” He shook his head, “But I had no choice. We look out for our family.”

“That was very good thinking.” Nina also hugged him.

“Well, now I need to write a very lengthy text to Mom and Dad about this before we board,” Gastón sighed, “So they don’t think our house is bugged or something.”

“Okay, everyone!!!” Juliana demanded everyone's attention. “Now that all the excitement is over, can we form a neat line so we can start boarding.”

Everyone lined up at the gate. Gastón stayed at the end of it, because he needed time to type some sort of an explanation to his parents before taking off. If they heard about this and he was unreachable, they would get worried sick.

“I am not sure what you did, but thank you,” Juliana appeared on his side.

“They can question official papers, but they can’t question my face,” He looked at her, “I look like my dad, a lot. Our last name is not exactly common, I think we are the only ones who have it. We couldn’t possibly go and win the Roda Fest without our captain.”

***

Luna was floating in the air. It was almost like she was in the middle of space.

“Sun will always come out.” It was the same voice that had been in her dreams before. “You know the way. Follow the path…”

“But what is the path?” Luna asked, even though she didn’t know from whom.

There was no answer.

Suddenly a moon, that looked exactly like her necklace, appeared in front of her. Then something golden flew past her and settled in the middle of the moon’s crescent. It was a bright sun.

“Your answer is in front of you, you just need to find it. It is near, it is far. The sun will show you the truth”.

“Luna, Luna!!!” Luna shook awake from Simon’s voice.

“What?” She blinked a few times to get her eyes accustomed to the bright lights inside the airplane cabin.

“We are landing soon.” Simon explained from next to her. “You were pretty dead asleep.”

“Oh yeah,” Luna tugged on the end of her braid. Her hair was on two pigtails—Isla had said it was more practical for long journeys. “I guess I fell asleep.”

“You okay?” Simon asked, looking at her a little more concerned, “You were tossing and mumbling something.”

“I just had a weird dream.” Luna shook her head, “I don’t understand.”

“What was it about?” Simon asked while tapping Nina, who was sitting on front of him, on the shoulder.

“It was super weird.” Luna continued. “I was like in space, and all the sudden there was a moon in front of me and in the middle of it was a sun.”

“So, like your necklace?” Nina questioned.

“Yeah,” Luna nodded, “but like that was not the weird part. There was some voice, a woman…she sounded like familiar, but I can’t figure out from where. She said that I have to follow a path and that the sun will show me the truth. I don’t get what that means.”

“Well, maybe I do,” Nina continued, “You said that the sun appeared with the moon and there should be a sun charm in your necklace as well. It is about your biological family. You are the moon and the sun represents them.”

“Oh yeah, that makes sense…” Luna pondered, “So they have something with a sun?”

“Well, that doesn’t help us a lot,” Simon laughed, “Unless there is a family somewhere called the Sunshines. Luna, I know this is really important to you, but I don’t think there is a lot we can do about it right now.”

“I agree with Simon,” Nina nodded. “You need to focus on the competition, enjoy Cancun and have fun. Luna, you out of everyone, with everything you’ve been through. You deserve a vacation. We’ll look really into this when we get back, I promise.”

“Thank you,” Luna smiled, “You’re right. I just wish I could just record my dreams and show you, like create a video or something. So, we could rewind and everything.”

“It would be useful.”

***

“Okay. After you have checked yourself off the list, all of you can go check-in independently and you’ll be given your keys. Luna, Nina, Jim and Yam, you need to come with me.” Juliana spoke as the team had gathered in the lobby of the hotel. “Otherwise, we will go visit the rink today at 7 pm, otherwise today is free. Always tell me if you leave the hotel.”

“Okay,” Gastón said while taking the two keycards from the check-in desk. He turned toward Matteo, “Don’t lose this.”

“Hermano, since when have I been losing keys?” Matteo rolled his eyes at him.

“I don’t know, you’ve kind of been prone to making stupid decisions lately,” Gastón shook his head.

“Just give me a key.” Matteo huffed, “Matteo Balsano doesn’t lose things.”

“Oh, you wanna bet?” They heard laughter coming from behind them. Luna and Nina appeared on their side. “Chico Fresa surely has lost something.”

“I swear, never.” Matteo rolled his eyes.

“I don’t think we have time to have this argument.” Nina and Gastón shared a look. “Where is your room?”

“The hallway B,” Gastón looked at the keycard. ‘

“Ours too.” Nina responded. “I think we’re the only ones there.”

“That is convenient, in an extremely nice way…” Gastón grabbed her hand.

“And I don’t want any shenanigans!” Juliana’s voice boomed again, “Everyone needs to sleep in their own beds.”

“And that was convenient in a very awkward way,” Matteo remarked, and then looked at his best friend. “Should we go up?”

“Luna, we need to drop our stuff really quickly, because we need to get going.” Simon showed up next to Luna.

“Where are you going?” Gastón asked.

“Oh, Juliana asked us to represent the Roller Team in an interview,” Luna explained, “Which is…very soon! We really do need to get going!”

“Try to keep out of trouble,” Gastón remarked jokingly, “I can’t really pull that airport stunt here again, to get you out.”

“I’ll try, but no promises.” Luna laughed, “But you know me.”

“Yep, sometimes unavoidable. At least remember to keep your phone on.”

“Yep, I will!!” Luna waved when she disappeared with Simon.

“I’ll go drop my stuff off as well,” Nina squeezed Gastón’s hand, “See you later.”

“Yeah, let's go grab something to eat before we head to the rink.” Gastón kissed her on her forehead before Nina started following Luna toward their room.

“So, I think we are gonna need a signal,” Matteo remarked as he dropped his suitcase on the bed in their room.

“What are you talking about?” Gastón looked at him confused.

“Well, a signal for when you want me out of here,” Matteo rolled his eyes. “I am not stupid, nor do I plan on standing in the way of you and Nina. I am not a cockblock and I don’t want to walk into anything. So, text me one of those Scandinavian letters?”

“That will take way too long,” Gastón shook his head, “The # would be easier.”

“Works for me, as long as I don’t need to walk into anything.”

“You are always terrible to have this conversation—” Gastón started, but suddenly his phone rang.

“Darling,” His parents showed up on the screen in the video call. “We caught you. We tried to approximate when your flight would have landed.”

“Yeah, we landed about an hour ago,” Gastón responded, “At the hotel now… You got my text?”

“We did,” his dad sighed. “I can’t believe it.”

“Us neither, and we were there.” Matteo remarked from behind Gastón.

“What happened?” He asked. “Did you figure it out?”

“Well,” Marco continued, shaking his head. Gastón watched his mother place her hand on his father’s nape, stroking her thumb in a soothing circular motion, like she always did when he was getting overwhelmed. “Apparently, there had been an anonymous tip the day before about an unaccompanied minor trying to travel out of the country without the appropriate permissions. It is absolutely ridiculous. The anonymous complaints need to always be taken with a grain of salt—unless it is a bomb threat—because anyone can make them. The personnel should know better. I’ve had some heavy words with Simsom and the whole department, although the head of that, Servane, is the worst, so I don’t wonder one bit why the personnel don’t know the policies.”

“But why was Luna identified out of everyone?”

“The tip was apparently about a teenage girl with brown hair.”

“That must apply to like a thousand people in the airport alone.” Matteo questioned, “That makes zero sense.”

“Yep,” Gastón nodded, “By that criteria, Nina could have been tagged.”

“Or Delfi,” Matteo suggested while sitting next to Gastón, so he saw the call better, “which would have probably been the best option. She could have just proved them wrong, because she is not a minor.”

“It is extremely hard to investigate where the intelligence for that even came from,” Marco started saying, “Especially as this is personal for me, it can’t be argued that looking into it would benefit the company, even if I think that it would.”

“Well, the important thing is that you got there safely in the end.” Isla spoke.

“We did in the end, but it was close that Luna missed the flight.”

“He was a hero though.” Matteo grabbed Gastón on the shoulders.

“I don’t know about that.” Gastón shook his head, before looking at his parents again. “It was the only thing that came into my mind that would solve it. The Simsom guy knows that you have a child now… So sorry about that.”

“It’s okay.” Isla nodded, “You did the right thing, and you're not exactly a child anymore. We have to get used to the fact that you don’t need as much protection.”

“I did tell Simsom that he better not go to any tabloids if he wants to keep his job.” Marco pointed out.

“That is something I can agree with.” Gastón nodded, “Have you talked to Luna?”

“Not yet. We wanted to talk to you first. We’ll call her next.”

“You probably won’t be able to reach her for a while. Juliana asked her and Simon to do some interview.”

“We’ll ask her when she can talk. It was good to hear that you’re okay.”

“Yeah, I’m totally fine.” Gastón responded.

“So, how can I get your parents to adopt me?” Matteo asked jokingly after the call ended. “I am getting even more jealous now.”

“Get your parents arrested.” Gastón suggested, “Although, it is too late for you.”

“You think I didn’t try to invent a hundred ways to get Dad arrested when we first moved here,” Matteo answered laughing. “I never succeeded.”

“How sad,” Gastón rolled his eyes, “This honestly shouldn’t be funny.”

“I know.” Matteo nodded, “I wish I could do something for Luna.”

“But there really isn’t anything,” Gaston shook his head, “Mom and Dad don’t tell me all the details either, but the courts drag during the summer even more. I think that Alexei is maybe trying to find a way to disprove the case’s existence entirely, but I don’t know. Only thing we can do is to support her… What is going on with you and Luna anymore? You don’t talk about her that much anymore.”

“I still love her, but she’s made it extremely clear on where we stand.” Matteo sighed, “She’s right… I’ve messed up pretty badly, and this isn’t the time to be selfish. I need to support her as a friend and maybe someday she’ll give me a chance again.”

“Is this self-reflection from Matteo Balsano?” Gastón looked at his friend amused.

“I guess so,” Matteo smirked, “I guess, I need to be happy with what I got, her friendship. At least we get along well enough that we can handle the maid of honor and best man duties like the pros that we are, so you and Nina don’t need to worry about that.”

“What are you talking about?” Gastón raised an eyebrow.

“You know what,” Matteo looked at him. “I don’t have any faith that you can hold on longer than maybe a few years at this point. Don’t tell you haven’t thought about it?”

“Of course I have.” Gastón smiled, “In a couple years. Nina needs to graduate, and I need to get out of my parents’ place…”

“You know we could go scour some jewelry stores while being here.” Matteo jokingly suggested.

“You know Maria would kill me for it.” Gastón threw at Matteo with a pillow. “But back to you and Luna and the topic at hand… Maybe that’s for the best right now. I mean, If the worst happens, you wouldn’t be able to ask her hand from her dad as it is… Someone someday might need to ask my dad, but I don’t know. It’s gonna be Luna’s choice.

***

“We are so happy to be back in Cancun and we are ready for the competition.” Luna said to the microphone that the interviewer was holding for her.

“We are gonna beat the Sliders,” Simon nodded, “but don’t tell them that.”

“Well, thank you guys.” The interviewer smiled after the camera had been shut off. “We will see you at the rink.”

“That was awesome!” Luna jumped into the air. “Okay, what do we do next? Beach? Tacos?”

“Both actually,” Simon grabbed her hand. “Mom texted me after we had just landed. We are “politely” forced to come for dinner.”

“OMG!!!” Luna looked at him, “Why didn't you say sooner?”

“It was supposed to be a surprise.” Simon started pulling Luna along. “We are not in a hurry, so let's walk by the beach.”

“I have missed these views,” Luna sighed as she and Simon walked along the ocean shoreline of Cancun. “It’s beautiful.” Luna raised her phone up and snapped a few pictures, before starting to type some sort of message.

“Who are you sending those to?” Simon asked, confused, because surely Luna wasn't able to send those to her parents, but it looked like she was writing a text message to some sort of group chat.

“Oh, Isla and Marco told me that they’ve never been to Cancun.” Luna raised her head from her phone. “So, I’m sending them pictures.”

“You text?” Simon looked at Luna’s phone, as she showed him the group chat. “Waiiiitt…what has happened to your phone? This is bigger…”

“Did I not tell you?” Luna scrunched her eyebrows, “Or did I only tell Nina? Mine stopped working and Marco though it was smoke damage—”

“They bought you a new phone?” Simon questioned while looking at the phone.

“I mean yeah.” Luna shrugged, “They said that I can’t just not have one that doesn’t work. What about it?”

“Nothing honestly…notes are expensive though.” Simon sighed, “It makes sense. I just didn’t realize you were that close, with them—Gastón’s parents, I mean.”

“I don’t really get what you mean?” Luna looked at him a little confused. “I live with them… By the way, I probably never told you that they play the piano, both of them. They’re really good too.”

“Can we stop for a moment?” Simon stopped in front of a wooden dock.

“Oh, sure.” Luna nodded and sat down on the dock. “What’s up?”

“We just haven’t talked, just the two of us, in a while.” Simon sat down next to Luna, “You’ve seemed really happy lately. Obviously, since stuff has been really going down… I just don’t want you to feel like you need to pretend, when you don’t, not with me.”

“I know that I don’t and I am not pretending.” Luna looked up at him. “The thing is that… I have been happy. I mean, I miss Mom and Dad every day and I wish they’d be here cheering me on and that I could talk to them about how excited I am about this competition right now, instead of waiting on the hour on the phone or a meeting in a small room where I can’t even hug them…and I am so mad that they are being held against their will…but… I have to hope that everything will be okay, and the truth will always come out. I guess, besides that, I can’t stop living my life. I have to do that, for Mom and Dad and for myself. I guess I’m kind of in a good place. Isla and Marco, they’re really nice and they care about me. They have been really good to me, even since we got to that house.”

“I—I see that,” Simon nodded, “You know that, when you’re happy, I’m happy. It just seems such a different life, with these fancy people.”

“Fancy?” Luna started laughing. “Simon please, they aren’t fancy.”

Simon was about to say something when his phone rang.

“Simon!!” A voice came from the phone. “Where are you?”

“Oh, sorry Mom.” Simon responded to the phone. “We are on our way.”

“Hi Carla!!” Luna yelled on the phone.

“Get here! Food’s done soon.”

“We need to get going before Mom blows a casket.” Simon laughed and got up from the dock.

“Simon!” Maria and Rika, Simon’s younger twin sisters ran to hug him as soon as he and Luna walked to the yard of Simon’s family house.

“Hey!!” Simon hugged them. “I missed you.”

“Your fault because you ran off to Argentina.”

“Girls,” Simon’s sisters were shooed away by his father and mother, Diego and Carla Alvarez, “Let him breathe. Good to see you son.”

“Hi!” Simon hugged his father and his mother at the same time.

“It’s so good to see you,” Carled eyed his beanie, “Remember that no hats in the dinner table.”

“Yeah, sure.” Simon rolled his eyes affectionately.

“Luna!” Carla turned around and Luna was pulled into a crushing hug that only Simon’s mom could give. “So nice to see you as well. Now come in, you must be starving.”

“Where is everyone?” Simon asked as they walked into the house.

“Both Julio and Rico are out with friends.” Diego explained, “Apparently they forgot that you were coming today.”

“Of course they did.” Simon shook his head laughing.

“They will be coming to the competition,” Carla noted, “We’ll make sure of that. But now we can talk in peace, so there is good in everything. Surely there are a lot of things you have to tell us.”

“Yeeeepp…” Simon said while glancing at Luna.

“...and that’s how we convinced Juliana to take us back as the team.” Luna finished telling the story and dunked the glass of orange juice down her throat.

“Then she made us work like slaves, but here we are.” Simon added. “Still working our butts off.”

“You don’t gain victory with no sweat,” Diego pointed out. “How’s the job?”

“I haven't gotten fired if that’s what you're asking, so I have improved from my last job.” Simon remarked, “We’re doing fine.”

“That is good to hear,” Carla nodded, “We never know if what you tell over the phone is actually what is happening, knowing you.”

“Simon has been doing extremely well,” Luna nodded, “The Roller Band will be the hottest thing on this side of the Ocean.”

“It was great that you could come here too Luna—” Carla and Diego exchanged some sort of a look with each other “—because there has been something we’ve been wondering about.”

“Oh,” Luna looked at them, “What is it?”

“Honestly, it could be nothing,” Carla continued, “but it has kind of been strange how we’ve been absolutely unable to reach your parents lately. I’ve been trying to call Monica multiple times, but everything goes unanswered. Trying not to get too worried here, so has their contact information changed?”

“Uh…” Luna opened her mouth, but no words came out.

“You don’t have to tell them.” Simon placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Tell us what?” Carla and Diego looked really worried now.

“It’s okay,” Luna shook her head and looked at Simon’s parents again. “It’s really complicated and really hard to explain.”

“Start from the beginning.”

“Okay, well…” Luna started. “Uh, Mom and Dad got fired during the fall.”

“Fired?” Diego questioned, “You mean by the lady who owns the mansion here?”

“Yes, Senora Sharon” Luna nodded, “It was super unfair…”

“But they found new employment?” Carla asked on her turn.

“Yeah, they did.” Luna continued. “It was actually quite funny—”

“Funny?”

“The funny part is that Monica and Miguels new employers’ son had been our friend for the past year and is in the team and everything,” Simon explained, “but no one had any idea about it.”

“Oh okay.” Simon’s parents nodded. “So are your parents under some sort of NDA, or their job is so confidential that they aren’t allowed to talk to people in different countries?”

“Oh no, they’re in jail.”

“WHAT?!?!”

“I don’t think this was the best way to relay the news.” Simon whispered to Luna as they watched his parents' flabbergasted faces.

“You!” Carla turned toward Simon, “Simon, you should have told us!”

“This hasn’t been my thing to share, Mom.”

“Okay, we understand that, but this is serious. What is going on? Why have Monica and Miguel been arrested?”

“Well, you see,” Luna started, “Senora Sharon—”

“Their former employer?”

“Yes, her. She’s accusing them of something they haven’t done, but I guess it is not that easily disproved so… They’re in jail.”

“But…but…” Diego and Carla still looked confused. “This is serious. Luna, are you okay? What are you…? Are you safe and being fed? Who is looking after you? Don’t say you’ve been staying with Simon.”

“Hey!” Simon protested.

“We really need to have a conversation about your living situation,” Carla looked at her son sharply. “Other time. Luna, this is serious. We need to contact the authorities if there isn’t someone taking care of you.”

“Oh, no no no,” Luna shook her head, “I am being taken care of.”

“By whom?”

“After Mom and Dad got arrested, their employers defended them and they signed some paper or something so I could stay with them. There was no one else who could have really done that.”

“The new employers of Monica and Miguel are your legal guardians?” Diego asked, “That is…little unusual. Have you been treated well?”

“Yeah, absolutely.” Luna nodded. “They’re really nice and like we said, their son is literally in our team and my best friend's boyfriend. I had just never met his parents before the fall.”

Carla sighed in some sort of relief. “What are their names?”

“Isla and Marco Perida.”

When Luna had said that, Simon’s dad seemed to almost choke on his coffee.

“Diego, what is it?” Carla turned to him confused.

“Nothing, I’m okay. I think I just heard wrong.” Diego shook his head. “You didn’t say Perida, did you?”

“I did…” Luna repeated the names.

“What are you talking about?” Carla looked at her husband confused. “Do you know them?”

“Of them.” Diego nodded. “Whenever me and my partners have talked about that Argentina expansion pipe dream for the restaurant, the advice we have gotten is that if you get in the favor of Marco Perida, you are gonna be set investment wise, but that’s impossible because he is busy and hard to reach. He and his wife are regarded as quite of icons in the business and real estate world of Argentina. Simon, what sort of circles have you ended up in?”

“I ask that of myself every day.” Simon shook his head laughing, “Trust me, Dad.”

“Well, Monica and Miguel are more than reputable as workers to attract millionaires like that to require their services.” Carla noted. “I would love to say that we are “happy for you”, but this still isn’t a great situation, but it is good to hear that you are safe. This is very gracious of them. Could you give us their phone numbers, so we could maybe talk to them. They could tell us more about the situation.”

“Uhm.” Luna hesitated for a moment. “I mean, I think it is a good idea, but I’m not sure…”

***

“Has anyone seen my lip gloss?” Jim dashed around the dressing room.

There was approximately 30 minutes till the competition was to begin, so there was complete chaos in the midst of the Team of Jam & Roller.

“It always surprises me that we actually always make it on the rink on time,” Gastón laughed.

“We just have the talent.” Matteo shrugged as he slung his skates on his shoulder. “That’s if Juliana actually lets us get on the rink…there is still time.”

“She’s warmed up to us.” Gastón patted him on the back.

“Hey!” Nina walked into the dressing room and straight to Gastón. “I was just heading to the audience but wanted to talk to you first.”

“Okay, sure.” He nodded. Nina grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the others, close to the door.

And without saying anything, she kissed him. “For luck.”

“That was for luck?” Gastón smiled at her and pulled her closer and kissed her again, this time longer. “I think I need some more of that.”

“You’re gonna do just fine.” Nina continued, “You have all worked so hard for this. You especially—” She ran her fingers over his right forearm. The only sign of the burn was some discoloration and wrinkles on the skin. “—given what sort of condition you were two months ago.”

“Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me to hear you say that.”

“Gastón!!!” Suddenly Jazmin appeared next to them. “Come on. We need to get that horror thing on your forehead covered up.”

“Do your worst.” Gastón grimaced slightly and let Jazmin drag him away while Nina laughed.

“Nina! Good thing you’re here.” Luna suddenly appeared next to her. “I need your help!!”

“Okay, with what?” She looked at her. “I’m not gonna be any help with makeup, but if you need me to hold bobby pins or something, I can do that.”

“No, this has nothing to do with the competition.” Luna said, and started whispering to Nina’s ear.

“Oh, okay.” Nina nodded, “But, Luna, you could have asked that of him yourself days ago.”

“But they want to meet him.” Luna responded.

“But you still could have given him a heads up—” Nina countered, “—and get the answer beforehand.”

“Now that you’re saying it like that it makes sense,” Luna rolled her eyes, “But you know me. I can barely keep my head together as it is.”

“Okay, of course I’ll help, if that’s what you want.” Nina continued, “But seriously Luna, you can just talk to him, instead of making things this complicated. He’s basically your brother…something I never thought I’d say, but it sounds pretty nice.”

“I know.” Luna laughed again, “but I am Luna Valente and I complicate things.”

***

“Uuuff!” Ambar let the laces of her skates fall on the floor. What did her skates have against her today, because tying them had proved to be extremely difficult all the sudden. Reason for which she had no idea, because she knew how to tie the freaking skates.

“Ambar? Everything okay?” Simon suddenly sat next to her at the couch.

“Yes.” Ambar sighed again, “These stupid laces are refusing to cooperate.”

“Your left one is stuck on the wheel.”

“How did I not notice that?” Ambar shook her head about, “No wonder it was too short.”

“Here.” Simon pulled the lace from behind Ambar’s skate’s wheel and handed it to her.

“Thanks.” Ambar smiled at him.

“How have you liked Cancun?” Simon continued asking. “Did you ever go see that place you asked about?”

“Not yet.” She shook her head. “I will, after we win. Can you draw me a map or something so I can find it? Or come and show me?”

“Maybe…” Simon pondered.

“You know Simon, has something been bothering you lately?” Ambar decided to ask him… Not for any particular reason, but because he was her skating partner and if he was performing poorly, she would perform poorly. “You’ve been a little unfocused lately, and in 15 minutes, I need you sharp.”

“I’m good.” Simon nodded, “Just been worried about Luna.”

“She has plenty of people to worry about her,” Ambar responded, “Let Nina and Gastón…and I guess Matteo as well—I have zero idea what is going on with that honestly—do that for a while. You live for yourself for a while, like celebrating our victory in the evening.”

***

The Roller Team lost the RodaFest, because of course they did. There is no reason why this author would go and change that.

***

“Seriously, it had to be rigged or something.” Matteo complained as he and Gastón were taking their skates off.

They had lost the Roda Fest, so everyone was feeling really down at the moment.

“This sucks.” Gastón shook his head as well, “We worked so hard.”

“Hey! I need you for a sec.” Nina suddenly walked into the dressing room again and addressed Gastón.

“Okay…” Matteo made a few faces. “I know that we are all devastated, but like I have zero intentions to keep out of our room tonight so…”

“No, nothing…like that—” Nina looked at him with some sort of flush of disbelief and embarrassment.”—I just need to talk to him.”

“Sure.” Matteo rolled his eyes a little bit.

“Ignore him.” Gastón got up. “What is it?”

“Come on.” Nina grabbed his hand and started pulling him along, down the hallway of the competition venue.

“Hey! Wait!” Gastón tried to protest. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m doing a favor here. There are people who you should meet.”

“To who? And who?” Gastón was getting very confused. The confusion was not cleared up when Nina ended up pulling him into the lobby where Luna was apparently waiting for them with two people who Gastón had never seen in his life. A man and a woman probably in their 50s—they looked about 10 to 15 years older than his own parents. Simon was also there, looking kind of awkward. “Uh, hi?”

“Thanks Nina.” Luna was the first one to speak.

“Let me guess, Luna was the one that the “favor” was for.” Gastón looked at Nina again, before looking at Luna. “What’s going on and why did my girlfriend have to drag me here?”

“We asked if we could meet you.” The woman started speaking.

“Me?” Gastón was still confused. “Okay, first of all, who are you?”

“Oh, right,” Luna seemed to pipe up, “These are Carla and Diego Alvarez.”

“Okay…” Gastón looked at them again before looking at Simon. He should have realized it sooner. “Your parents right? We should really be aware of the names of each other's parents at this point, it would really save us a lot of confusion.”

Simon just nodded.

“Luna has told us about the situation with her parents.” The man, whose name apparently was Diego, said. “Monica and Miguel have been close friends of ours for years. Apparently, it is your parents who are looking after Luna now.”

“Yeah, that’s the case.” Gastón nodded, “They were their employers. It is a terrible situation. Uh, but like, I don’t know that much more about it than anyone else. I’m only 18, so Mom and Dad don’t exactly tell me everything or treat me as an adult yet.”

“We were wondering if they’d be willing to speak with us, but Isla and Marco Perida are probably pretty hard to reach.”

“Let me guess, you know who they are.” Gastón sighed slightly. “Of course you do. Who doesn’t? But yeah, they are hard to reach—”

“I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to give their personal phone numbers.” Luna mentioned, “Because like, aren’t those secret or something?”

“Yeah, they’re like operator protected.” Gastón clarified. “If they were public, they’d never get any peace. Mom and Dad can barely part with their handsfrees as it is. But for this sort of situation, I don’t see an issue. I know that they’d be more than happy to speak with anyone from Luna’s life… Nina, do you have paper?”

“Yeah, I do.” Nina pulled a page out of her notebook.

“Thanks,” Gastón took it and started writing on it. “I can give you the phone numbers, but there is no guarantee that they will ever respond… So, here’s also their private emails that’s actually their preferred way of communication with people they don’t know.”

***

Luna followed Gastón as he opened the door to the house. No one had been able to pick them up, Luna was not sure how this exactly had worked, but Marco had arranged a car for them at the airport which Gastón had driven back.

“You’re back?” Isla came to meet them as soon as they walked into the living room.

“Were you in a meeting?” Gastón asked and Luna noticed too that Isla was wearing her earpiece.

“In between two calls, so your timing was perfect.” She quickly hugged her son. “Don’t have that much time to talk though, so you can tell me everything in the evening.”

“Okay.” Gastón just nodded and started dragging his suitcase upstairs.

“Wait a moment,” Luna was about to do the same when Isla stopped her.

“What?”

“Gastón told us, when we spoke on the phone a few days ago, about… They were parents of that friends of yours right?”

“Carla and Diego, yeah.” Luna nodded, “I told them about what has happened.”

“Thats what he said.”

“I hope it was okay that we gav—”

“Of course it was.” Isla smiled. “You could have just asked about that directly too.”

“Yeah, I know, but it just didn’t come to my mind then.” Luna laughed, “Oh, I almost forgot!” She pulled a letter from her bag that Carla had given her the day before they had left Cancun. “They wanted me to give you this.”

“Okay,” Isla looked at the letter before glancing at her phone quickly, “You know what, is it okay if I won’t look at it now? Marco is in a seminar the whole evening, giving it to be precise, and I have at least two more calls I need to make today and one launch plan to review. How about you go and leave it in our room, we’ll look at it together later?”

“Yeah, that works.” Luna nodded, “In your room?”

“Not saying not would get lost, but there are a million papers all over the office right now, so let's not take our chances.” Isla responded. “Leave it on a nightstand for example.”

“Sure,” Luna nodded again before looking up toward the stairs, “You room was…?”

“You don’t know where it is?”

“This house is a maze.”

“It kind of is. Upstairs, the double doors. You’ll know it when you see it.”

“There are two upstairs in this house,” Luna kept pondering.

“That is true too,” Isla laughed, “the second floor, not the highest. You got it?”

“Yeah. I think so.” Luna nodded and started climbing the stairs.

She looked around on the middle floor. Honestly, she hadn’t spent much time on the upstairs of this house, even though she had lived here for almost a year. Nina had said that the highest floor had like three bedrooms, but there probably were rooms on other floors as well.

Isla had been right, Luna spotted the double doors on the other side of the hall, really quickly. The doors opened up to a giant room, with more of those big windows. The view opened up to the small forest behind the house.

Luna walked in headed toward the bed to leave the letter on the nightstand when some picture frames on a chest of drawers drew her attention. Concrete pictures shouldn’t be that surprising anymore, it was clearly this family’s thing.

Luna walked closer and looked at the pictures. Two of them were of Gastón in various ages, Matteo featured in one of them…again. The third picture was a one that clearly was from Isla and Marco’s wedding.

The fourth picture was the one that had drawn Luna’s attention. It had golden frames and in that one Isla and Marco looked really young, so it was probably from the time they had started dating. The picture was really cute…

Luna wasn’t the most detail-oriented person in the world, but this detail in the photo really drew her eye. There was an image of a sun drawn by black ink on Isla’s left wrist. Luna had never realized that she had a tattoo, but maybe it had just been covered by a watch or a bracelet since she wore a lot of those.

“The sun will show you the truth.” The voice from Luna’s dream echoed in her mind suddenly, while she kept staring at the picture.

Luna shook her head and placed the envelope that held Carla’s letter next to the picture frames.

As she closed the door and walked back into the hall, she looked out of the window. The actual sun had come out from behind the clouds.

If she wasn’t kind of feeling weird enough as it was, suddenly she noticed a golden glimmer shining from the middle of the carpet. Luna walked closer, and noticed that what was reflecting the light was a ring.

Luna held the golden ring, that got thicker in the middle, in her hand. She had seen ones like it in history class; they were called “signet” rings that were used to stamp wax seals in old times.

There was only one person who this could belong to, and… What was even stranger was the fact that the design on top of the ring was another sun.

Could this truly be a coincidence anymore?

{}

Well, well, well... It though it would be a time for some good fashion cliffhanger again, because who doesn't love those. Coincedence? I think—yeah, yes, it actually is. This is not a spoiler, because we know what all the sun imagenery actually is standing for (that Luna is Sol), but Luna doesn't know that. So she comes to her own conclusions, which are... You really though I'd tell you? Nooo, way too early for that. That's what the cliffhanger is for. Leave your interpretations on what Luna is thinking right now in the comments. Also, if you are thinking right now how convinient the ring thing is and how I just came up with it in the fly, I did not. The golden signet ring that has a sun on it and it's accopanying lore has existed since December 2022 (You can go read Christmas is the time for joy and unexpected events for the extended lore). Same thing applies to the whole airport thing, because how has that not come up? Gastón's dad being an Airport Administrator was first brough up in 2021 (Chapter 13: Back Together of Memories of Time) in the same time as when Marco Perida was first brough up by name, so I didn't just make it up for the bit. All paths are coming together now. Okay, what else? Simon's parent finally got to be involved with plot, because I genuingly feel so bad for them on canon, because Simon probably doesn't tell them anything. Actually, Nina was originally supposed to be part of that scene where they go visit and she was supposed to be the one to point out for Luna that she might not be able to give out the phone number. I cut her out of the scene, because I just couldn't get it to flow right with her there. And I thought, I should give Luna some credit and have her herself realize that she wasn't sure if she was allowed to give out private information of two millionaires very much in public eye. It goes to show that Isla and Marco have become important to Luna, and she cares about them and values thier privacy enough to stop and think before acting, even if SHE trusts Simon's parents. I think I promised in the last A/N that we'd talk about Simon later, so lets talk about Simon shall we, because you probably have noticed that he hasn't seemed all that jazzed about the situation with Luna and Gastón's parents. Well, the thing is that Simon is a honest to good working class boy who has never been in a personal level with any millionares and I guess has some hard time seeing them as people he can trust, because he doesn't know them and is maybe having little hard time getting past of this preconcieved notion over what kind of people whealty white collar people are. He hasn't been excatly sitting down to eat dinner with them. So it is kind of odd from him that Luna is basically part of their family now, or is as far as the Peridas are concerned, because to him is such a different world that Luna kind if now belongs to. And maybe it also is a little bit of a harder pill to swallow, because after their failed pseudo romance Simon has been this borther figure for Luna, but she basically now has a legally appointed older brother in Gastón now and he is able to look out for her in ways Simon can't do. This is not to say that there is something wrong with Simon for feeling like this, this is just an unothodox situation.m In end he just loves Luna and wants the best for her. He just is unable to see that this is the best for her, because it is such a different world. Obviously, the best for Luna would be her own parents (nothing about this fic is supposed to be slander Monica and Miguel or thgem as Luna's parents), we can't have that at the moment. Obviously, Simon is the most untoxic person ever, and this won't change that, but I sometimes feel like Simon isn't that nuanced. He's just a good boy, which we love to see, but when it comes to conflicts, they're always about someone else: Daniela, Matteo, Ambar. It is never about just him, so here is some internal cionflict for our boy. Also, I feel like this is pretty good base for some Simbar, in a way that maybe they can help each other.

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