Instagram is fun. Especially if you have over one billion followers. The amount of notifications Sophie and I get are off the charts. 

We both were facing each other on the same couch, scrolling through instagram. I couldn't actually see what my cousin was doing, but the reflection in her glasses could show me she was looking through Jake's posts. Her boyfriend.

Technically her ex, since they just ended things earlier today, a week after our concert. Jake didn't know our secret, but he knew all of Sophie's other secrets. Stuff even I, her best friend, didn't know. They were as serious as a relationship with two seventeen year olds could get, while remaining pg.

Sophie had told me she was fine, her and Jake both thought it was best since long distance relationships never work out, but her scrolling through Jake's pictures was proof against her.

"Soph, you good?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Obvious lie after three years of living with her.

"Your glasses are reflective, remember?" She cussed. That's right everyone, my wonderful cousin doesn't just cuss in her songs, but in real life as well. Her screen quickly flipped towards her strange capybara game, something she claimed was life changing but I knew the truth. One review for that game said something about a child being disowned because they were a disappointment so they were living in their school's vents. One day they crawled out of the vents to find a phone and downloaded TikTok. On TikTok, they saw a video for Capybara Rush and immediately downloaded it. After that, they became popular and everyone wanted to talk to them. The principal called them to their office where their parents were waiting to take them to their seven story mansion in a Lamborghini. 

It could be true, since Sophie downloaded the game then got adopted by Grady and Edaline and became famous, but I don't buy it.

"Stupid nearsightedness." Sophie grumbled while taking off her glasses.

"Sophie. My dear, sweet, ever so thick-skulled cousin. Your glasses are to help you see far away. You don't need to wear them when scrolling through your ex's instagram page." She winced when I said ex. Great, now I feel bad. She really liked Jake, and if we didn't have to move then they would still be together. I'm pretty sure they even used the L-word before. The L-words being 'Loser.'

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I know this is hard for you-"

"Do you? We're uprooting our entire lives go move to some tiny kingdom in the middle of Europe, which will probably mess up our touring and concerts. And not just that, I had to break up with my boyfriend the day before our one year anniversary!"

"Tomorrows your one year anniversary?"

"Yeah. We had the whole day planned out, but since we're moving tomorrow there's nothing we can do."

"I'm really sorry, Soph." And I meant it. I walked over to her and hugged her right. I wanted to cry when she started bawling. She always acted so strong around us, even when she was first adopted. Especially when she was first adopted. She thought since we weren't her real family, she had to put up a front for us. She needed to learn to open up. I knew that while she was in the system, she went through both good and bad families, and that made her close up, think she couldn't trust us. She opened up more when the papers were signed, but she still kept away and closed up.

"It-It shouldn't even be bothering me this much. I knew we probably wouldn't last, but he was my longest lasting relationship. We didn't even have our one year anniversary."

"I know, I know."

"Can you tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"That you won't leave me. Like my parents did. Like we have to do with our home."

"I will never leave you. I promise. And your parents didn't want to leave you, you know that. They loved you. And now you've got us. I'm always here for you, Sophie. As your cousin and self-proclaimed best friend." I held my crying cousin tighter to my chest. She was broken and finally opening up. I couldn't screw this up.

"I-I know. I just don't want fo leave this home, that's kept me safe all this time  And now, now I also have to break up with my boyfriend  just because we're moving across the world. And this  community, this community was safe, accepting. What if there are bad people there? What if they hate us? Hate me? What if they're as bad as the kids at school, calling you a loser and worshiping  me as their queen, but then they don't do that at our new school?" She gasped. "What if they worship you as their king and call me a loser?" I hate to admit it, but that was a valid point.

"They won't, Soph. No one can hate you." She mumbled something into my shoulder that I couldn't hear. "What'd you say?"

"My old families did. They hated me because of how smart I was, because I would read the dictionary for fun. Eventually I just ignored what my brain was telling me, trying to help me advance. I could be done with high school right now, you know? I could be done with college, but I just decided to tell myself ocultar, no sientas, like the Spanish Elsa I am and stay on level." I froze.

"You're Spanish?"

"I never told you this?"

"No!"

"I could've sworn I told you this."

"Well you didn't. You need to tell me now." I demanded. How could she not tell me she was Spanish? How could I not know that she even spoke Spanish?

"Okay, well technically I'm not Spanish, I'm half Mexican. My dad was full American then my mom was full Mexican. I grew up speaking Spanish instead of English. English was only for school." Sophie laughed at the memories. "I know, I look too white to be Mexican. You can blame that on my dad, I got his skin tone. And his hair"

"I can't believe I never knew this. Is that why you could sing along to Despacito so easily when Jake was blasting it on his phone?"

"Yeah. I still can't believe I never told you."

"Aunt Edaline!" I shouted. I needed to know I wasn't the only one.

"What is it? Are you two okay?"

"Did you know... that your daughter is half Mexican?" I smiled at her shellshocked expression.

"I thought you were British." If Sophie were drinking something, it would've been spit out all over me. But I was dying on the floor laughing. 

"Why does everyone think I'm British?" She mumbled to herself.

"Because you look British! I keep telling you this!" I shouted. And it's true, I always told her how she looked British with her slightly curled blonde hair, short height, and pale skin. Technically it was referred to as 'fair,' but there's no way I'm saying my cousin has fair skin. 

Sophie glared at me. I glared back. It was a glaring war of epic proportions. Which Edaline so rudely decided to interrupt.

"Do you two have your rooms all packed up?"

"Yep, we even helped the triplets pack up their room." Sophie told her. We all live in the same house. We could easily afford another one, but we decided to all live together in one big house. Sophie and I each had our own rooms but the triplets shared one. By choice. Who would want to share a room with two of their siblings?

"Thank you, you know how troublesome those triplets can be. Here, why don't you look through this website about Eternalia?" She quickly typed something in on her phone. "I just sent it to you." Sophie's phone dinged, proving Edaline correct.

Sophie clicked on the link, pulling a very British website. 

"What the hell is this? Winchester?" She whispered to me. I snorted.

"Actually, Winchester is more of a town than this." Edaline corrected.

"I'm not British, I wouldn't know this." Sophie just loved grumbling, didn't she?

"Are you sure about that?" I countered as she stuck her tongue out at me.

I stole her phone to look at the quaint kingdom. Everything  looked cottagecore, with little cottages and everything. The castle was even quant, though still very big. The stone architecture was incredible, the spires standing tall and sturdy. 

Edaline typed in her phone again. "These are the two neighboring houses we bought on Zillow." Aunt Edaline and her Zillow. Makes me want to shake my head. With me still on Sophie's phone, I clicked on the link my aunt sent.

The houses fit into the kingdom perfectly. There was tons of greenery in front. They looked like they could be the grandma's house from Little Red Riding Hood. There was even a water wheel on the side! Both houses together were the same size as our current house. One was a bit bigger with an extra bedroom, which I assumed was for the triplets.

"It... actually looks really nice." Sophie whispered.

"I hoped you would like it. We just want to give you a different environment. And Sophie, it does say on the google that basically everyone there listens to the Moonlark and Techno's music.."

"Mom. It's google. Not the google. Just google."

"Right, sorry. Well, I'm off to look up Pinterest pictures on the google." She slid out of the room.

"She does that in spite of you, y'know." I laughed.

"I know. I don't know why I even bother anymore." Even though her tone implied annoyance, her smile said otherwise. It was nice to see her smile.

And hopefully, when we move, I'll be seeing that smile a lot more.

This is now edited. Hopefully everything is correct... probably not though 😅

Avery, out ->

🫳

🎤