I hate Monopoly, stupid paper money, assets and fake banks. I know it's important to learn about money but I don't find Monopoly interesting as people say it is and dad knows this. Immediately he suggested we play Monopoly, I knew it was punishment for being rude to mom last night.

   "Lola, what's happening?, this is my third win and your mom's second but you haven't won since we started."

  What's happening?,  Dad knows what's happening, I don't like this board game, I prefer cards to this but he was mocking me. I looked up at him and almost glared but that wouldn't get me anywhere.

  "Dad, let's play something else, I'm tired of this game."

  "No, princesa, it wouldn't be fair if we quit this game without giving you a chance to win."

  Giving me a chance to win my foot, "Dad, don't worry about my losses, I'd make up for it in another game."

  Mom was smiling and it made me smile too, I always found it hard to apologise to her whenever we fight.

   "No, I have a better Idea. Since I won the highest in the game, I'd let you and your mom play, after that whoever wins gets to pick the next game."

  My dad is officially the most annoying person I know right now, he wants to put me in a tight corner to make sure I talk to Mom.

  "Manuela, Lola, excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom," Dad said and left mom and I staring at each other uncomfortably.

  I feel like I'm standing in front of the whole student body trying to solve a mathematical equation, Mom was re-arranging the game pieces and you could almost cut the tension with a knife. I hate this.

  "Okay I give up," I said as mom bought yet another asset and I didn't have anything in this game figured out.

  "Lola, I think your dad and I need to teach you about money practically, your lack of skills in Monopoly scares me." Mom's soft voice as she said this scared me too.

    I know there was an atom of seriousness in what she said but she made a joke so a smile broke out on my face, seeing my smile, mom also smiled then she started laughing. There would be no better opportunity than this to apologise.

   "Mom, I'm sorry."

Her face softened and the smile on her face now looked sad. "Lola, I know loosing your brother is so hard on you because of how close you both were, I'm sorry we weren't always home, I'm sorry we didn't spend enough time with you both, I'm sorry Leo died, Lola."

"But, honey, Leonel wouldn't want to see his baby sister sad, he wouldn't want to see this shell you've built around yourself, it wasn't your fault, I love Leo, but he made his own mistake that we shouldn't keep blaming ourselves for, I blamed myself a lot for his death too but then I realized that's unhealthy, I didn't say too much to you before because I wanted you to heal at your own time but if we continue like this, I'd loose you too while you're still alive and it would hurt just as much as loosing Leo."

   Mom was crying and I was too, she was right, I was so lost in grieving Leo that I didn't realize that I was hurting my parents with my behavior, maybe I should just live in the moment, go out more, I should probably call some of my friends from New York, call Addison, she also lost some too, model mom's cloth and be happier.

   It sounded so easy but was harder, I knew I had to try for mom and dad and for Leo because he'd want them to be happy, I wasn't going to let my sadness get in the way. I looked at Mom and she was wiping her tears away.

   "I don't want your dad to say I've turned family night teary," mom said with a mirthless laugh.

  "Come here, Lola, give me hug," she said again and smiled genuinely.

   I crawled forward scattering the Monopoly board and laughing at that, Mom laughed too and the warmth from her hug took me to happier days, with Leo and dad and lots of laughter, it made me realize that I could think about Leo and laugh and smile not just cry, besides Leo would want us to be happy.

   "I don't think it's fair that I wasn't included in this hug," dad said startling us.

  "José, do you want to me to jump out of my skin?"

  A look passed through mom and dad and I suddenly felt like I was interrupting something, I love the both of them but they could make me cringe.

Dad cleared his throat and said, "I ordered pizza."

  "From the bathroom?" I asked.

  Mom laughed and I joined her, this was more like it, we should always laugh like this, I look at dad and he smiled, it reached his eyes, I looked forward to tommorow, we would have more reasons to smile and laugh.

   I'm now happily looking forward to the short trip I was dreading before because now I know we'd be enjoying being around each other instead of being tensed, I knew we'd all be happy  spending those few hours together.

*****
"You've lost it, José, you keep singing of key," mom said and laughed.

   It's been almost two hours and I feel so happy today, this road trip felt so nice, Mom suggested we sing along to songs by Latina singers, dad kept singing off key and blaming it on the fact he was driving.

   Any minute now we'd pull up at my grandparents house and the madness would begin, all my cousins, aunts and uncles and lots of animals, snow was sleeping on the car seat beside me and I smiled at that, she wasn't bothered by the noise we were making. I patted her furry body and smiled as she snuggled to my touch.

   "We're here," dad said in Spanish as he pulled into the driveway of the ranch. Following Abuela's order, only Spanish should be used to converse whenever we are in Napa. We'd break the rules sometimes and always get one of her long lectures about how important it is to preserve culture.

   I looked at the big compound, I've been here countless times but the sprawling land of greeneries, vineyard and ranch never seizes to amaze me, the gazillion acres of land held my happiest memories with my brother and cousins, with my extended family.

   "I'm surprised no one is outside," Mom said.

  The compound was quiet and I was surprised too, usually a child or children would be running around but I could only see some horses at the far end of the house. We took our things out of the car and walked up to the main house,the door was open and I could hear noise, this was exactly how the house always was.

  Immediately we walked in, I heard excited screams and the next thing I saw was blurs of colours as everyone took turns hugging us, Snow got hugs and pats too, she was enjoying the attention.

   "Abuela!" I screamed when i saw my grandma and she looked pleased too.

  "Dame un abrazo," abuela said and I happily complied, giving her a big hug, I missed her so much.

   She was as almost as tall as me, this was were dad got his tall genes that Leo and I inherited, abuela would say that boy's back in her days were scared of her height and some of them were afraid to ask her out because she was taller than them.

   Abuela pulled away from the hug and held me as she looked at me closely before she said, "te he extrañado querida."

     My smile made her smile, I've also missed her a lot, the last time I visited was a year ago for Thanksgiving despite Napa being so close to San Francisco, I don't visit as much as I used to when Leo was alive.

   "Cómo estás, Chino?"

Leonel had curly hair, my cousin Santos also had curly hair like dad and abuela but uncle Alejandro called only me Chino which means curly one.

  "Tio Alejandro, you keep calling me curly one, when there are other curly haired people in the family."

  "You are my favorite Chino."

  Everyone laughed and uncle Alejandro's wife Maria swatted his arms. Aunt Maria and uncle Alejandro were high school sweethearts, their love story was funny and the amount of time they argue like children made everyone laugh and wonder how they ever got married.

   "Lola, don't mind Alejandro, he's still as annoying as when he was a child, God only knows how Maria stands him."

  "You are also annoying too, Carlos, don't forget that," Aunt Rose said in reply to what her husband said.

  She winked at me and flipped her black long hair away from her face, she was Egyptian but somehow ended up as a Spanish teacher, she was actually a polygot, she spoke Spanish, Hindi, English and Arabic fluently.

   "They are all annoying, José is, Carlos is and Alejandro is the most annoying, all this boys made my teens miserable but Alejandro used his position as the last born to do much worse," Aunt Eva said.

  The laughter continued after what she said, barely thirty minutes in the house and I was laughing like I had laughing gas in my blood stream, I wonder how Abuela gave birth to this crazy bunch.

   "Hey, Eva, you don't want me revealing your secrets to the kids," my dad said and Aunt Eva rolled her eyes.

  "Okay, okay that's enough all of you, you all still behave like kids," Abuelo said walking into the house.

I wanted to ask where he was since he was not present when we came but I got distracted by all the talking. I was going to hug him but he stopped me.

   "I smell like horse shit,querida, give me some minutes to freshen up then you can give your abuelo a hug."

    "Tonio, how many times do I have to tell you you're old now and shouldn't be doing such work like cleaning the stables?" Abuela asked and everyone laughed, she scolded everyone including her own husband.

  "Gabby, how many times do I have to tell you that I'm as fit as a young lad, speak for yourself and don't call me old."

  "Are you calling me old, Antonio, everyone knows I barely look sixty, when I was young I competed in the community beauty contest and won, I'm still every bit of the beauty I was then."

  "Oh no, Manuela, José, Carlos, Rose, Alejandro, Maria, Let's get out of here, Mama and Papa won't stop arguing now," Aunt Eva said and started walking away with all the other adults behind her laughing, they were probably going to the backyard to sit under the orange tree.

   Abuela and Abuelo were still bickering till Nicole interrupted, "Abuelo, go and freshen up, you promised to spend time with us today and Abuela, i'm sure Abuelo didn't mean it that way, right Abuelo?"

  "Si, Gabriella, mi amore," Abuelo said and a blush spread over abuela's face. The both of them were so cute.

    "Todavía te ves genial, Abuela," I said and meant it because although my grandma's face has some laugh lines and wrinkles, she was very pretty and could pass for a few years younger than she actually was.

  "Stop flattering me. Tonio, let's go I want to get my glasses from the room," abuela said and walked beside Abuelo, she said something about him being stinky and he laughed. I watched them walk away with a smile on my face, I know I'm going to have the best weekend filled with a lot of laughter.

A/n I told you all I'm on a roll and I'm not even capping, because today is another week after I updated the last chapter.

Soooo, hello my favourite people,  what crackalacking, what popping?
How have you been? Feel free to rant here;)

How are you enjoying the story so far, I know I'm focusing more on Lola and that's because I want most of the story from her POV, like I said in the first A/n.

Do you like her extended family, the one's you've met at least, there are still the cousins who I'm so excited for y'all to meet:o

Tell me what you think about this chapter before I say more words that the actual story,haha.

Thanks a lot for reading, remember I'd always love to read your comments, so do so and click the little star and Share too if you liked this chapter. I'm hoping I get a hundred read on one chapter soon...

Thanks for reading.
NmX.