Chapter Text
Yesterday, waking up in her new room for the first time had been disorienting, the window was in a different place and it was immediately obvious before even opening her eyes that the sun was shining in her face from a different angle then she was used to. At first she thought someone had somehow moved her bed to another part of the nursery in the middle of the night as she slept, then she looked around and became even more confused.
Everything was blurry without her glasses but she obviously wasn’t in the nursery, the room was a little bit bigger and the walls were painted blue, not green. She sat up, put her glasses on and looked again. Then she remembered the day before.
Their new Casita was finally ready for them to move in. Her family had surprised her by letting her be the one to open the door. The magic came back. She had spent her first night in her very own bedroom. She couldn’t be happier.
Today, waking up was just as disorienting, it would probably take her a while to get used to sleeping in a new place, even if this is the home she grew up in. As soon as she remembered where she was she greeted, like always, “Good morning Casita.”
She greeted Mirabel back by moving almost everything she could in the room rhythmically, Mirabel laughed at her house’s enthusiasm. Casita had explained to her, in her own way, what it had been like during the time she was gone and apparently it was a whole lot of nothing. One second she was waving one last goodbye to Mirabel as the candle faded, next second she was back, whole and alive, as Mirabel waved hello. Despite the fact she hadn't had any time to miss her family she was glad to be back.
Mirabel yawned and stretched, little glittering orbs of light rained down on her. She startled, staring dumbfounded at the lights as they drifted downward slowly like dust, settled in her lap and then faded. After they were gone she glanced up at the ceiling, trying to figure out what they were and where they came from. She asked hesitantly, “Casita? What just happened?”
She nudged Mirabel’s feet up and down with a floorboard indicating she caused them.
“Me?” she asked incredulously, “Are you sure that wasn’t you?”
Casita responded to that in the most sassy and sarcastic way a house is capable of.
Mirabel replied, “Ok, ok, it was me.” She stood and examined herself in the mirror. She didn’t look any different. Same white nightgown she fell asleep in, same messy bedhead she always wakes up with. She tried yawning and stretching again but apparently pretending to yawn didn’t make the lights appear. She gave herself a hard, frustrated look as she thought.
She insisted, “I’m dreaming. That's what's happening.” She pinched herself on the arm, flinched in pain and as she flinched the sparkles appeared again, all around her body, flying away from her fast before drifting down slowly, as if she was expressing her pain by making sparkles. “Ok, not a dream…”
She examined her hands carefully, then looked at herself in the mirror again. What was going on? When she was younger she used to dream that one day she would wake up and discover she had finally been granted a Gift in the middle of the night. Maybe it was finally happening? Back then she had also spent an embarrassing amount of time practicing in front of the mirror, pretending she had magic powers.
She tried doing an impression of Isabela, she said to the Mirabel in the mirror, “Good morning Mirabel. Don’t you look pretty this morning? Just one thing missing.” She reached out and tapped the mirror, right above her reflection’s ear, she imagined making a flower appear in her hair. Sparkles appeared from her fingertip where she tapped, drifting down the surface of the mirror.
She tried holding both hands in front of her and imagined sparkles shooting out of her palms like cannon fire… that did nothing, no sparkles. Giving up on that idea she made a dismissive hand gesture… sparkles appeared around her hand to accompany her dismissive wave. She tried catching one of the glittering orbs of light, her hand passed right through it. After a few seconds the orbs all disappeared.
It only took a few more minutes of practicing before she felt like she had gotten the hang of making the sparkles appear on demand. Apparently the key was to just not think about it too hard and let the sparkles be a way of expressing herself.
The idea popped into her head that her family would be disappointed, she finally gets her Gift, 10 years late, and her Gift is just that she sparkles. It can’t be used to help anyone. She immediately dismissed that thought, she knows her family won’t think of it that way and neither does she. She had finally accepted she would never get a Gift and that was ok, she didn’t need magic to be special, it shouldn’t matter.
It kind of does matter though, this is the moment she had been dreaming of her whole life. She looked at herself in the mirror again and couldn’t hold back a huge smile. She has a Gift! As she beamed at her reflection the lights appeared again, framing her face and settling in her hair. The whole effect enhanced her smile and made her feel beautiful, despite the bed hair.
She glanced at the clock and realized how much time she had actually spent in front of the mirror, she was almost late for breakfast. She got dressed and ready as fast as she could, excited to tell her family her new discovery. The last thing she did before leaving the room was look at herself in the mirror again. Every morning for years she had said the same daily affirmation to herself, ‘Make your family proud.’ yesterday she had decided on a new one, “Your family is proud of you.” at the time she assumed she would never get a Gift so today she added, “With or without a Gift.”