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Félix loved all three of his children equally, there was no doubt about that.
He couldn’t imagine life without any one of them, and being married to Pepa and having their children has been the best achievement of his life.
However, it also wasn’t a secret that he found his eldest son the most exasperating.
Like his mamá, he was wild, impulsive and often acted without considering the consequences of his actions.
He liked to make people smile and laugh, which was a wonderful quality to have, but it also landed him in trouble a fair amount growing up.
He and Pepa had received many complaints from the school and other parents, stating that:
“ Your little boy is a menace.”
While Félix was more accepting and apologetic of these claims, Pepa would deny them, adamantly.
Her sweet little angel would never egg Señora Martinez’s house, it had to be one of the other children that Camilo hung around with.
They were the bad influence, not her son.
Camilo knew how to twist his mamá around his little finger, and deep down Pepa knew that, but he had such a sweet little face that made her melt every time.
And so, Félix was the main disciplinarian of his wayward son.
Not that the young boy ever took him seriously, and as predicted, once he was five and received his shapeshifting gift, he caused complete and utter chaos with it.
Félix would never forget when Camilo was seven years old and had shifted into him, and bought over three hundred lemons from town.
When the real Félix went to town later that day, he’d been asked why on earth he’d needed so many lemons, leaving the man with no idea what anyone was talking about.
His son had apparently wanted to make a lemonade stand, but he’d inherited Pepa’s short attention span and grew bored after making two cups.
This left the family with a pantry full of lemons and no idea what to do with them.
This was only one of the many mischievous things that Camilo had done growing up, and now, at age thirteen, his behaviour seemed to be getting worse.
His pranks were on a grander scale, and unfortunately for Félix, his wife seemed to find most of their sons antics amusing.
She would sit there and giggle while Félix would try and tell him off, but his words would fall on deaf ears.
Camilo would immediately go and get into trouble again.
Pepa would only really put her foot down if Camilo put himself or others in actual danger.
Since Camilo’s actions were never mean spirited, this rarely happened, but having to deal with him was annoying.
His grades at school were beginning to suffer as a result of his restlessness, and eye for mischief.
The two parents had been told many times:
“Camilo needs to start putting the effort in. He isn’t reaching his full potential.”
Camilo was a popular kid and had lots of friends, but there was more to school than the social aspect.
He really needed to put the effort in.
Of course, when confronted, the teenager was insolent in his response.
“I’m a Madrigal. I don’t need qualifications.”
Unsurprisingly, Pepa had been the same way in her school days. She ran wild, but rather than her classmates finding her funny, it had the opposite effect.
She’d tended to annoy people and she became isolated from her peers.
She’d tried telling Camilo that she had regretted not trying harder, but once again, it didn’t sink in.
Now the couple had three year old Antonio to run around after, life was extremely busy.
Dolores was nineteen now and very much independent.
But having a toddler and a teenager who at times acted like a toddler was hard work.
So the last thing that Félix had needed today was another complaint from Camilo’s teacher.
He’d pulled a very immature and frankly quite dangerous stunt during his math lesson.
The very tired and fed up Félix had been in the middle of lecturing his son when his wife came through the door, carrying groceries.
A worried cloud appeared over her head when she saw her son home two hours early from school.
“What’s the matter? Is he sick? Why is he home so early?”
Félix scoffed, glaring at Camilo as the boy failed to suppress giggles.
“No. He’s in trouble. He’s been suspended for two days.”
Even Pepa looked displeased at the news of suspension, so Félix hoped that she would, for once, back him up with discipline.
“What has he done now?” She knew it had to be serious. Despite how much of a menace her son could be, he’d never been suspended.
Until now.
Camilo rolled his eyes as he looked at his mamá.
“Ma, it’s not even that deep. They’re overreacting.” He said in his crackly, squeaky voice.
Puberty had well and truly begun with this boy.
“I’ll tell you if they’re overreacting.” Pepa turned back to her husband with a sigh. “What exactly did he do?”
Félix looked half exhausted, half furious as he told her.
“He superglued Manuel’s face to the desk!”
“He wanted me to!” Camilo attempted to defend himself.
Félix watched his wife as she tried to process the information.
And as she’d done many times before, she began to wheeze with laughter, her cloud disappearing entirely.
Of course.
Of course she found it amusing.
“Pepa!” Félix hissed. He swore, if he didn’t love his wife so much. “This isn’t funny!”
Agustín, who happened to be on the other side of the room working on some tailoring, heard this and started howling.
“Ha!”
Leave it to Agustín to take Pepa’s side on this.
She was his best friend, after all.
“Don’t encourage them, Agustín.” Félix groaned.
Perhaps he’d take a leaf out of his wife’s book and escape to the pub.