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Mirabel loved being the center of attention and often was as she was the perfect Madrigal ever since her fifth birthday when she had gotten the gift of controlling flowers. She was the darling of the town the favorite and protégé of her Abuela and the youngest granddaughter she used to be the baby of the family until her little cousin Antonio was born. Mirabel would never admit to jealously after all that was not perfect and she was the perfect Madrigal but she had been upset when Tia Pepa had announced she was pregnant and even more upset when her little cousin was born but she had mostly gotten over that yes a lot of people paid attention to the new baby but after a bit the spotlight returned to her she may not be the baby of the family anymore but she was still star of it.
However, while Antonio didn’t steal all the attention from Mirabel, he did steal the attention that Mirabel craved the most that of her eldest cousin Isabela. Isabela was the eldest grandchild of the Madrigals and the only child of Bruno and his wife Alejandra and was definitely not perfect. Isabela’s bad luck began when her mother died giving birth to her something which for reason Julieta’s food could not heal then during her fifth birthday she didn’t get a gift or a room and it caused many to fear the magic was failing and after her fifth birthday but before Dolores’ Bruno madrigal her father died in what most believe was an accident but many others doubt. He had been the unlucky Madrigal the cursed one and as his room disappeared that status passed on to his poor daughter Isabela.
After that Isabela had been taken in by Julieta and raised as one of her own but the town never forgot she was Bruno’s daughter, the broken madrigal, the cursed Madrigal and tried to avoid her. When many young men came to try and date a Madrigal they always spoke to Dolores or Luisa never Isabela despite her beauty. Isabela as such had lived her life in the nursery as she didn’t have a room of her own, she was kind, beautiful a skilled painter and singer and loved her family and children as many of the kids in Encanto where the few who didn’t avoid her as such she often watched them and played with them singing songs and leading them around the town. She had done that for years but as the kids grew up and learned more about her from their parents they began to drift away. She had also been for the past five years Antonio’s roommate and as such he had gotten most of Isabela’s attention.
Mirabel loved Isabela more than anything and wanted nothing more than to have her. As Isabela had no room she had shared the nursery with all the other madrigals and Mirabel still remembered the time in between Camilo’s birthday and her own when she shared the nursey with her cousin and how wonderful it felt having Isabela all to herself. Mirabel even remembered how happy and excited Isabela had been when she got her gift and how for the first few months Mirabel she was always around Mirabel watching her make flowers and helping her. Their Abuela, however, had decided that Mirabel was the perfect heir and began to take her under her wing and as such Mirabel spent less time with Isabela.
Mirabel learned how she had to be perfect as the next leader of the family she couldn’t afford to make a mistake or even be seen as anything but perfect. That meant that Mirabel couldn’t keep following her cousin around like a lost puppy and as such she began to spend more time apart from her cousin. Isabela had tried to keep up their relationship but eventually Mirabel pushed her away after Mirabel was perfect and she couldn’t be seen with someone like Isabela.
Mirabel had regretted that decision every day since as they began to grow apart. Mirabel had thought about going to apologize but that would mean admitting she did something wrong and she was perfect and she couldn’t do anything wrong since she would be imperfect. Still ever since that day so many years ago they had been distant and it has driven Mirabel insane as she is desperate for Isabela’s attention and affection.
Mirabel had become so desperate for any attention form Isabela she had started to bug her for it. It had started small “accidently” causing flowers to grow in Isabela’s hair when Isabela ignored her, to larger things like taking Isabela’s things so she would have to get them to tripping her with her vines. Mirabel had even started to make traps out of her vines to grab her as an accident. It had worked in away Isabela had started paying more attention to Mirabel but instead of the praise and love Mirabel craved it was anger, exhaustion and jealousy. She had even gone to Abuela about it but she had told Isabela to stop making a scene and being jealous of her cousin.
Mirabel had succeeded at getting Isabela to pay attention to her but hadn’t gotten her to love her like she dreamed. Still she made sure that Isabela would never stop paying attention to her as when Isabela tried to ignore her Mirabel went out of her way to harass her until she started giving Mirabel attention. Isabela even tried complementing her once and Mirabel had not bothered her for a week after that and even given her flowers. Still Mirabel was scared that she would lose Isabela to someone else. She had heard rumors that Isabela had asked a girl in town out on a date and thankfully she had been rejected after all if the girl had said yes then she could have taken Mirabel away from her.
Mirabel often laid in her bed at night thinking about her cousin. Her beautiful cousin who had been unlucky all her life who had never gotten a break and had been called cursed and broken yet who still managed to be so kind to others even if in her desire to help she got in the way. Mirabel dreamed of being able to make Isabela hers dating her of even marrying her oh how shocking it would be the perfect Madrigal and the broken Madrigal together. But she couldn’t do it it would destroy Mirabel’s image as the perfect Madrigal having people know she was attracted to women and having people know she loved Isabela so they had to stay dreams.