Once Again

Chapter 27

It's September 1995. It's been 2 months since Luis and I got permission to date. We are back in school this month also. I've been waiting all summer to go back because Luis was going to be there now. Both of us will be in 10th grade this year. We have a few sessions together but not enough. I wanted more sessions with him. We had 1st, 3rd, lunch, 6th & 7th session together. We walk into 1st session and, to my surprise, Leann was in there. I run to her and hug her tight. We jumped around. We hadn't seen each other since my Quinceañera in July. I was happy to know she would be in here. Luis comes up to us and greets Leann also. We sit in the desks next to hers, in the far left of the room. The bell rings and the teacher comes in. He writes 'Welcome back!' on the board. He turns around to us.

"Welcome back students. This year you are now sophomores. I am Mr. Parker, your home room and Chemistry teacher. Let's introduce ourselves, shall we?" He walks over to the far right corner of the room, next to his desk. A short American girl with brown medium length hair stands up.

"Hello. I'm Emily Long." My mouth falls open at that name. Emily? From elementary? Luis nudges me and I snap out of my thought. She sits back down. We make our way to through the 1st row of desks and half way through the second. A tall skinny American boy stands up.

"I am Kenneth Moore." He says and sits down. That name rings in my mind, familiarly. A few more people and another one.

"Hi I'm Deborah Whitely!" She twirls her hair. I knew who this was. I just look at her. A dark boy behind her stands up next. He must be Mexican. He is tall and thin.

"I am Enrique Fernández." His voice is deep filled with an accent. As he sits down, he looks back at me and winks. I hope Luis didn't see that. They finally reach us in the back. Leann stands up.

"Hello I am Leann Boone." She says sensually. I nearly laugh at her. I'm next.

"Hello my name is Marcela Lozano." At that moment Kenneth, Emily, Deborah, and Enrique look back at me. Emily and Deborah have a mean look on them. Enrique and Kenneth, awed. I sit down and Luis stands up immediately.

"I am Luis Martínez. This is my beautiful girlfriend." He points at me. Enrique and Kenneth look at me. I turn red. Why did he do it, I thought. But I know why he had said it: Enrique. He was looking at him, ready to punch him. Enrique just turns around with a wicked smile. He sits down and I try to calm him down. He calms down at last. We sit in class for another 10 minutes and then the bell rings. Luis walks out holding my hand after everyone had walked out. He walks me to my next session, the one I don't have with him.

"Take care Marcela." He hugs me and walks away. I walk in and see Daisy in the back. I call her name and she sees me. She gets a big smile on her face. We hug and sit next to each other. Then the door catches my eye. Enrique was walking in, with a bunch of other Mexicans. I hide my face, but it was too late. He had seen me and started walking towards the back. He grabs a chair.

"Hey pretty mama." I ignore him. He looks at Daisy. She looks away. All his friends sit around us. Enrique grabs my arm. I take it back.

"Hey baby no need to be mean. I just want to make friends." He smiles at Daisy now. She looks uncomfortable. The bells rings and they sit at desks. I was glad it rung. A short lady walks in.

"Hello class. I'm Ms. Howard, your English teacher." She has a mean face. She pulls out some papers.

"Fill these out. They are about you." She hands them out. I look at it, and take a pencil out. Daisy looks lost.

"You have to fill it out with things about you, Daisy." I explained it to her. I start to fill mine out when Enrique throws a balled up paper at my head. I open it up.

'Hey baby' it read.

I look at him and he makes kissy faces. I throw it back at him. The teacher gets up.

"Okay are we finished?" She walks around.

"I want each of you to read a fact off your paper and tell us your name too." She sits back in her chair. Enrique volunteers.

"My name is Enrique Fernández. I like that girl in the back." He looks at me and sends more kissy faces. The class looks at me, and I turn red. Ugh, he's such an idiot, I thought. The teacher doesn't comment and moves on to the lesson. The bell rings and as I walk out, Enrique holds me by my waist. I tried to get out of his grip, but I couldn't. Luis was outside. He saw Enrique's hands on my waist. He grabs him by the collar.

"Don't touch her, punk." Luis lets go and so does Enrique. Luis grabs me by the hand and pulls me aside.

"Sweetie, why did you let him touch you?"

"I tried to make him let go but I couldn't. I don't like him messing with me." I looked into his eyes. I want him to believe me. I don't think he does. He just looks away and we walk into 3rd session. And to our luck, Enrique was in their. So was Kenneth, Deborah, & Emily. Just great, I thought. I dragged Luis to a desk with me. He pulls away from me.

"Luis listen to me. Please. I love you." He doesn't look at me. I give up, get up, and go sit by myself. I put my head down.

"Hey there." A deep voice says. I look up and see Kenneth. I don't say anything back. He sits with me.

"Are you okay?" He attempts again. I still don't say anything.

"Todavia no sabes ingles?" He speaks in Spanish. I pick my head up.

"What do you mean still?" I look at him.

"You didn't know English before. Back when I met you. Like 10 years ago." He looks at me. I am confused.

"What? I've never met you before."

"Remember back in Brownsville I was that little kid who gave you some flowers." Then I took a flashback to 1985. Kenneth... I look at him.

"Yeah. Remember me now?"

"Yes I do." The bell ring as I said that. I look over at Luis. There's a girl sitting with him. I leave Kenneth and walk over to her. She's a pale American girl.

"Excuse me. This is my seat." She turns around. Emily.

"Oh my bad. Here, sit." She gets up and pushes me into the chair. I hit it hard. Luis looks up and sees what happened. He steps up to Emily.

"Get out of here." She walks away quick. Luis looks at me.

"I love you Marcela. I am sorry," he hugs me. I hug him back. He wasn't mad at me anymore. I felt happy now.