Worlds Divided | j. baker

fifty six

"There's absolutely no reason for a trophy to be this big."  Alonda mumbled, staring at the 1st place trophy that was almost as big as her.  "How do we get this on the plane?"

"We don't.  They're going to package it so it doesn't get damaged and send it to the school."  Coach C explained.  "Thank you, Alo."

Alondra turned her head to her coach, eyebrows furrowed while people were still trying to get outside the building.  "All I did was get someone to take a picture of us with the trophy."

"I meant getting the girls to do this. i've spent years trying to get them to show their true potential, but most of them listened to you.  I think bringing in your friends helped too."

"That's only because they told the team they knew their addresses.  They don't, but scare tactics usually work on kids." Alondra shrugged.  "Oh, can you take a picture of me?  I want to show my family in Mexico how big it is."

Handing her phone over with a sense of urgency, Alondra fixed her hair for the umpteenth time since the competition ended and started posing beside the trophy that was almost her height. Everyone else on the team had the same idea, so Alondra wasn't able to take too much time, but once she finished her pictures, her phone started ringing with a FaceTime call from Spencer.

Without so much as a greeting, Dillon poked his head into the call frame and said, "Show us the trophy, Alo!"

"No, you didn't even greet me, so you see nothing." Alondra retorted, partly serious and partly sarcastic. All it took was Grace James staring at her in silence with a bewildered look on her face before Alondra was turning the camera around to show the entire James family a new, shiny gold trophy. "There's a line to take a picture with it right now, so this is as close as I can get without being in everyone's pictures. I can send you the ones of me though."

"We see you everyday, we don't need reminders of what you look like." Spencer proclaimed, acting like their family group chat with her and Coop wasn't already filled with pictures that he spammed the week prior.

From behind the camera, Alondra's jaw dropped while Dillon laughed in agreement and Grace hit Spencer with a pillow. In a millisecond, Alondra decided to be dramatic and end the call. She crossed her arms in a pout, acting as if Spencer was in front of her to witness her silent tantrum. Not even a full minute later, or even a full 30 seconds later, Spencer was calling again for a FaceTime. Still with her dramatics, Alondra answered the call hesitantly and once the call started, all the James family could see was the top half of her face. "What?"

"You're rude."

"And you're ugly, mama Grace adopted you out of pity."

× × ×

As the weeks passed by, filled with Christmas shopping and studying for finals, Alondra grew both anxious and more excited. The thoughts of failing any of her classes of course had her nerves going haywire, but she was also afraid that after seeing her family again in Mexico, after months of FaceTime being their only communication outlet, that it wouldn't be the same. The deportation took a toll on all of them, but especially Alondra because she had lost all of her family members while they were able to stay together without her.

"These suitcases are for my clothes, my makeup suitcase, and these are all of my presents." Alondra explained to Ruben because he ended up questioning why she had so many bags after he helped her bring it down the stairs.