JUST A LEAP OF FAITH MILES MORALES

Part 02



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"Ooh, ooooh, ooooh, ooooooh, oohooh"

The beautiful sunlight peeked through the window of a slightly cluttered room. A boy sat at his desk coloring his name on a "Hello My Name Is..." sticker with a thick tipped yellow marker as he mumbled--what was supposed to be--the lyrics to his favorite song, "Sunflower". As his headphones were turned all the way up, he tapped the tip of his marker against his throat, trying to sing to the rhythm of the song. He was so into the beat that he didn't notice his parents calling him from the other room.
"Miles!.....Miles, pap, time to go to school!" His mother, Rio, called. But he couldn't hear her.
"Miles!....Miles!...MILES!" Yelled his father, Jefferson, causing Miles to jump and pull the headphones down from his ears to around his neck.
"Yeah!... yeah?" Miles finally answered as he turned towards the door.
"Are you finished packing for school?" Said Jefferson.
"... Yeah." Miles silently answered, glancing over at the empty suitcase laying on his bed. He closed his art book where the sticker was placed and pushed himself back toward his bed. He grabbed the big laundry basket next to him and dumped all of the clothes into the suitcase.
"I'm just ironing my last shirt!" Yelled Miles as he grabbed his backpack, turned it upside down and shoved the stack of books on his bedroom floor inside.
"¡Apúrate! ¡Vamo' chacho!(Hurry up! Come on boy!)" Rio yelled.
"Come on, your a grown man now. Let's show these teachers that." Said Jefferson.
Miles quickly put on his navy blue blazer. On the left side, there was a white logo. It read BVA which stood for Brooklyn Visions Academy. Under this blue blazer, he wore a gray low V-neck over a white shirt with a black tie as the blade of the tie was tucked under the gray shirt.
"Miles!" Rio yelled as Miles opened his room door.
"Where's my laptop?" Asked Miles.
"¿Al lo dónde lo dejaste?(Where did you leave it?)" Rio asked.
"No lo sé.(I don't know.)" Miles answered, looking through the wooden cabinets of a book shelf.
"Hey, if you want me to drive you, we gotta go. Now." Said Jefferson in slight irritation.
"No dad. No, no, no...I-l'll walk.
"Personal chauffeur going once..." Jefferson offered again.
"It's ok." Miles insisted, accidentally bumping into Rio, making her almost spill her coffee on herself.
"Ay María, Este nene me tiene loca.(Oh Maria, this baby has me crazy)." She said to a woman on the phone. "Miles! Gotta go!" She yelled to him while walking to the front door.
"In a minute!" Said Miles before blowing a spoon of rice and eating it.
"Gotta goooo."
"In a minute."
A little later, they stood on the front porch as Rio kissed Miles goodbye.
"Mom. I gotta go." Miles said in aggravation as he tried to pull away from Rio's kisses on his cheek.
"In a minute." Rio said back to him before giving him one more big kiss.
"Ugh.." Groaned Miles in disguise as he wiped the kisses off of his face. Rio giggled and zipped his backpack. Miles walked down the stairs and began to walk along the sidewalk.
"¡Papá! llámame.(Sweetie! Call me.) See you Friday." Yelled Rio from the top of the stairs.
"Ok, mami. ¡Hasta luego!(Ok, mommy. See you later!)" Miles replied as he waved goodbye and put on his headphones. The song, "Familia" played in his headphones as he approached his old school.
"Oh. Look who's back. Yo wus goin on bro?" Said one boy as he walked past.
"Hey, I'm just walkin by." Miles replied as another person walked up to him.
"Yo Miles, what's up?"
"How you doin? Said Miles to them.
"Gringo! ¿Te va bien en la escuela?(Gringo! That school going good for you?)" Another boy asked Miles.
"Seguro que sí.(It sure is.)" Miles said back to him as he approached another kid.
"Yo Miles, you feel that earthquake last night?" Asked the boy as he tossed a basketball to him.
"Yo what you talkin bout? I slept like a baby last night." Miles replied as he caught the basketball and tossed it back to him before going up to another kid and dapping him up. He then approach a fence in which a girl from the other side said to him.
" How's that new school?"
"So easy." Miles replied.
"We miss you, Miles."
"Miss me? I still live here." Said Miles as he continued walking. "Wait, you miss me."
Not long after, as he continued to walk, he began to slap stickers everywhere. He slapped one onto an ATM sign and then a newspaper box. Now approaching the street curve, he pushed his suitcase to the side and jumped, smacking a sticker on the Wythe Av sign. As he landed, he tripped over his shoe laces.
"¡CONTRA!( SHOOT!)" Miles yelled as he fell down in the middle of the road. Just then, Miles heard a cop siren behind him. When he sat up and looked at the car, he realized it was his dad.
"Aw, come on." Miles pouted as he tilted his head back is agitation.
Now in the back seat of the cop car as Jefferson drove to school, Miles continued to pout.
"Seriously, dad. Walking would've been fine."
"You can walk plenty on Saturday when you peel those stickers off." Jefferson said with a serious expression.
"You saw that? I don't know if that was me, dad."
"And the two from yesterday on Clinton."
"Yeah, those were me." Miles admitted. He put his head down in guilt and Jefferson noticed. To fix this, he tried to change the subject.
"Sooo, look at that. You know, the new coffee shop. You see that, Miles?"
"Totally. Yeah." Miles said, resting his head on the palm of his hand as he looked out the window in boredom.
"You see that one? What's that one called?"
"Foam Party."
"Foam Party?"
"Mhm." Said Miles while Jefferson laughed as they drove past the cafe.
"Ah, come ooon. And everyone is just linin up. W-w-you see that, Miles?"
"See it."
"Is that a coffee shop or a disco?..."
Miles looked at Jefferson in disappointment.
"Dad, your old, man." He said with a bland expression. As he looked out the window, he seen a big screen of Spider-Man saving others on the NNC News and the voice a news reporter came up on the radio.
"There are multiple reports of another mysterious tragic event last night. Sources close to Spider-Man says he's looking into the problem right away." The woman said.
Jefferson turned the radio down and scoffed at the idea of Spider-Man.
"Ugh, Spider-Man. I mean, this guy swings in once a day, zip zap zops all over the place and answers to no one, right?"
"Yeah, dad. Yeah." Miles said as he listened to his dad rant on.
"And meanwhile, my guys are out there..."
"Yeah"
"Lives on the line.."
"Uh-huh"
"No mask. You know, we show our faces."
"Oh no.." Miles said as he noticed a group of kids next to them as the car stopped at a red light.
"Dad. Speed up. Speed up. I know these kids." He said as he panicked.
"You know, with great ability, comes great accountability." Jefferson went on ranting.
"That's not even how the saying goes, dad."
"I do like his cereal though. I'll give him that."
Miles began to cover his face as the kids came up to the window taking pictures of him.
"Ohhh my gosh." Miles said in frustration. "Don't cops run red lights?"
"Oh yeah, some do. But uhh, not your dad." Jefferson said as he pointed to himself.
"Ughhh"
After a while of driving, they finally made it to the school.
"Why can't I go back to Brooklyn Middle?" Asked Miles as Jefferson stopped in front the school entrance.
"Miles, you've given it two weeks. We're not having this conversation."
"I just think that this new school is elites."
"Elites?"
"And I would prefer to be at a normal school, among the people."
"The people? These are your people." Jefferson said, pointing to the kids walking across the street.
"I'm only here, because I won that stupid lottery."
"No way. You past the entry test just like everybody else in this school, ok? Look, you have an opportunity here and you wanna blow that? Huh? You wanna end up like you uncle?"
"What's wrong with uncle Aaron? Hes a good guy." Miles said as he looked away.
Jefferson sighed.
"We all make choices in life."
"I-I..it doesn't feel like I have a choice-"
"You don't!"
There was a thick silence in the car before Miles opened the door. Jefferson felt a little guilty as Miles closed the back door and opened the passenger door. He grabbed his backpack and pulled out his suitcase. He looked at Jefferson with sweet innocent eyes before Jefferson assured him.
"I love you, Miles."
Miles smiled and moved his bag to his back side.
"Yeah, I know dad. See you Friday." Said Miles as he closed the door with his foot.
As Miles made his way to the door, Jefferson rang his cop siren and it grabbed the attention of all the children around the entrance.
"You gotta say 'I love you' back." Said Jefferson through a loud microphone.
"Dad are you serious?" Miles yelled as he turned back to face Jefferson.
"I wanna hear it."
"You wanna hear me say it-"
"I love you, dad."
"You're driving me off to this school-"
"IIIII love you, dad."
"Look at this place!"
"Dad, I love you..."
Miles threw his head back and sighed.
"...Dad...I love you."
"That's a copy." Jefferson said as Miles quickly walked through the door. "Tie your shoes l, please." He added.
All of the students laughed and some mocked him.
"I love you, dad." One kid said.
Miles ignored it and decided to be friendly. He walked past a group of kids and smiled with welcoming arms.
"Hey! Good mornin!" He said to them. But they ignored him. He looked at another student and tried talking to him.
"Weekend was short, huh." Said Miles.
"That's a copy." The boy teased.
Miles frowned and turned away. He noticed another group of kids and ran to them to get their attention.
"Oh my gosh! This is-this is embarrassing. We wore the same jacket..." He said.
The kids ignored him also. Miles sighed until a girl tapped his shoulder.
"Hey." She said.
"Yeah?" Miles turned to her.
"Your shoes untied." Said the girl before walking away.
"Yeah, I'm aware. It's a choice." He said before walking further into the school. And then it started. The stress was on. The teachers threw everything at them.
"The theory is that all matter is composed of at least 3 fundamental particles."
"Who can solve for XY?"
"And that is known as a syllogism."
"Read two chapters of great expressions."
"A take-home quiz on volcanic pressure."
" Five-page essay with your conclusions stressed."
Everything was chaos. Miles couldn't keep up with the classes. He went from one thing to the other. One hallway to another. There was so much to do. It was so overwhelming. Until, it hit twelve. Miles opened the door and was met with a dark class room. The only source of light was coming from the monitor in the front of the classroom.
"... countless other possibilities. There could be a universe where I am wearing red. Or wearing leather pants." The scientist on the monitor said in the video.
Miles tried to sneak past by ducking under the light as he walked to a seat. But he was easily seen. The video paused and the teacher spoke.
"Mr. Morales. Movin in the dark. You're late again."
"Einstein said time was relative right.." Miles said as he slowly rose up in front of the whole class. "Maybe, I'm not late. Maybe, y-you guys are early."
There was a loud silence in the classroom as the children looked at him. All of a sudden, two girls that sat one seat away from each other, laughed. One of the girls had skin like white chocolate, short blonde hair and beautiful deep blue eyes. The other girl had skin like brown caramel, long dark brown dreads with curly tips that was tied up into two low messy buns, and doey dark brown eyes. They both apologized to the class in unison.
"Sorry. It was...just so quiet." The blondie said.
"My bad, it was...kinda awkward..." Said the dread head.
Miles embarrassingly nodded at their effort.
"Would you like to keep standing there, or...do you wanna sit down?" The teacher asked as she pressed play on the video.
Miles walked over to the seat in-between the two girls that laughed at his joke.
"Our universe is, in fact, one of many parallel universes happening at the exact same time. Thanks to everyone here at the Fisk Family Foundation..." The scientist in the video went on.
Miles sat there in silence looking at the video until the blondie leaned over to him.
"I liked your joke." She whispered.
"Really?"
"I mean, it wasn't funny. That's why I laughed. But it was smart, so I liked it."
"Thanks." Miles whispered.
The blondie nodded and they both looked back at the monitor. After another small moment of silence, Miles glanced over at the dread head. She saw him looking at her so she looked at him. When her eyes met his, he smiled and gave her a small wave. She smiled back and leaned in a little to talk to him.
"Hey, good one up there, bro." She whispered.
"Thanks. But you don't have to complement it. I know it was trash."
"No. Im for real. I have this like, soft spot for bad jokes. My uncle made them all the time, so."
"Oh. So..you actually thought it was funny, huh?"
"Well, it was funny cause it wasn't funny. And also because no one laughed. But it was a cute save...even though it didn't work...b-but it was still good though." The two laughed softly at her reasoning.
"Thanks. Hey uhh, I don't uh...i don't think I've seen you before." He whispered as they leaned in a little closer.
"Yeah, I uh-" The dread head tried to answer him but their conversation was interrupted by the teacher walking in-between them as she cleared her throat for them to be quiet. They quickly faced forward and were silent, looking back at the monitor. Miles glanced at the dread head and she did the same. She silently giggled and he did the same before the two faced forward again. After class, Miles got his quiz results.
"Wha..a "0"? A few more of those, you'd... probably have to kick me out of here, huh." Miles said in fake shock. The teacher wasn't phased by his tricks, though.
"Maybe I'm just not right for this school.-" Added Miles before the teacher cut him off.
"If a person wearing a blindfold picked the answer on a true or false quiz at random, do you know what score they would get?" Asked the teacher.
"..50%??"
"That's right!"
"Wait, wait!-"
"The only way to get all the answers wrong, is to know which answers are right." She said as she added a "1" and a "0" to the "0%" to make it a "100%".
"Your trying to quit. And I'm not gonna let you." She told him.
Miles sighed and nodded in his defeat. Later on that day, he sat at his desk in his dorm, thinking of what she told him before he left.

"I'm assigning you a personal essay. Not about physics, but about you. And what kind of person *you* wanna be."

He stared at his blank paper, fidgeting with the pin in between his fingers. He tried to think but he couldn't think of anything. He leaned back in his chair and looks out the window at the end of his room. He looked out at the beautiful city in a pink sunset sky. He looked out to the beautiful city, and he smiled.

<3

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