"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.
Since the drive to Chihuahua from Beverly Hills was so long, Alondra and Armando were leaving the night before to make sure they would meet Antonio and Marcos during daylight. Since Alondra does have her license, she agreed to drive until just before they got to Phoenix, which would only be 6 hours of the 15 hours total to Chihuahua. Plus, Armando said the roads would be almost completely empty during the time she's driving, so she wouldn't have to stress as much as she usually does about driving. For winter break, the students were also given an extra Friday off, so Alondra had spent it with her friends as a sort of goodbye. However, that didn't stop them from showing up at her house, so everyone was being held hostage by Lily on the couch.
"Why do you need a tiny suitcase for your makeup? I thought you said you were going to the beach everyday."
"And? I have setting spray, so I can wear makeup." Alondra stated, dropping the final bag she lugged down the stairs with a grunt before putting her hands on her hips. "We should eat now."
With Ruben's nod of agreement, the two began walking to the kitchen, where Lily now had Alondra's friends making her a plate. "No, more sauce on the burrito!" Lily groaned, pulling her cheeks down in distress because neither the Beverly or Crenshaw crew could make her food right. "Alo, they're ruining it! How do I say "help me" in Spanish?" Lily whispered.
She meant it for Alondra, but Ruben was eager to respond and beat her to it. With his answer, Lily dramatically turned to Alondra to yell out, "Ayúdame!"
To give the 7 year old some relief, Alondra pushed Jordan out of the way by hitting his hip with her own and taking the plate he was failing to make for Lily. Her and Ruben were usually the ones making her plate whenever Alondra made her mom's recipes, so they both knew by heart exactly how she liked her food.
Jordan looked down at Alondra in surprise before wrapping his arms around her while she worked. "Hello to you too."
"Do I know you?" Alondra stopped adding food to the plate, to lower it and crane her neck around to look at the unnecessarily tall quarterback behind her.
Everyone else was still having their own side conversations, but before Jordan could retort back something witty, in walked the one person in the house that still wasn't warming up to Alondra. "Could you guys be any louder?"
Almost immediately after her practically announcing her presence, Lily turned around from her seat at the counter to say, "Yes." With nothing else to say, she turned back to the group in the kitchen, still waiting for her food.
"Don't you all have your own homes and families to go to?"
"Alo is family." Olivia responded, a smile on her face but inside, she was just as annoyed with Madison as everyone else was.
Spencer, Serenity and Coop nodded in agreement with Olivia, while Jordan just tightened his arms around her waist, something that didn't go unnoticed by Madison. "Just go put your airpods on full blast and close the door like you normally do." Ruben suggested, waving his hand as if it was going to push his twin sister out of the kitchen. "We're doing family dinner."
Madison glared at Ruben and Lily, feeling betrayed that they didn't even try to invite her downstairs even though she would've immediately said no. Mentioning Jordan may have swayed her since her crush was very much existent, but even he wouldn't have been enough to get her to like Alondra. "Yeah, Alo's going home later for a long time."
With a sarcastic smile, Madison made eye contact with Alondra and said, "Good, stay there." Madison walked out after dropping her smile and everyone watched her while Armando and Rachel walked into the kitchen to join everyone else.
Lily shook her head, her arms crossed as she leaned onto the kitchen counter from her seat on the bar stool. "Que puta." She said aloud, a token phrase that Alondra has said daily since moving in.
Alondra's friends, who have also heard the phrase almost daily and knew what it meant had their jaws drop in shock; Serenity and Coop even let out laughs because they've grown up hearing Alondra say it. "Just because it's in Spanish doesn't mean it's okay, Lily!" Rachel exclaimed, her heels clicking against the white flooring as she walked by everyone in the kitchen.
"You're a bad influence on her." Jordan spoke quietly to his girlfriend, trying to stay out of the family conversation.
"She's a bad influence on all of us." Serenity commented since she was right beside the two. Spencer, who was right beside Serenity and only heard what she said, nodded in agreement.
Because she felt as if the three werewere ganging up on her, Alondra looked at them in disbelief. "Yeah? Remember this conversation when I come back with no food for you."
school is kicking my ass, i just wanna be rich bc fuck being a woman in stem 😔
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