"Are you ready to suck it up to these people?" Sophia asked her brother as they made their way to the grand staircase behind their parents.
"Eh, I'll be fine. Will you, Miss Madam President?" Joel said extending his arm out for her to link hers with his.
"Oh please, don't remind me." Sophia said, rolling her eyes a bit, followed by a small chuckle from Joel that she kindly shared. "Just don't let me fall." Sophia said linking her arm with his as they approached the staircase.
"Never." Joel said, giving his younger sister a smile. With a smile on both of their faces the Castro siblings made their way down the staircase trailing behind their parents.
From below, all eyes were on them. Especially towards the young Castro girl that everyone thought would never make a comeback in these events. Yet she made her way down with her head held high at the side of her brother. They saw the determination and strength in the young girl's posture. Sophia scanned the room catching a glance at every single person. When her eyes suddenly landed on him. His eyes were already looking at her.
He saw her, and he felt like it was just them two in the room. His father saw the look in his son's face so he made his way over to him. "You might want to clean up that drool, son." Billy said with a small chuckle. Jordan in complete shock and embarrassment simply shook his head and gave a little laugh. "Go talk to her." Billy said as they looked over at the young girl that had made her way to the bottom of the stairs that was now being greeted by other boosters.
Jordan nodded and made his way over to the young girl. "Hey." The quarterback said from behind the young cheerleader.
She turned around with a smile on her face. "Well, don't you look nice." She said looking at the young man in front of her.
"You look beautiful as always." Jordan said with a smile looking down at the young girl in front of him.
"No, Hadley tonight?" Sophia asked with a hint of sarcasm.
"Oh come on, we both know I don't bring those girls to these events. There's only one girl I'd bring to these things." He said getting Sophia to look down at the ground.
"Oh yeah, and what girl is that?" She said walking over to the tall table that had glasses of water with lemon served.
"This cheerleader with an amazing personality, and a beautiful smile." Jordan said following behind the young Castro girl. "In other words, you." Jordan said as he looked at the young girl with a glass of water in her hand. They stood there looking at each other for what seemed to be hours but in reality it was just seconds.
"Hey darling, you look gorgeous tonight." They hear a female voice bring them out of their trans. They looked over to see Mrs. Baker come up to them with a smile on her face.
"I'll be over there with Dad." Jordan said leaving the two alone.
"How have you been, sweetie." Laura asked the young girl in front of her.
"Well, I'm hanging in there." Sophia responded with a small chuckle after.
"I see you and Jordan are getting along again." Laura said with a smile nudging over towards the Baker kid that had just walked away.
"Well we're on good terms yeah, but we can't seem to have a decent conversation without me or him walking away. We just keep it short." Sophia said before taking a sip of the glass of water in her hand.
"I'm sure sooner or later you both will have the longest conversation known to humankind." Mrs. Baker said, grabbing a cup of water as well from the table. She took a look over at the young Castro girl and saw her take a deep breath before bringing her hand up to her necklace. "Hey what's wrong sweetie?" Laura asked the young girl bringing her hand up to Sophia's shoulder.
"Nothing, everything's okay." Sophia said, brushing away any emotion she had.
"Don't lie to me Sophia, I've known you almost your entire life." She said, keeping her hand on her shoulder, trying to meet the young girl's eyes.
"I just don't think being Student Body President is what I want to do." The young girl said pointing to the pamphlet that was open on the table to her image as Student President. "Only reason I got into the student government is because of my dad." She said, bringing her eyes up to Laura. "It's funny how I gave someone advice on living up for themselves and I can't even take my own advice." Sophia said followed by a scoff as she looked over at Spencer who was now talking to Mr. Adams.
"Hey, darling, you are a strong independent young woman. Don't do what others want you to do, because none of that matters" Laura said before taking the young girl's free hand into hers. "What matters is what you want to do."
"Why should you be sorry?!" They hear someone call out, quickly making them turn over to the voice. It was none other than Mr. Adams having an argument with Coach Baker.
"He's the reason you got hurt!" He added making everyone including Laura and Sophia make their way closer to them. "Him and his son!" Mr. Adams added, making Sophia look over at Jordan who now stood beside his sister.
She was surprised yet she was confused as to what Jordan could have possibly done. "What are you talking about?" Coach Baker asked the father who was obviously drunk out of his own mind.
"Talking about how Jordan was behind that contested permit, and now your Crenshaw boy is bringing his anger about the situation on our field, injuring my son!" He said, causing everyone to now be around the three.
Sophia couldn't help but to look at Jordan and simply shake her head in disappointment. She quickly looked over as Spencer made his way up to the front of the audience with Layla by his side.
"Dad, will you..." Asher said, trying to get his father to calm down. Yet it did absolutely nothing.
"That's right!" Mr. Adams called out now making his point public, no longer caring if everyone heard him. After all that is what he wanted, for everyone to hear him. "Jordan Baker's the one that gave Chatsworth the tip." He said, making everyone look over at the quarterback that stood beside his twin sister.
"Are you serious?" Spencer said, making Jordan look over at him.
Sophia wasn't going to let either one of them fight tonight, and ruin their futures. Seeing that nobody was going to do anything she quickly made her way towards the two young football players. "Spence." She said placing a hand on his shoulder and the other on his hand.
"Nah." He softly said looking at Sophia. "You're the reason I can't go home at night?" He said bringing his attention over to Jordan.
"Face it, Coach." Mr. Adams said, taking the attention off the two boys and onto the adults arguing. "That boy doesn't belong here, and neither do you." He said making Spencer remove himself from Sophia to walk up to where the two adults stood with Asher.
Sophia was about to follow behind her friend but a hand stopped her. "Mija, stay out of it." Her father said softly, pulling her towards them.
"Call me boy one more time." Spencer said coming face to face with Mr. Adams before being stopped by Coach Baker. "Call me boy one more time." Spencer said once again.
"That's exactly what they want you to do." Coach Baker said pulling the transfer student away from the situation.
Sophia removed herself from her father's grasp and was about to walk away out of the room before another pair of soft hands pulled her to a stop.
"Sophia, please." She heard him say from behind her.
"Please what Jordan, I'm not the one you should be wanting to say sorry to. You should be apologizing to Spencer." Sophia said, turning towards the quarterback.
"Who are you Jordan?" She asked coming closer to the young Baker kid. "Because the Jordan I know wouldn't have done this, no matter the reason." She was about to walk away but she stopped at the side of him.
"I know that Jordan is still in there, I don't know who this new Jordan is." She said, patting his shoulder before walking away from him and towards her family that awaited her to head out.
After the booster party the Castro family headed home to call it a night. "Goodnight darlings." Alayna said as her daughter and her son made their way upstairs to their room.
Outside was Benjamin taking a call that he 'received from the office'.
Once she got to her bedroom door she looked over at her brother. "Goodnight hermano." She said looking over at her older brother.
She made her way into the room and sat on her seat in front of the vanity mirror. She reached down and quickly took off her heels. She got up and unzipped the back of her dress quickly slipping out of it before walking over to her closet to grab a pair of loose clothing. An oversized shirt and a pair of shorts to be specific.
{FEEL FREE TO PLAY THE SONG LINKED TO THIS CHAPTER}
As soon as she changed her attention was drawn over to her night stand where she saw a stack of letters. The same letters and images that were left behind by Jordan. The same letters she had shoved in her father's face.
Her mother or Joel must have picked them up the night her and her father got into the most intense argument. They must've brought them up to her room, yet she wondered when they had actually placed them on her night stand.
She walked over to the night stand bringing her hair up into a messy bun as she made her way over. She took the stack of envelopes into her hand and made her way over to her balcony. She sat on her lazy chair and quickly crossed her legs in front of her. She looked at the pictures and couldn't help but chuckle.
It was images of her friends down at the café playing pool. Her cousin JJ trying the blazing wings challenge. Jordan and Asher jumping into the pool at the Baker residence. Lastly, they all took a picture at the Beach; Layla, Asher, Jordan, JJ, and Olivia. Behind it she saw that they all had signed it, and the words printed behind it said; Welcome Home.
She put the images down and decided she would read just one. She opened the envelope and took out the letter.
Sophia,
Today marks 90 days since you got sent away. You should be getting released soon, yet your father told us you didn't want to see us. Olivia was released a week ago and she was asking about you. Today we're all going down to the beach. JJ is planning this huge bonfire to celebrate that you're coming home.
Sophia I'm really missing you, I've slacked in football because you're not there on the sideline. Let's just say things haven't been the same without you. Asher keeps bragging about his relationship with Layla that I just want to shove a sock into his mouth to keep him quiet.
I don't even know why I'm writing this letter if you're just going to return it. But hey, today you come home. Hopefully by the time you read this letter you had heard about how awesome your Welcome Home bonfire was.
Anyways, I really miss you Sophi. Also, I love you. No matter if you want to see me or not I want you to know that I love you and always will.
With Love,
Jordan Baker, your QB1.
She couldn't help but release a small chuckle. She threw her head back to bring her eyes up to the sky. She took a deep breath in and out, before having a smile form on her lips. She wasn't alone, she had her friends there for her.
She quickly made her way back into her room picking up her phone from the bed before making her way back out to her balcony. She dialed up the person that was rolling around her brain rent free that night.
"Hello." The person said from the other line causing Sophia to have a smile form on her lips once again.