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Sunny's Pov
I was history on the kitchen table while Elena was waiting for Alex to get done with the bathroom.
"That's two." She listened to him flush the toilet again. "That's three!." He flushed the toilet another two times making it five, I rolled my eyes and flipped a page reading the other part.
"Oh my god, five? What's going on in there?" Elena knocked on the door again. Alex finally came out but I wasn't looking at them.
"The first one was for pee, and the last four were to piss you off." I heard and snickered probably making Elena glare at me.
She scoffed and I finally looked up at them arguing. "So your basically murdering the planet just to spite me." Elena asked.
"Yeah, and it worked." Alex admitted. "Ay, it's impossible to be zen in this house." Abuelita complained. "I agree with her, I'm trying to study maybe keep your voices down." I glared at the two.
They ignored us.
"You know it's bad enough that you take 40-minute showers." Elena stated. "I have to use water to get ready, Every time I show up at school there are all these eyes expecting perfection" he told her.
Got that right. No! Shut up!
"And you give it to them papito" Abuelita cooed over him and tapped his head. "Easy! It's setting" he checked his hair in the reflection of him on the toaster.
I got up and went over to the kitchen to grab something to eat. "Ay mijas, why are you both dressed in your uniforms before you shower and get ready" she asked.
I knew she didn't mean any harm so I just shrugged it off. "Actually we are ready Abuelita" I said and she smiled at me. "I know you are mi amore" she paused and turned over to elena frowning. "I was talking about her"
I quickly walked out of there.
"Okay everybody let's go, we're having one of our staff meetings at work." Mami said grabbing her bag.
"Aren't there only four of you?" I asked.
"And yet, we take attendance." She responded. "But I've actually got some good stuff to talk about today so hopefully I can get through it without being interrupted by Scott, the freakin bobo"
"You know, I know bobo is an insult but it sounds adorable, like he's a little clown" elena added. "Oh yes he is a clown, and like every other clown I wanna punch him in the face." Mami said turning to her.
"But I'm a professional, so when he starts pulling his crap, I'm gonna smile, I'm gonna nod.."
I don't like where this is going.
"But inside I'm gonna be like." Mami started punching her hand. Yikes. Poor what's his face.
"Don't worry I got this I spent all week preparing this badass spreadsheet and ima make it rain with informative data" she walked over next to Alex.
"Ooh I have a lot going on too, They're implementing my composting initiative in the cafeteria." Elena said sounding excited.
I know for a fact I wasn't interested.
"I wish I could make you this happy about a comb" Abuelita stated and I laughed making everyone turn to me.
"Elena I love you, I'm sorry but it's true" I said placing my hand on her shoulder and patting her.
She glared at me before continuing. "Our schools waste stream will really shrink if we let the food decompose naturally, and once I'm able to introduce worms.. triple the excretions." She finished sounding so proud of herself.
I had a disgusted look on my face. "You have weird goals." Alex told her. "Hey, no she doesn't." Mami defended her and as soon as Elena walked away she agreed with him.
—•—
We came from school I was so tired and I was hoping to nap a little and after we opened the door we saw Abuelita and Schneider salsa dancing.
"Ugh, I get it we're cuban!" Elena complained. "Azúcar!" Abuelita cheered after Schneider dipped her.
"Can you believe this living stereotype?" Elena asked us. "I know it's-.. uh-oh, oh my god what happening?" Mami started dancing.
"I think it's my hot Cuban blood!" She went over and started dancing with Abuelita. "I must dance!"
I looked over and Alex and he offered his hand. I gladly took it and we went over and danced with the rest of them.
"Come on!" Mami grabbed Elena's hand and she started spinning her. "Okay I'm dizzy" they stopped.
"Whatever, i needed that I had a crazy annoying day." Mami admitted and I patted her shoulder.
"It couldn't have been as bad as mine, At lunch no one scraped their food into the new composting bins, even when I stood in front of the trash cans." Elena complained.
"I pretended I didn't know her." I said grabbing an apple from the kitchen and eating it.
"Zach Miller, hit her with a hamburger" Alex said and I nodded. Everyone gasped.
"What? No! He threw it in the wrong bin and I deflected it.." I gave her a look and folded her arms.
"With my face." she said. "No one was listening to me!" She sat down on the couch. I hugged her from behind and she made a pouty face.
"So she started screaming and calling everyone 'earth murderers'" Alex imitated Elena's voice.
"Look Elena i get it cause it's in me too, In five seconds I go from nodding thoughtfully to lighting a car on fire.
Elena and I widened our eyes. Along with Alex. "You lit a car of fire?" I asked.
"That happened once, okay? And it was kind of an accident, but that's why you and me we gotta watch it, you know like today, I barely got a word in before el bobo started interrupting me, talking over me. I couldn't even get my point across." Mami explained.
"Well that's just sexist" Elena commented. "No, he's not smacking me on the ass and going, Oye mamita!"
Abuelita groaned sadly and pouted. "That makes me miss your abuelo." she said sadly as Schneider patted her.
"You wanna see real sexism? Be a woman in the army, okay? You got a 22 year old white boy from South Carolina marching behind you going, is it hot out here or is it you? Of course it was hot out there it was a freaking desert" she paused.
"How'd you deal with that mami?" I asked and she came next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. "By being a better soldier than him, and eventually that's how they saw me, not as a woman at all" she pinched my cheek and was about to go to the kitchen.
Abuelita stood up. "I would prefer to die." She stated and mami glared at her. "Yo no entiendo cómo these men and woman all want to be the same.. we should celebrate our differences, I would never trade this for that" she pointed at Schneider and I snickered.
"Mami." she was about to speak but Schneider interrupted her. "No no I agree with her, everybody wants to see those nobody wants to see this." Schneider gestured to down there and fake threw up.
"Okay everybody stop gesturing" mami said patting my back.
"Mom I'm not talking about old people sexism, it's much more subtle now, men assert their power my microaggressions and mansplaining." Elena explained sitting down at the kitchen table.
"Oh, mansplaining is that like manscaping?" Abuelita asked. "I just learned that and I love it."
"No mansplaining it when a-" elena was about to explain but Schneider cut her off.
"It's when a man explains something to a woman, that she already knows but he acts like he's teaching her. Does that make sense?" He asked and we all glared at him.
He looked around and had a confused face on. "What I was just explaining what mansplaining- oh wow!" He realized and gestured an explosion.
"Elena, microagressions and all this little crap, if I got bent out of shape everytime a man said something stupid, you wouldn't be here" mami told her and Elena had a disgusted look on her face.
"Mom! This is a real problem the sexism I'm talking about is all the little disrespectful things that men do that-" she got cut off again.
"That they don't even realize." Schneider finished and we all glared at him again. "Sorry I cut you off, talk as long as you want. Not that you need my permission, you know what I like to hear from the ladies, Women! Females. You guys! Not guys. Humans." He put both his hands on his mouth and sat down shutting up finally.
"Wow, you broke Schneider"Abuelita blamed Elena.
"Mom.. this stuff might not seem like a big deal but it chips away at you. You gotta call Scott out." Elena advised.
"Why would I waste my time?" She asked. "That is right! You will never win men over by confronting them. You flirt with them. You hypnotize them. And then you do whatever the hell you want." Abuelita explained.
"And then they will think they are the boss, but really you are the boss" she pointed at Elena. "Why can't they just know you're the boss?" I asked and Abuelita pouted. "Oh no they would be so upset." She shook her head.
"That is horrifying" Elena added. "Oh sí? Well. Nobody ever threw a hamburger in my face" Abuelita teased.
"Man, im glad I'm a guy so I don't have to think about sexism." Alex added and I rolled my eyes.
—•—
Later that night, Alex and I were in our room studying. Well, I was studying, he was playing with the highlighters.
"Alex, focus. If you don't your grades will be really bad and I don't feel like having to explain why I haven't been helping you study." I told him while I adjusted my glasses.
"I am focusing." He defended. "No you're not, you're playing with the highlighters Schneider got me for Christmas because they were on sale." I snatched them from him.
He groaned and started looking at my book. "Alex!" I complained.
"What! It's a geography book not your note book!" He threw his arms up. "Yeah but it has all my notes and highlights in it."
He stared at me. "What? I like being organized." I flipped the page.
"Cant we just do something else?" He asked. I sighed and closed my book. "Okay. What do you wanna do?"
"Maybe watch YouTube?" He suggested. "Sure." I agreed. He got his laptop and sat on my bed with me and put on a channel we both like to watch.
I'm about 30 minutes of watching YouTube I got tired and leaned my head on his shoulder making him lay his head on my head.
We stayed like that until we fell asleep. I didn't sleep for long though.
I woke up and saw Alex dead asleep next to me and that he put the laptop back on his bed. I smiled when I realized he chose to sleep next to me.
I really need to stop thinking of it as more than it is, he's like my brother.
I reached for my glasses and looked at the time. It was 5:40 am, I decided to get up and go to the bathroom before I do my early morning studies.
I got in the hall way and saw Abuelita with her makeup box about to go into Elena's room. She freezed when she saw me. "Abuelita what are you doing?" I asked tiredly.
"Drugs." She said before going into Elena's room and shutting the door.
"What the hell" I whispered to myself and went to the bathroom to do what I needed to do.
Once I was done I went back to the room and Alex was awake, sitting on the bed and looking outside the window.
"Alex, I thought you wanted your beauty sleep." I said getting inside and sitting next to him.
"Is there something you wanna talk about? I asked him quietly and he nodded.
"I'm just wondering what life would have been like If mom hadn't found you." He explained and I nodded. "Then I realized I couldn't think of a life without you here."
I felt my face heat up but I chose to ignore the voices. I took his hand and held it.
"I couldn't think of a life without you either."
He smiled and brought me into a hug. We stayed that way for a while.
If only you knew.
—•—
In the morning we were all at the table eating breakfast when Abuelita came out with Elena. "Wonderful news! Elena can be in the Christmas card this year!" she celebrated as elena came out.
So that's what they were doing. Elena looks really good I'm not gonna lie.
"Oh you look very nice." Mami complemented. "Thankyou." Abuelita said thinking it was directed to her.
"I meant her." Mami corrected. "What? She didn't do anything." Abuelita said.
"You look great elena" I said and she smiled at me. "Thanks sunny" I sent a smile back before going back to eating but realizing that Alex woke up and stared at elena close up.
"What?" She asked him in an annoyed tone. "Nothing! Just if you get hit with a hamburger today, it's gonna stick" he said sitting back down. Elena rolled her eyes and walked away but mami stood up and ran to her.
"Oh come on elena it looks nice you just look different, what is this? Wear your grandma to work day?" She joked but stopped when realizing elena wasn't amused.
Alex and I stood up grabbing our bags and walking over to them.
"Well what are you gonna do about Scott the bobo?" She asked. "Nothing, because he doesn't matter, I'm going straight to Dr. Berkowitz then I'll complain my goal and Scott's burgundy red Buick Regal license plate 374 pce will remain unharmed." mami replied.
"Just a little more rouge" Abuelita went to hand her a brush. "Ay, mami, no" she turned around and looked in the mirror. "Damn it you're right" she grabbed the brush and applied it before turning to Abuelita and applying some on her face.
"Oh.. gracias." Abuelita thanked her and she called us to go to school.
—•—
At school elena took her makeup off and I knew she would get in trouble with abuelita.
So I didn't stop her.
I need something entertaining to watch. We walked last Schneider on the way in the apartment and Alex gave him a high-five.
Once we walked in Abuelita immediately noticed elena. "Ohh.. what happened to your face." She said lowly.
"I took the makeup off after first period because people were staring at me and all these boys were talking to me which is the last thing I want." Elena explained.
"I wish they would talk to me, for some reason they don't even look at me." I said. "Cause you look like a nerd." Alex told me and I glared at him.
"Tomorrow I'll be the one to wear makeup-" Abuelita cut me off. "I don't understand any words you are saying to me." She told elena in a confused tone.
"It was terrible, my friends were calling her names like cute and pretty. I'm the pretty one in this family!" Alex complained while I patted his back.
"Yes you are papito." Abuelita cooed Alex but turned over to Elena. "Elena, I thought you were finally listening to me." She frowned.
"I did listen to you Abuelita, and I listened to mom too, I was very professional. I smiled and nodded and was nice to everyone" she told Abuelita who gave her two thumbs up.
"It looked really unnatural" Alex spoke before we walked off to our room.
"So, you're really gonna try makeup tomorrow?" Alex asked me throwing his bag onto the floor somewhere.
"Yeah, I mean it could be nice for a change right." I close the door and sat at the desk. "But you already look pretty this way." He said sitting next to me.
I blushed. "I thought I looked like a nerd."
"I only said that cause you do look like one." I playfully rolled my eyes and opened my Science text book. "I didn't specify, you're pretty. Very pretty." I turned to him and we looked at eachother for a while.
I cleared my throat and looked back at my textbook. "Better study science for the test next week" I said flipping a page.
"Yeah, yeah sure uh I'll watch YouTube." He sis d and I nodded, he got up and got his headphones laptop watching whatever he watches on YouTube.
I can't believe that just happened.
—•—
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