___________
c h a p t e r f o u r
"Aren't we high enough?" Lucas complains as Dustin leads them on a hike up the field.
"Cerebro works best at 100 meters."
"You know, I'm pretty sure people in Utah have telephones," Max comments.
"Yeah, but Suzie's Mormon."
"Oh shit, she doesn't have electricity?"
"That's the Amish."
"What are Mormons?"
"Super religious white people. They have like, electricity and cars and stuff, but since I'm not Mormon, her parents would never approve."
"How Shakespearean of you," Bianca teases.
"Right, like Romeo and Juliet."
"Sure," Mike nods.
"Star-crossed lovers."
"We get it."
"This is tiring, Dustin. You can't call her on a cooler day?" Bianca groans.
"I can carry you the rest of the way," Mike offers.
"Yeah right."
"Yeah I don't think you can," Will shakes his head.
"I so can. She's like 5 feet tall."
"Alright, let's try," Bianca chuckles, hopping on his back.
He lets out a breath at the extra weight, continuing up the hill. His face shows he's clearly struggling, and Max starts to laugh at how red his cheeks were getting.
"Okay, I can't. But it's only because it's hot and all of my energy is being devoted to not passing out," he lets her down, downing some of her water.
"Sure. I don't know if I should be offended."
"He's just weak," Max shrugs.
"I am not weak."
"Yes you are."
"Onwards and upwards, my friends!"
They all groan, beyond ready to go back.
"Why do we have to go so far?" El questions, and everyone nods in agreement.
"Because that's how the radio works, now come on. You guys can handle Demo-dogs but you can't handle a little hill?"
"This is not little," she continues.
"Just come on," he waves his hand over, keeping a steady pace.
"Your girlfriend better be the coolest girl on Earth," Bianca fans herself, continuing after him.
_____
Eventually, they get to the top, once the sun has start to set, and Dustin sighs in pride. "Made it."
"Yeah, only took five hours."
"Why couldn't we just play D&D?" Will drops the equipment, while Bianca and Mike sit on the ground, sharing her bottle of water.
Lucas simply gulps down the entirety of his, not even thinking of Max.
"Can we get like five minutes to recuperate?" Mike holds up his hand, panting.
"No, get up, we need to set Cerebro up!"
They spend the next thirty minutes setting up the makeshift radio tower, standing it up on the most flat piece of land.
"Pretty impressive, right?"
They all look up at it with varying degrees of impressed, just excited to finally sit down after all that work.
"Now, are you all ready to meet my love?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, sure."
"She better be real," Bianca leans on Mike's arm, as Dustin grabs the radio.
"Suzie, this is Dustin. Do you copy? Over," he speaks into it with an excited grin.
Radio silence, literally.
After a second, he holds up the radio again. "One sec. She's probably... She's still there. Suzie, this is Dustin. Do you copy? Over."
Yet again, nothing comes up over the radio, and they all look at him in annoyance.
"I'm sure she's there."
"Yeah."
"You know, maybe she's like..."
"Yeah."
"It's around dinnertime."
"Mmm."
"Here. Suzie, do you copy? This is Dustin. Over."
"Just put the damn- Put it down," Bianca takes the radio from his hand, placing it on the ground carefully. "You're so lucky I missed you, Henderson."
"You're unbelievable," Mike shakes his head. "We're out."
He then grabs her hand, leading her and El down the hill.
"I'm sorry, guys!" he grimaces. "But she's real, I swear!"
"Yeah, okay!"
_____
After the long walk to the road, a ride to El's house and back to Maple Street, Bianca and Mike walk in her house, immediately pouring two cups of lemonade.
"Hello daughter and boy who somehow is always here," Leo sarcastically greets them.
"Sorry Dad, it's just so hot outside," Bianca sighs, gulping down her cup before pouring another.
"And Dustin practically had us hiking all day," Mike takes another sip.
"What? It's hot in the summer?" he puts a hand over his mouth, mocking an expression of surprise.
"Your sarcasm is not appreciated."
"I don't recall you asking if your boyfriend can come over," he sits down at the island, and Bianca shares a look with Mike.
"I asked Mom."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah. Ma!"
"What did I say about yelling in the house?"
"Sorry. Can Mike come over?"
"En español."
She sighs, before repeating her previous question in Spanish.
"Si, pero no muy tarde."
"See? Mom said yes," she points upstairs, where her mom's voice was coming from.
"Fine, go. And don't close the door!" he gives up, as they run upstairs, hand in hand.
"Your dad is hilarious," Mike chuckles.
He then looks down at her dresser, noticing a slip of paper under her hairbrush. He grabs it to see a number written on it, and immediately his smile drops.
"What's this?"
"Oh, some guy at the mall gave me his number. Something about maybe needing a tutor," she responds, waving him off before undoing her braids.
"It's the summer," he deadpans.
"Not everyone can be as smart as our friends. I try not to judge," she shrugs, growing confused at his tone.
"And this guy, was he like tall? Athletic? Was he cute?"
"What, are you looking for a boyfriend?" she teases.
"No! No, I just--"
"What is up with you and the third degree every time I talk about someone?" she whips her head around, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.
She'd ignored it yesterday because sometimes Mike was just curious about everything, but tonight seemed different.
"It's just a question."
"Yeah, well it gets a bit repetitive for you to ask it over and over again. He was just some guy in our grade. I told Sam to spread the word that'd I'd be tutoring next year, that's probably why he asked."
"Yeah and every other guy our age wanted a tutor too?" his words leave his mouth before he can think about them, and he instantly regrets it.
"What? What are you talking about?"
"Everyone's staring at you now. Like how people stare at Sam. It's weird."
"It's weird that people find me attractive?" she frowns.
She'd noticed the extra attention too, originally thinking people were staring because of something bad, but upon realizing it was a good thing, it made her feel better about herself. It gave her a little hope that maybe things could be different for her and her friends in high school.
"No, that's not what I meant, I just..."
"You what? I'm not seeing what the problem is here."
"Nothing. Can we just forget about this and start over?" he grabs her hand.
"Alright. Okay, fine. Weirdo," she teases him, turning on her radio. "I was thinking we could have an ice cream date tomorrow?"
"Yeah, sounds great," he smiles, before thinking of their last experience at the mall.
Full of fellow freshmen all realizing that Bianca Flores was indeed gorgeous. Oh, absolutely not.
"Now get on my back, I'm proving you wrong," he points to it.
"Mike, you literally-"
"Get on!" he urges, and she rolls her eyes.
He then runs around her room with her on his back, cracking up as he triumphantly cheers.
"I told you!"
"Shut up," she laughs, as he drops her on her bed, only to start singing along to the song.
"Take me on..." he badly sings along, and all Bianca can do is laugh. "You don't like it?"
"No, I love it. You're the best singer ever to exist, truly," she nods vehemently, and he grabs her hand, making her dance along to the chorus.
He ends the song with a kiss, grinning halfway through.
"You should head home. It's getting late."
"My parents won't care."
"Mine will. My dad will come up here in any minute-" she starts, interrupted by Leo appearing in the doorway.
"Hey, your mom called. Said she wanted you home."
"She did?"
"Yes..."
"Why?"
"She was pretty vague. Something about dinner. Pro tip: never question your mother."
"Right. Well, see you tomorrow," he hugs Bianca, only for Leo to clear his throat in the background.
They both glance at him in confusion, taking that as a cue to separate so he can leave.
Once Mike walks out the door, never once unfurrowing his eyebrows, Bianca puts her hands on her hips, giving her dad an annoyed glance.
"Real subtle."
"You spent all day together. It's ridiculous, why does he need to be here in your bedroom? At night? Alone?"
"We haven't seen each other all summer," she exclaims.
"You'd think it was a year. Look, I'm all for you and your little friend. He's a good kid for the most part, but you shouldn't have any boys in your room after 8."
"Since when?"
"Since now."
"Porque?"
"Porque yo lo digo!"
"Ma!"
"I am not going to tell you again. ¡Deja de gritar en mi casa!" she comes in the room, clearly exasperated.
She'd been a little high-strung ever since the mall opened. Of course, there was a new hair salon in there, because what didn't Starcourt have, but it was stealing all of her customers.
All she had left were Sam's cheer team and the kids' moms. Oh, and Steve. He was in there every week.
"I'm sorry, but dad's being unreasonable. He said no boys in my room after 8."
"Good. You're getting older and more mature, you shouldn't have boys in your room that late."
"Seriously?"
Sam then walks in, fresh out of the shower from a long day at Starcourt.
"¿Que está pasando?" she rings her hair out into the towel, confused about the ruckus.
"They're trying to ruin my happiness," Bianca sighs, flopping back into her bed.
"How?" she laughs.
"Listen to your father. No boys after 8, Bianca. Period," her mother flares a hand out, stern look on her face.
"But we didn't even do anything wrong. I thought you liked Mike."
"I do, he's adorable. A little sarcastic, but sweet."
"He's alright," Leo shrugs.
"So why can't he be here at night?"
"They did it to me too. It's a precaution now that your lips are permanently glued to Mike's."
"Please don't say that ever again," Leo gags.
"Seriously," Gianna makes her own face of disgust. "I think we let a lot of stuff slide between you two. It shouldn't be hard to follow one rule. He can come over after 8, you just have to stay downstairs."
"Fine," Bianca sighs.
"And what do we say?"
"I'm sorry for being a brat," she grumbles.
Sam fights a laugh, earning a glare from everyone in the room. "Sorry, this is just hilarious."
"Goodnight, my beautiful children and wife," Leo grins, clearly feeling triumphant.
"Yeah, yeah."
Once he leaves the room, Gianna pulls Sam in, excitedly turning to the girls.
"Now that the boyfriend police is gone, tell me all about Mike."
"He's really sweet," Bianca shrugs, smile growing. "He's not great at saying how he feels, but I feel it anyway, you know?"
"Aw," Sam lays on her bed. "I didn't know a Wheeler could be sweet."
"Your grudge against Nancy is getting old," Bianca gives her a look.
"You traitor!" she throws a stuffed animal at her, to which Bianca throws it right back.
"Anyway, we're going on a date tomorrow. We're getting Scoops."
"Make sure Steve gives it to you on the house," Sam sits up a bit.
"Ooh, a date. What are you going to wear?" Gianna wiggles her eyebrows.
She revelled in her daughters' happiness, glad they were opening up more, seeming to move past the cloud of sadness of the last two years.
"I don't know. He's acting weird though."
"Weird how?" Sam starts braiding Bianca's hair down her back.
"Like he's all jittery about guys now. Like, this boy Dave gave me his number because he needed a tutor and he totally freaked."
Sam and Gianna look at each other, beginning to laugh. "Hon, he's jealous."
"Of what?"
"You're not that awkward little twelve year old you used to be. You're finally benefiting from the Flores genes."
"Hey, those are the Martinez genes working, thank you," Gianna corrects.
"Right, of course."
"What your sister is trying to say is that you're blossoming into a beautiful young woman and he's seeing that."
"Okay, but why does it bother him?"
"Because he's an insecure teenage boy. I'm sure it'll pass. Now onto you. How was work?"
"Eh, not bad. I preferred the diner, but it's nice getting to work in the mall."
"Around Steve," Bianca mocks, and Sam pulls her braid at the joke. "Ow!"
"Stop it," Gianna scolds.
"We're just friends, guys."
"Oh please."
"Mom!"
"None of my friends buy me fancy jewelry."
"It was a birthday present."
"Mhm, right," Gianna laughs. "You'll see eventually, mija."
"Whatever."