March. Baseball Field.
Alex mad a homerun, and we all started chanting. "Dale, papito, dale!" Pen started and we all joined. "Dale, papito, dale!" Then Lydia took out the Cuban Flag. I started laughing. "That's new, where'd you get that?" Pen asked.
"Walmart!" She exclaimed. "Dale, papito, dale!" We continue.
•••
The game finishes, and our team won. Alex walks up to us and I wrap my arms around his neck and hug him and he hugs me back. "You did so good!"
"Dale, papito, dale!" Pen sings out. They all walk up in front of us, singing and chanting, "What's wrong?" I ask. "You look upset."
"Nothing, it's just-" Alex gets cut off by some random guy yelling, "Build the wall!" I look up and see some kids laughing from their bus. I scoff. "Who the fuc-"
Alex grabbed my arm said, "Ignore them." I looked at him confused. "What, why?"
"It happens sometimes, it doesn't matter." He said, pulling me away. "Alex, you're insane if you think I'm not going to say anything."
"Just forget about it, Bee. It's not important." Alex doesn't look back at them. I look up and flip them off.
"Aww, did I hurt your feelings?" One of the kids pouts sarcastically. I stop walking and start yelling, "Listen hear-" I start, but Alex picks me up and starts walking away. "Hey! I wasn't finished!" I yelled and he continued walking towards the car.
I don't care if I see those hoes on the street, at school, even walmart, I'll still beat them.
What a great start.
•••
"Woo! What a game, papito!" Pen exclaimed. Lydia held a fake phone up to her ear. "Hello, Dodgers? You want Alex Alvarez? We'll think about it!" They all laughed and complimented Alex on his game.
"Papito is the best, from the east and to the west..." Pen started thinking outloud. "He's a base ball slugger and a real good hugger!" We all laughed and Pen continued singing. "Papito is the best, from the east and to the west, he's a baseball slugger and a real good hugger-"I started snapping and clapping, going with their beat.
"Oh, my God! Shut up!" Alex yelled. Way to kill the vibe. We all stopped moving and Elena and I basically stopped breathing. He was about to get his ass beat in front of us, I could feel it.
"Did you just say shut up to God?" Lydia asked. I almost laughed, but held it in. "Did you just say shut up to me?" Pen stepped in front of her. "Because that's worse."
"It's just everything you're doing is embarrassing me." Alex stood up. "That's not getting me on your side."
"Well, I don't like all that crazy yelling you guys do at me games! And that song, I hate that stupid so-"
Pen cut him off. "First of all, don't talk to me like that. And second...You hate that song?"
"Alex you have to appreciate how these guys support you." Schneider said. "He's right." I backed him up. "My parents have never been to any of my volleyball games." I say.
"Look, all I know is, none of the other parents act like you." Alex gestured. "Come on! It's all because we're proud of you, papito." Pen put her hand to Alex's face and Alex moved away.
"Stop calling me papito! I'm not a little kid anymore. My name is Alex, okay? No more papito."
I understand what he means, but c'mon, your family will never get rid of a nick name.
Pen turned to Lydia and they both said, "No, we're still calling you that." Alex grabbed his bag and started walking away but Pen stopped him. "Papito is not an age thing." She said. "We call Conrad 'Macho' because he sang Macho Man once. We call Fransisco 'Pepe Popo' figure that out."
Then she points to me. "You call Bianca 'Bee,' and we call her Chiquita because she's so short." Pen basically waves her arms around and I laugh a bit. "I'm call tata, lupita, yoyi."
"And my nick name is pucha. It is the way of our people!" Lydia says. "If you don't have a nick name, there is something wrong with you!"
"Do I have a nickname?" Elena asked. "No." Lydia said. Pen sighs. "Anyway, it's a tradition to call you papito. So we're going to keep calling you it, okay, papito?"
"No, you need to stop it. And all the other embarrassing stuff you do at my games. If you can't, then don't come anymore." Alex stormed off.
"Alex..." I follow after him. He slams his door. Which is the quickest way to get beat, just saying. I knock on his door. "Alex?" No response. "Can I come in? I just wanna talk."
"Okay." He says. I open the door and see him sitting on his bed. "I know you're upset. I'm sorry about what those kids said."
"It's okay. It's not your fault. I guess I just got frustrated." He said.
I sit next to him and rub his back. "Well, at least you're better than me. I yell and I scream and I hit. You know how to ignore them." I smile. He shrugs. "Well, just know that your family loves you and they want to support you at what you're good at. Y'know, my parents never had time for my games."
"I know. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you." He says and I shake my head. "You didn't. Just... Know that they're coming from a good place." I can tell he's still pissed, so I get up to leave.
"Wait." He says. I turn to face him. "Hmm?"
"Can you stay and talk to me? It calms me down." He asks. "I know, it sounds weird, but, please?"
"Sure." I go sit next to him and he lays his head on my legs. I run my fingers through his hair. "So, we got our field trip to the observatory tomorrow. I'm not really into space, more a math person." He says the last part with me. I giggle. "Oh, sorry. I know you don't like people touching your hair."
"I don't mind." He says and I go back to doing it. "Oh, so today in math, I was sitting with Rachel and Hugo, and we were talking about going to the movies next weekend."
"Sounds fun." He says. "Are you going?" He asked. "Yeah, I wanted to know if you wanna come with?"
"Yeah, I can ask my mom, she'll probably say yeah." I nod and we sit there in silence, just enjoying each others presence. "When is your next volleyball game?" He asks out of no where.
"Next Friday, I believe. We're actually going against my old school." I sigh. "Might see some people I would rather not, but that's fine. You're coming right?"
"Of course." He looks up at me. "I wouldn't miss it for the world. And also so you can show the people at your old school who you pulled." Alex smirked.
"Shut up, I pulled you." I say.
He scoffs, "Really? What about, 'because I like you!'" He mocks me. "Hush! I was a very dramatic seventh grader."
"That was literally eight months ago." He says. We both laugh.
•••
Alex, Hugo, Rachel and I were walking around the observatory, "Oh, guys, look!" I point to the moon replica. "Eso es genial." Alex said. (That's cool.)
"Eso parece Sister Martha's culo." Hugo joked and we laughed. (That looks like Sister Martha's butt.)
"What are you guys saying?" Rachel complained. "You know I don't know Spanish."
"He said that looked like Sister Martha's ass." We laugh. Then some random kids came up to us.
"Look what we have here." He smirks. "Oreo." He points to me. "Wetback and Beaner." He turns to Alex and Hugo. "And... A hottie." They look at Rachel.
Who the actual fuck is this? "What's your problem man?" Alex says. "My problem is that you're here." The kid says. "Just go back to Mexico." The group of kids laughed.
Then, Alex punched him in the jaw. Hugo pulls him back as me and Rachel have our jaws dropped. "You, bitch! What the fuck was that for?" He yelled at Alex.
"Eres lento? You're the bitch." I say to him. (Are you dumb?)
"Try me, whore." One of them say. Alex got loose of Hugo's grip and punched him again, this time in the nose. "Mr. Alvarez!" Sister Barbara yelled as she ran up to us. Hugo was holding onto Alex and the other boys took off. "Come with me." She pulled Alex away. I felt like crying.
"Ay, dios mio." I put my hands up to my face and sat down on the floor. Rachel sat down with me and held me. "It's okay. It's okay."
•••
I walk into the Alvarez's apartment, hoping Alex was home. "Is Alex home?" I ask them. Lydia said he wasn't. I assume Pen had to go pick him up. I sit on the couch and silently wait. "Ay, chiquita, what is wrong?" Lydia sat next me. "N-nothing." Just then, Alex and Pen walked in.
"It's not a big deal!" Alex yelled. "You better watch your tone." Pen puts her purse up. "What happened?" Elena asked walking out of the kitchen. "His class went on a field trip to the observatory and he punched a kid from another school."
Lydia gasped and walked up to him. "Papito. Is your hand okay?"
"Y'know, I've had enough of your teen crap. I'm not raising a jerk." Penelope scolds him. "I'm not the jerk, the other kids a jerk!"
"Everyone is a jerk! It's still not okay to hit people."
"Whatever, you wouldn't understand." Alex walks off and puts his bag down. "Well then make me understand! Because how is this okay? Did he hit you first?"
"No, but he was staying stuff." Alex said and Pen said, "What he called you a name? What'd he call you? Stupid, dummy, goober?"
"What grade do you think we're in?" I ask. Lydia starts defending him, "If papito punched someone, there was a good reason."
"Did he stop you from seeing the Jupiter exhibit? Because that thing is amazing." Elena says. "Was it about a women? Was it about Bianca? It's okay if it was about a women." Lydia says.
"No, Mami, it's not." Pen sighs. Alex looked at me.
"He told me and Hugo to go back to Mexico!" Alex yelled. I held my breath and their jaws dropped. Pen looked at me and then back at Alex. "Then he called Bianca a whore."
"So this was just some random kid?" She asked.
"Yeah, Hugo, Bianca and I were talking in Spanish, and they heard us and said it." They all shriek and shake their heads. "Okay... This not okay. I'm gonna call the school."
"There isn't anything you can do. None of the teacher heard him. After I hit him, Sister Barbra pulled me aside and him and his friends took off."
"Alex, we're gonna figure this out. But you can't hit someone every time they call you a name."
"I don't! It was just this time."
"This has happened before?" Pen asked. "Yeah."
"At one of his baseball games, while we were leaving, some kids yelled build the wall." I said and they all gasped. "Does this happen at school?" She asks. "No, just a couple times when I'm out."
"Oh, my God." Elena gasped. "Whatever, I don't want to talk about it." Alex walked off to his room. I put my face in my hands and sigh.
They start talking about how this is so dumb and wrong. We live in different times, why are we going backwards? Why are people so cruel? What is wrong with the world?
"Wow. Even these days, in this openly racist world, I have yet to come across any incidents." Elena says. We give her a look. "What?" She says.
"No, and hopefully, you never will." Pen smiles. "Why are you being weird?" Elena asks. "Okay... You and your brother are of different... Shades."
"Yes, papito is a beautiful caramel, and you are wonder bread." Lydia pouts. Elena's jaw drops. "Oh, my God. Am I passing?!"
"What is passing?" Schneider asks. "It's when a person of color pass as Caucasian, even though they're a minority.
"Oh, then yes." Schneider says. "Wow, I can't believe Bianca and I are passing." Elena sighs. I look at her.
"I am not passing." I laugh a bit. "How? You're barely a few shades darker than me." Elena asks.
"Well, when one parents has white skin and the other has darker skin, you get different slurs. Y'know. Oreo, undecided, undercooked. And when you speak Spanish, it is a whole other thing." I say.
"I'm so sorry, Mija." Pen sighs. Then she gets up to go talk to Alex. "Man, you're saying I'll never go through being oppressed ever?" Elena complains.
"Hey, you're still gay!" I try to cheer her up. It worked. "Yes, that's right. And a women! I'm back in." She exclaimed and we laughed. A few minutes later, Pen came out and told us to get ready because we were going out for ice cream.
Sounds amazing to me!
A/N: Hey y'all! I'm so excited for season two to start. I will skip some episodes, as per usual lmao.