“There you are!”
Sarah snapped out of her daze and watched as Valerie who’d already taken Sarah’s schedule smile wickedly. “We have two classes together!”
“We do?” Sarah’s cheeks still felt warm but she quickly walked along side of Valerie incredibly grateful for her timing.
Valerie talked about the classes just until they were far enough away and around the corner of the building. “Oh, my God, Sarah, do you know who that was staring at you?”
Surprised, and not sure why, Sarah pretended to not understand. “Who?”
Valerie gasped. “That was Angel Moreno! Don’t you remember I’ve told you about him and his brothers?”
“No,” Sarah lied. Of course she remembered part of the reason she could hardly breathe when she recognized him.
The bell rang again.
“Oh, shit,” Valerie looked at her watch. “We’re gonna be late on our first day.”
She grabbed Sarah’s arm and they were off on a foot race to their first class.
TWO WEEKS LATER
Angel made his way quickly around the science building. His stomach tensed up as the bell rang. He was late to practice again and he knew his coach wouldn’t be happy. It was the second time this week, but he had to stay after class to get the extra credit assignment. He was failing Spanish II, again. Spanish! His parents owned a Mexican restaurant, for crying out loud. Only reason he had taken it was because he needed two years of a foreign language to even have a prayer of getting into a four year college. And now it may cost him time on the field.
Apparently, he was only good at the curse words and the teacher called his Spanish, Spanglish. It was a Catch 22 though, if he didn’t stay late to get the extra credit assignments, he wouldn’t be able to make up some of the lousy scores he’d been getting on the quizzes. If he didn’t make them up he wouldn’t have the grades to play on the team. Not picking up his grade also meant staying after school for tutoring. Just the thought made him groan.
He made it to the weight room just as they were starting warm ups. The coach barely looked at him and pointed to the bleachers outside in the hot sun.
“Twenty,” he said. “Make 'em fast.”
Running bleachers was the worst. As he began to sprint toward them, he heard Dana call out to him from the track area where the cheerleaders were warming up.
“Bleachers again, Angel?”
He nodded barely looking her way. Some of the other girls laughed and joined in. His dimples made their appearance as usual, although his smile was anything but genuine. The catcalls had stopped making him uncomfortable a long time ago, especially from this group of girls.
At seventeen, Angel was already an impressive six-feet-two. He was very much following in his two older brothers’ footsteps. Although it was nice to have instant notoriety as soon as he started high school, there were times he resented having to live up to his brothers’ legacies. He had the looks, the build, the popularity, but, unfortunately, not the grades.
He frowned at the thought of his two older brothers being on full sports scholarships in college, and here he was struggling to stay eligible to play high school football. It was embarrassing but he wasn’t going to give up. As his father, and lately his oldest brother Sal, always say, failure is not an option.
Lost in his thoughts, and still annoyed with himself, Angel ran slowly and pensively up the bleachers for the fourth or fifth time, he’d lost count. Sweat trickled down his face and he struggled to keep his breathing steady. He usually could get a rhythm going, but not today. Someone ran right past him a little too close. Startled, he almost lost his balance. He caught himself and was about to give him an earful when he heard her apologize and realized he was a she.
“I’m sorry, did I bump you?”
“No, I’m good,” Angel was bent over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.
“You sure you’re ok?” she asked again.
He looked up at her for the first time, still breathing hard. The sun was directly behind her. Angel squinted at a petite silhouette. She shifted slightly, blocking the sun for a moment. The first thing he noticed were her eyes. They were an amazing light green. A startling contrast to her dark features. She stared at him as she too stood there breathing hard.
Her hair was up in a ponytail, except for a few strands dampened by her perspiration that stuck to the sides of her face and forehead. It surprised Angel that he didn’t recognize her from anywhere. He thought he knew everyone in the school. But there was something familiar about her, he just couldn’t place it.