~Bumblebees and Butterflies~ || Love, Victor ||

Chapter two: Clean slate tinted

Victor's POV

After third period I walk up to my locker and start to put my books in it when a girl walks up to me and starts taking photos of me while saying "Cheese!"
Caught off-guard, I say "Hey, woah w-what are you doing?"
"Taking photos for a Creekscrets post about you new kid" She continues "So, what's your deal new kid? Share the deets"
Another girl walks up "Don't mind her. Lake over here is harmless." she smiles.
I smile and laugh a little "It's okay, no one has been that enthusiastic about taking photos of me since I was a piano model for my mom's lesson flyers."
She responds in fake awe "Woah a piano lesson model."
"Yea, check this out." I do a little dramatic stance.
"Wait- why are your hands so high up?"
"Oh it's a standing piano, it's good for my back so."
She laughs and I laugh with her.
"Um, hellooooo? Still waiting for my answer!"
I almost forgot Lake was standing there. "Oh, yea sorry. Uh, deets?"
"You know, name, where are you from, is there a lucky girl back home, lucky boy? Soulmate?"
"Um, I'm Victor, I moved from Texas and no lucky girl.. Or guy." It felt weird to say guy as if it was the worst thing to insinuate.
"So, do mess with Texas, noted" she flashes a quick smile.
"Well, it was to meet you Lake and uh.." I realize I didn't ask the other girl's name.
"Mia!"
I smile "Nice to meet you both." And they both walk away.
I notice Felix standing about a foot from me, he must've just walked up.
"Dude! You just made Mia brooks blush!!"
I stand there a little confused. "I did?"
He says through a sigh "Yea. She's like, famously known for never crushing on anyone and you made her blush!"
"And that's important why..?"
"You made the always single, popular girl blush!! You're falling in love, aren't you? You totally are."
I scoff "Hah, sure."
"Whatever you say, Victor."

We walk outside and I see Pilar sitting alone at a table, Felix and I walk over and sit down. "Hey, Pilar! I didn't see you this morning... How's your first day so far?"
She rolls her eyes "It's sucked. I sat beside two girls in Socials to try and be friendly and they said I look like Dora."
Felix pipes up "Give it time, you'll make friends."
"All my friends are home in Texas, yes I know that sounds like a country song but it's true." She gets up and storms off. I try to stop her with "Pilar! Stop, come back!!" But it's no use.
"Well then..."
Felix and I sit there for the rest of lunch talking and messing around.

***

Felix was walking me to P.E. when we turned a corner too fast and I ended up slamming into another boy. Flustered and embarrassed I go to help pick up his books right away while apologizing profusely.
"Hey don't worry about it, it's okay." I look up to see him looking at me with a hand out. I can't help but think Wow, he's beautiful. It doesn't feel right thinking that. Shut up brain.
"Um,, thanks" I take his hand and he helps me up.
I hear Felix say "Dude you okay? You fell pretty hard."
"Oh, yea I'm fine. Sorry uh.."
"Benji."
"Victor."
We both smile and look at each other for a moment. He looks familiar..
He looks down and says "Nice shoes by the way. Vintage Nike Cortez's?"
"Yeah. Yeah, my mom got them at a garage sale just because they were my size she didn't even know how cool they were. N-not saying my shoes are cool or anything."
"No! They are." He pauses, "It sounds like those shoes were your destiny, if you believe that stuff."
"Um, yeah. I believe in cool kicks."
We hear the bell ring.
"I better go, nice meeting you Victor. See you Felix" and he walks off.
"Benji is super cool. He's also gay."
"Oh. that's um- awesome"
"Yeah!"
We rush off to our next classes.

***

During P.E we ended up playing a basketball scrimmage. I felt a little off my game but I was good enough. I caught the teacher's eye apparently because I hear him call my name "Hey Victor! Get over here!"
I jog over "What is it?"
"You know I'm not just the P.E. Teacher, I'm also the coach for our basketball team. How would you feel about joining?"
"Um, y-yeah that would be awesome."
"Good. you're on the team! Hey Andrew!!" He calls over a taller boy. "Yes coach?"
"Victor is on the team!"
Andrew glances over "Oh, cool. What position?
"I was point-guard back in Texas"
"I'm point-guard." I thought I heard a scoff at the end of his sentence.
"Now now boys, let's not argue about that yet." Coach turns to me "I'll just need you to bring this form back signed" He hands it to me and continues "And a 500 dollar check."
"Wha- 5-500 dollars?"
"Is it a problem?"
Awkwardly I say "No, not at all"
There was something about the way Andrew looked at me after that didn't sit right.

On the way out of school, A kid walks up to Felix and me and says "Hey are you Victor?" I nod. "I just donated to your GoFundMe, good luck man!"
I stare at them. "My what?"
"GoFundMe! It's all good man, I had one too. It funded my trip to Israel!"
"Do you know who created it?"
"Andrew did." they said.
I spot him across the street "Thanks."
I walk over to Andrew "You started a GoFundMe?"
"I did. I know how hard thing can be on your side of town"
"Just take it down"
"Whatever you say Salazar" He pushes me as he walks away
Felix runs up to me. "What a dick."
"Yeah."

***

"I'm home!" as I walk into the foyer Adrian runs up and hugs me while squealing "Victor you're home! How was your day at school? Mine was great, I met this kid and we played outside and he gave me some of his lunch so I also shared mine and this..." He kept on talking to no one in particular.
I walk into the kitchen to see my mom organizing miscellaneous things and my Dad sipping on a cup of tea. My mom notices me and says "You're home!! How was your first day!?"
I respond "It went as well as a first day could." It was a good day, right?
"That's amazing! Did you make any new friends?"
"Not really."
"You will soon." She smiles.
My Dad chimes in "So, did anything interesting happen today?"
"Um, I made the basketball team."
I can see a smile spread across his face "That's awesome. Good job Flaco!"
"Yeah, thanks! Uh about that.. It costs 500 dollars to join, would you guys be willing to pay for it?"
Just then Pilar walks in and says "Oh! Can I have 500 dollars too?"
He just sighs "No one is getting 500 dollars. Victor, you should try out for a job. If you can get most of the money we will help but till then you're on your own."
"Okay, thanks Dad." Seems fair enough.
As I walk to my room I can hear my mom say "Armando, Victor is a reasonable kid. Can't we just give him the money?"
"No, we can't. It's expensive to move across the country."
"He never asks for anything unless he needs new socks, It's for basketball-"
"Isabel, no. Besides, getting a job is a good learning experience."
I didn't hear the rest. It's been a while since I heard them disagree on something.

As I'm getting ready for bed I get a text from Felix with a link.

Hey, just thought you should see this..

I press on the link and it sends me to a Creek Secrets post with the title 'New kid has a short fuse!'

I'm sorry man...

I respond: It's not your fault.

I go to bed wondering why was I so excited about this?