Death in the Water

Matthew Mendieta and Co.

Wherever the place, whatever the age, there are less than likable individuals. Unfortunately for Henry, the less than likable people he knew were often his classmates during the school year, a base and censorious lot.

Matthew Mendieta was the most base and censorious of them.

An affluent, complacent dark-skinned kid, Matthew was a faux-intellectual bully who went after Henry with verbal insults, name-calling and, when those failed, violence. He was as lean as Henry, and an inch and a quarter taller. He was dark-haired, his hair slicked back, and his eyes dark brown. His typical attire was a black t-shirt, pants and shoes and considering it was the hottest summer on record, wearing all black was nothing short of unintelligent.

No sooner had Miao voiced her feeling that one day soon the Ruby Aqueduct would fall, did Matthew appear on the scene with a group of his tolerators. There was Andrew Lee, Erin Chow, Jorge Gielgud, Asante Ado, Tiffany Ga and Ella Caine, all people whom Henry had called classmates. It was a good thing that John Morgan was away at baseball practice with Miao's brother. Still, they were seven and he, Katharine and Miao were three. Henry did not like how things could possibly go.

The moment Matthew exclaimed "Hey, look! The Irish Frankenstein is building himself a social circle!" Henry sighed in defeat. He knew things would suck. Matthew then added: "Looks like that redheaded tart who refused to hang out with us and instead went off to read Shakespeare and some little geisha!"

Henry was quite used to being called "Irish Frankenstein." Due to Matthew's hatred of his Irish heritage, believing that it "polluted" his "good Hispanic blood", he often had something prejudiced to say to Henry. After discovering a piece of anti-Irish propaganda from an old issue of the magazine "Punch", he had ever since referred to Henry as "the Irish Frankenstein." Adding to the insult, due to Matthew having never read "Frankenstein", he only knew Frankenstein's Adam from his portrayal in the film adaptation by James Whale, where he was portrayed as a blundering, mindless brute. As much as Henry was used to it, he still considered it insulting, not just to Irish people but to the work of Mary Shelley.

Upon being called a redheaded tart, Katharine crossed her arms, looked away, closed her eyes and titled her head a bit. From anyone else, Henry thought such a response would have been excessive, but he thought she pulled it off quite well.

Miao, on the other hand, clenched her fists and stamped her right foot before exclaiming: "I'm a Hongkonger!"

"Ah, the Hongkongers..." mused Erin. "The rednecks of China!"

Erin was half-Chinese, being half-Hispanic as well. Her father was of Chinese descent and Henry had met him he accompanied his parents to school for parent-teacher nights and discovered that he was fairly elitist, considering people who weren't from the part of China his grandparents had come from to be inferior. It was obvious from whom Erin had inherited her attitude from. Good parents made good children, bad parents made bad children and sometimes the child was worse or better than their begetters. Unfortunately, Erin was not such an example and neither was Ella. No wonder they were friends.

"Just ignore them, Miao." Said Henry as he placed his free hand on Katharine's shoulder. "Come on, girls. The zoo awaits!"

As the trio walked around the eleven, Henry thought that was thankfully short. No more excitement for the day, everything would just be nice and relaxing, first the zoo then the art gallery.

And then Matthew grabbed Miao.