Boscha Noceda

Chapter 5: Call

It was a nice late afternoon in the park, the perfect balance of sun and clouds. True to his word, Manny was teaching Boscha the basics of basketball. Her height put her at a disadvantage when trying to dribble the ball, but she was determined to bounce it with the same force as her dad. Slamming the ball on the court floor with both hands proved to be counterproductive to that goal, but now Manny had a matching bruise on his other cheek.

"Sorry, Papi!" Boscha said.

Manny chuckled a bit before ruffling Boscha's hair.

"Don't worry, Boscha, I'm fine, it'll take more than that to take me out." Manny said.

The three-eyed child nodded and smiled, but with an unusual look of determination. Seeing her father brush off such contusions was an inspiration for her, given the misfortunes she'd suffered before meeting her new family. She aspired to be as tough as her dad.

After a while, they moved on to practicing how to shoot.

"Be sure to relax your legs, Princesa." Manny instructed his protégé, "Hold the ball with your right hand and keep your left hand on its side."

"You can do it, Boscha!" Luz cheered from the side.

Manny kept focused on training.

"Okay, you're still little, so we won't worry about actually making the basket, but you can still practice shooting. Just remember, it's not so much throwing the ball as pushing it. Let's see how high you can go!"

"Okay!" Boscha was dead set on impressing her new family, so she put all her strength into her first shot. To even her own surprise, the ball sailed right out of the court into the adjacent bushes.

Suffice it to say they were indeed impressed. Manny picked Boscha up and held her in the air.

"This girl is going to be an NBA player!" He declared.

"Papi!" Boscha said, wanting to be let down, only for Manny to start tickling her.

Their fun was interrupted by a sudden and loud bursting noise. The Nocedas watched their basketball get flung back from the bushes, landing with a flop on the court.

"Papi, our ball!" Boscha pointed to the now-deflated basketball.

"Oh, well, that's not good." Manny said, "We'll have to buy a new one. Hey, superstar, how about you and your sister go get ice cream with Mami, and I can go buy a new ball at the store?"

"Is the stand still open?" Camila asked, but Manny had already bolted to the nearest Drawl-Mart, driven by his excitement at Boscha's promising basketball career.

"Odio cuando hace eso." Camila muttered.

Just then, a few preteens came out and kicked the punctured ball around. one kid in a denim vest had punted it over the fence. "Haw-haw! I got a touchdown!" He cheered.

Boscha became infuriated.

"HEY! You putas wrecked our ball!"

"Whatcha gonna do about it, dingus, give us your skin disease?" The bully's comment made the girl feel self-conscious about her complexion.

"Excuse me?!" Camila showed the other kids where Boscha's temper came from.

Luz ran up next to her sister.

"S'nothin' wrong with her skin! It's beautiful like bubblegum!"

That statement, though bewildering to the other kids, made Boscha smile.

"Fucking freaks." One of the kids said.

That made Camila enraged, how dare they call her beautiful girls that!? She didn't get a chance to say anything, as the one that said it was on the ground, holding his eye, as Boscha's fist was still extended.

"Don't you ever call my sister a freak!" Boscha said.

Camila was horrified, and impressed. Boscha clearly had strength despite being only about 4 or 5. Still, she wanted to get the girls out of here before Boscha decides to punch another one.

"Come on, girls, let's go get ice cream." Camila said.

"Yay!" They both cheered.

Camila quickly led them away, giving herself a mental note to look up child leashes, because these two clearly share a brain and it gets distracted easily and she didn't need them to wander into traffic. They arrived at the ice cream place and Camila ordered. Luz typically got dairy free while Boscha was a fan of mint chocolate chip. Camila herself just got a small sundae. Everything was good, until Camila got a call.

"Mrs. Noceda?"

"Yes? Who is this?"

"This is Nurse Crane from Gravesfield hospital, I have some bad news... your husband collapsed and passed out while at Drawl-Mart."