Jasmine Romero and her little twin brother, Pablo Romero, are siblings that are from Nicaragua and ran away from their home country. They wanted to start a new life far away from their hometown, but on the journey, everything takes a turn when they...
Warning: They will be some racism in the chapter with Hispanics, and I apologize in advance if anyone is offended, and as a Hispanic, I understand what it's like to be called names for my culture. I apologize again.
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Pablo and I have been living here in New York for two weeks now, and we haven't talked to April since. Not after we found out where we truly are. We haven't seen the turtles at all, but we've seen the girl who is so possessive over Pablo. She now knows where we live and when I opened the door, man, was she angry. She actually tried to push past me, but I totally went off on her and slapped her with shoe. Pablo was proud of me. Her name is Amber Henderson, the most snotty person on the entire planet.
And when I sang, that got onto the news and April talked about it. I'm happy that I didn't have to say anything that moment out to the city. Pablo and I were at work and I grilling the carne asada and boiling the tortillas in oil. The back door opened and Pablo was stressed out and looked scared.
"What's wrong with you?" I asked.
"Amber. She's here." Pablo panicked.
I looked out the window and saw her talking with her brunette friends. I pulled myself back in and looked down at Pablo, who was sitting on the floor with his hands on his head. I grabbed some carne asada and gave it to Pablo.
"Eat that." I patted Pablo. He nodded and nibbled some of the meat. I've been practicing English everyday since I got here, and I'm doing perfect. I can't speak fluently, but enough to get around and hold a small conversation. I grabbed Pablo's notepad and threw my apron off. "Make sure the carne doesn'tburn." I told Pablo.I walked out the back door and walked towards Amber and her friend. I saw them make a girl with glasses get out of her seat. She had books with her and they fell on the ground. I walked up to her and helped her pick up her books. "Are you okay?" I asked in English.
"Yes, I'm fine, thank you." The girl thanked. I helped her up and walked her to another table. I took some tips out of my pocket and set it on the table.
"On me." I declared. I walked towards Amber and her friend who were sitting down at the table and popped the pen and was ready to write. "Hello, Amber y friend. What do you want?" I asked.
"We actually want Pablo to be our waiter." Amber told me.
"And I want the day to end, pero we can't get everything we want, can we?" I asked. Amber glared at me as I glared down at her.
"I thought you couldn't speak English." Amber's friend remembered.
"No con fluidez." I answered. Amber's friend looked away and I could tell she knew what I said. "Not fluently." "Que queries?" I asked.
"Do you have salsa with chicken and rice?" Amber's friends asked.
"No tengo salsa, pero tengo chicken and rice." I told Amber's friend. Her friend's name was Sara and she was more kinder and wasn't really into boys. But I understand why she's with Amber. Amber is rude, mean, and cruel.
"Can I have that please?" Sara asked, kindly." I nodded and wrote it down.
"You don't have to be kind to the illegal. She should go back to Mexico where she belongs with her cousins, right?" Amber said.
I glared at her and clutched onto the notepad wanting to slap Amber across the face. It annoys me when people think I'm from Mexico. There's more Latin countries and we share most of the same traditions, but we have different food and holidays.
"Me and Pablo are from Nicaragua actually." I corrected Amber.
"Probably just Pablo. You probably stole something or someone from their family." Amber said. Keep your anger in, don't let it out.
"Amber!" Sara scolded her friend.
"What? I'm just saying." Amber said. I gulped and stared at Amber. I heard footsteps behind and Oablo looked at me with worry.
"¿Estás bien?" Pablo asked. I shrugged my shoulders and gulped. I wiped my eyes trying to keep the tears in.
"Hey, Pablo. Can you get your girlfriend out of here, I kinda want to talk to you." Amber smirked. Pablo just glared at her and I turned around.
"Talk like that my twin sister again, I'll make sure you never me again. And say anything about my culture or where we're from, you won't come here again." Pablo said. Amber was shook and Sara was giggling. Amber glared at her friend and she stopped immediately. "Leave." Pablo ordered. Amber stood up but Sara stayed. Amber looked down at Sara, and still didn't get up.
"Fine." Amber growled. She walked away and I sighed. Pablo held my arm as I calmed down. Sara stood up and left some money on the table. She walked away in a different direction than Amber leaving Pablo and I. I heard sizzling from the truck and I turned to Pablo.
"¡El carne, pendejo!" I exclaimed. I ran into the truck and took the meat off the grill. I see Pablo took the tortillas off the stove and on the plate. I put the meat on the tortillas and walked them out the girl outside. I set her plate down in front of her and she looked up from her book. "El carne may be um... bur.. bur," I tried to remember. "¿Cuál es la palabra?" I asked.
"Burnt?" She asked. I nodded and she smiled. "Thank for what you did back there. Not the first time, they've made me move." The girl said.
"No problemo." I replied. "¿Como te llamas?" I asked the girl.
"Alma Narvaez." She answered. "Yours?" She asked me.
"Jasmine Romero." I answered. We smiled at each other the Pablo came in.
"And I'm Pablo Romero. I'm Jasmine's twin brother. Her favorite twin brother. She loves me." Pablo ranted.
I turned to him with a questioning face. Why is talking like that? So fast? That's weird. He never talks like that. He never jumps into conversations, and he never talks so fast or in long sentences. Alma giggled and I saw her blush. Pablo was blushing, too. No! There's no way! Pablo thinks she's cute! Alma is cute, though. The glasses pull everything together. She had brown hair, glasses, tan skin, and wore a brown sweater and under it was a shirt with a coco bean on it. She then wore blue jeans with black shoes.
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She looked Hispanic, but I didn't want to assume. Pablo walked away blushing, but waved. She smiled and waved back. The day went on and Alma and I talked a lot when she was here. I even took her in the truck and showed her how to make salsa and guacamole. Her parents are from Venezuela, but her maternal grandfather is from Puerto Rico and her paternal grandmother is from Cuba.
She doesn't know how to speak any Spanish since her parents still live in Venezuela since she they were deported there when Alma was a baby. But she lives with her grandparents. I notice that when we were talking, Pablo was staring at Alma a lot. And I mean a lot. Like the entire time. He couldn't talk her eyes off her. It was crazy. After closing up, we took Alma to her apartment and apparently we live in the same building. Her grandmother was the one that yelled at Pablo and I for screaming that other night. Today was stressful, but I'm glad I met Alma. I hope we can become best friends.
