Hera, the schools biggest nerd and Ares, the most handsome jock in school with a bad boy reputation
One day during the summer before senior year Hera drastically decided to change the way the whole school viewed her. Only problem is she didn't know...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
HERA BERRY ROSALES
Sometimes I wish my fucking name was Chlamydia or something. Ever since the first day of fifth grade—when I moved to the obnoxiously small town in New Jersey— my name was the center of attention. And the center of my misery. My name was abominable that whenever a teacher or a substitute called me to mark me present I would simply sit in the back and contemplate whether or not to speak up.
No but seriously, who in their right mind names their kid Hera Berry Rosales!?
My mother. My birth giver. The women to pop me out of her beautiful female genitalia. That's who and of course, no, she was not on her right mind.
After nine months thinking of a name to give the gorgeous baby she was about to be giving birth to the first thing she thought to name it was Berry. And as much to my surprise if it wasn't for my grandmother, who I still thank to this day, that would've been my first name.
My mother, Katherina Rosales, was a seventeen year old girl in a small but joyful island called Dominican Republic. She was left a single mother after my grandfather chased her boyfriend out of the country, maybe even out the world because when I tell you I've never seen the man—I've never even seen a picture— only stories from people on the streets. Katherina or Kat— however you want to call her —was a party girl and even now at her thirty five years, she was still the life of the party.
Her long curly sticking to the sweat on her skin due to all the bachata and merengue songs she had been dancing and spinning around to, her big light brown eyes that had lightly smudged eyeliner around the corners, and her big lips that she just can't seem to close.
"—So I was reading this book, you know... I was a nerd" An obnoxious snort came from before she added, "Just like you" She sloppily pointed a finger at my face, giving me a big toothy grin before she kept blabbering about how she found my name. I rolled my eyes and hid the smile on my face.
You would think that I, the teenager, would be the one coming home drunk after a girls night out. But in this house— this home— everything flipped. I never really cared about my mom going out, I lived happily knowing that I had a mom that could light up the world with her smile and her loud voice.
Me and mom looked exactly alike, but my abuela often said I had some of my father's features. I had my mom's beautiful long curly hair, neither my abuela or my mom let me or anyone cut my hair, saying that hair a sacred. I also had my mom's big eyes, but mine weren't light brown, mine were dark brown; almost black. I believed I had my father's nose because it didn't look like mom's or nobody's in my family, but I had the lips. I had the big, plump lips my mom said could make a man fall to his knees.
