under pressure

east side story

"Kids, could you come down here for a minute?" Their dad calls. Bree gets up from her bed, going downstairs. She sees her parents with Anna, the maid, and another man. When the three get downstairs, their dad is already waiting for them. "I want you to meet Richard Rodriguez, Anna's cousin." The man walks up to them, a smile on his face.

"Brandon, Brenda, Brinan. Finally, I get a chance to meet you. Anna's been telling us how terrific the three of you are." Bree smiles softly at the woman behind him.

"Well, we think she's pretty terrific too. Right, Mom?" Brandon tells him, smiling at her.

"Oh, absolutely."

"Is everything alright?" Brenda asks, seeing how tense her parents were.

"Everything's fine. I-i'm just not sure where to begin." She says, making Richard smile.

"I got it, Mrs.Walsh. Your parents are being very kind. Anna has a niece who attends one of the local high schools here that's been having some trouble." The three furrow their brows, not knowing what this had to do with them.

"Yes, Carla's very smart. She's a straight-A student, but with the gangs and drugs...it's terrible." Anna says.

"It's depriving her from getting the education that she deserves."

"So, we're gonna let Carla use our address to enrol into West Beverly." Brenda furrows her brows at her dad's words.

"You'd do that?"

"Not normally, no. But, under the circumstances, I think it can be justified." The three nod, not finding a problem with it.

"Y'know, we could show her around if you want."

"Well, you could try. But, Carla doesn't like to attract a lot of attention to himself."

—

"Are you telling me the fax machine went down again?" Andrea asks, as Brandon and Bree stand in her office before school. She looks annoyed, making them a bit scared.

"The fax machine went down again." Bree said, shrugging.

"This school is falling apart right before my very eyes," She then looks behind the siblings, raising a brow. "Can I help you?"

"This isn't the new building, is it?" A girl asks, but Bree doesn't really pay mind to it, writing some more stuff for the article down.

"No, you have to go back out through the quad and past the science labs."

"Which way is that?" Bree then looks up, seeing a girl that was obviously new. She was gorgeous though, and she seemed really sweet.

"Uh, it's through the double doors. Brandon's going that way, he can show you."

"Uh, I'm not being stuck with your typos," Andrea said, shaking her head. He furrows his brows, not seeing his typos. "You totally forgot the 'A' in recreational, and you failed to capitalise Sacramento." Bree looked over her brother's shoulder and snorted as she saw his grammar mistakes.

"Well, maybe Sacramento doesn't deserve a capital." The girl that was lost had walked next to Brandon, hitting his arm.

"Hey, cheap shot. I was born in Sacramento." Brandon now looks at the girl next to him, a smirk coming to his lips as he looks her up and down. Bree could immediately tell that he liked the girl.

"Well, we'll try not to hold that against you." Andrea, getting jealous, decided she needed to break this up.

"Uh, hi. I'm Andrea Zuckerman, I'm the editor of the school paper." She says, extending her hand.