Do We Get a Happy Ending?

The Day We Met

Chapter 1:

They say love comes at unexpected moments, could she have called hers love? Hence, she gave up so easily. Richie was his name. A name heard across the five oceans. She never imagined that she would find herself thinking day and night about a boy, whom she had no desire for when they met. This is where their story begins. LeMayrin Fernandez or just Lele, a Dominican student who barely even knew how to count to ten in English. When she arrived at her new school she felt like an outcast, someone who was different yet looked similar. A pretty girl with a glowing brown skin tone, long black hair, and eyes that could reflect emotions. However, her beauty did not matter, as others found her uninteresting. This made Lele sad, because she walked into that school with the mindset of a friendly dog, hoping to be liked by everyone, but to her dismay, life did not go as planned. Others often pushed her away because of the language barrier and her home country.

"She should go back to her country ", "She's not welcomed here ", and "Go back to where you came from white girl", were the words that surrounded her everyday ears. Isn't it funny? She did not speak English, yet she somehow understood such harsh words. Also, white girl? She was Brown skinned...

A school whose population descended of over 90% of black students, and 2% white. No matter where she walked, she was not welcomed. "To white for the blacks and nothing for the whites" is what everyone said. Days if not weeks went by, and she was still a shadow waiting to be lit by others. There came the day, the day someone finally noticed her grief and acknowledged her existence. Capone, a kind boy who smiled at everyone and never belittled others, "Hi "he said in a warm relaxing tone, with no response, Lele let out a smile and a kind wave, signaling her lack of knowledge of the English language, to which he immediately understood. Who would have imagined that after that small interaction, they would become "Uña y Mugre", meaning nail and grime, a term used by Hispanics to describe inseparable friends. After so long, Lele was happy and finally made a new friend. She couldn't wait to get home and tell her family the exciting news.

"Mami, mami", she screamed in excitement, "Hoy hice un amigo," she said with the biggest smile. Her mom sighed in relief after watching her daughter struggle so much,

    "Estoy feliz por ti" her mom mumbled in a soft tone...

                      "Gracias Mami",

Lele ran to her room to write about her amazing day in her silver diary, "Querido diario, hoy hice un nuevo amigo, aunque no nos podamos comunicar, estoy feliz de que el me allá hablado, espero que seamos muy buenos amigos, buenas noches diario de Luna."

"Ha!", her brother said after snatching her diary, "damelo", she cried...

              *Boom Whack*, "Devuelveselo", their mom yelled after hitting him with a broomstick

"Gracias, "Lele said with a smirk on her face,

      "mocosa malcriada" her brother whispered.

"Que?'' Lele asked...

         "Nada" her brother responded....

Days go by and Lele's life seems to have improved, with her new best friend Capone, she's learned to ignore the racist comments around her and stick up for herself.

   For the first time in months, Lele is late for school. She only lived three blocks away, so being late was never an issue, but today she was out of luck. Lele feared that she wasn't going to make it in time for breakfast. In her school, students who are 30 minutes late will only be able to get a milk carton and a tiny bowl of cereal, while I find this a dumb rule, it creates a sense of responsibility. Although Lele was not a fan of the cereal options given in school, she still decided to enter the cafeteria, just in case she ran with some luck after being late. Unfortunately, she didn't but, she still grabbed a bowl of cereal. When she reached her arm out, the lunch lady told her that she needed to take off her gloves before grabbing the food. Lele did not understand what the lunch lady said, so she grabbed her bowl anyway and walked out. The lunch lady gives her a dirty look, but, in her head, she does not think the problem is with her. When she walked out, she noticed a hand pointing at her gloves. She looked up and her eyes met the prettiest boy she had ever seen, but who she had also paid no mind to, that's when she heard a familiar voice,

"Next time, take off your gloves,"

She turned to see it was her best friend who had just spoken, of course, Capone wasted his time, hence she did not understand what he said. Nonetheless, she sits next to him. She sees the boy whom she had just seen pointing at her gloves also sitting beside her. Confused she asked, "Who?" ...

          "That's my brother", Capone responds.

"Oh, hi I am Lele", she says in broken English...

   "Hey, I'm Richie" He answered with a smile,

In her mind, she thought, "He's so pretty, but not pretty enough to be my crush". Her attention grew away from him as she noticed the time. In her broken English, Lele told Capone that they needed to hurry and get to class. With the support of her best friend and her ESL teacher, her knowledge of English was growing better by the day, minus the small-glove interaction. As the days passed, she soon realized her gloves were the problem, it was getting cold, and it was also her first time using gloves. There is no such thing as cold or snow in the Dominican Republic. Also, her fear of being late kept growing smaller, as she began being late every day, even though her school was only three blocks away from home. Her being late had given her the gift of becoming great friends with the lunch lady, she now also knows what gloves mean and that she needs to take them off before grabbing her food. Soon, the holidays were approaching, and her school did this thing where the students had to write two gifts that they wanted for Christmas, ever since Lele was a child she loved and idolized Michael Jordan, which grew her passion for basketball. She wanted to start practicing for the upcoming sports season, but she did not have a ball, so for Christmas, she asked for a basketball and some Jordan earrings. That day after school she ran home and told her mother what she wanted for Christmas, Lele's mother asked her if she wanted her to get her a basketball for Christmas, but Lele refused, she had already told the school, that was the gift she wanted, it was only a matter of time before her precious gifts arrive.