With that, I skipped off to class.
"Thanks, um... What's your name?"
"Gloria," she said. "And you?"
"My name is Jiao."
"Pleasure. I would shake your hand if it wouldn't hurt you."
"Hurt me?"
"Yes... Every time I touch a person, they get a cut or a scratch."
"Why?"
"Because I am dead, and that's what happens when I touch the living."
My eyes went wide. "You're kidding, right?"
"No. I wish I was kidding. Listen... I don't want you and your friend to get famous."
"Why not?"
"I am not going to allow that another Aguabella girl gain fame using MY songs and pretend SHE wrote them!" Her eyes turned blood red and she grew and grew until she towered over me, and her hair wrapped itself around me like a chrysalis. "If you two become famous, you will both be punished. Do you understand?"
"Uh, I don't know if Lottie will - "
A few tresses of her hair wrapped themselves around my neck and squeezed. "You didn't hear me? I will say it again: IF YOU TWO BECOME FAMOUS, YOU WILL BOTH BE PUNISHED!"
"O-Okay... What if I don't get famous and she does?"
She narrowed her eyes."Then I will do to her the same thing Estefany did to me, and I will make you sleep for lots of time."
"OKAY! I'LL TALK HER OUT OF SINGING YOUR SONG!"
Her grip around my neck released. "You better."
--
At lunch, I scanned the cafeteria for Lottie and found her talking with her friends in the lunch line. "Hey, can I talk to you for a second?"
Her friends looked at me like 'Why is a mere mortal like Jiaohua Yaghlaqar talking to us princesses?' So I flipped them off and started to walk away.
"Jiao, wait!" Lottie grabbed my shoulder. "What's up?"
"I quit."
"What do you mean, you quit?!"
"I don't want to be your guitarist anymore." I tried to be strong as I said those words. As ridiculous and stupid as this sounds, I felt as though I were breaking up with the love of my life.
She looked stunned. "Why? Was it something I said?"
I shook my head. "Our lives are both at stake if we perform that song."
"I thought you liked Al Lado De Ti!"
"I do! It's just... There is someone who really doesn't want us to perform that song, and she threatened to do horrible things to us."
"Who?"
"Her name is Gloria."
She eyed me curiously. "There's nobody named Gloria at our school."
"She's not a student; she's a grown woman, and she knew Estefany."
"If she was Estefany's friend, then - "
"She wasn't. She said Estefany stole her songs and claimed them as her own."
Lottie gasped. "My bisabuela would never do something like that! Her songs were a hundred percent original! Fueran del corazón - they were from the heart."
"I'm not trying to insult your bisabuela; I just don't want either of us to get killed."
One of her friends snickered. "Ignore her, Lottie. She's probably just jealous that you're the more talented one, and wants you to quit so the spotlight will be on her."
"Yeah, because it takes no talent or practice at all to play guitar as well as I can." I held up my calloused fingers. "See these? These are from practicing four hours a day on weekdays and seven on weekends."
She cringed. "Practicing what? Being diseased?" They all tittered at that remark.
"I bet it's a disease from whatever towelhead country you came from," another one chimed in.
"Towelhead country?!" Okay, that was it. "I'm Manchu and Uyghur - in other words, CHINESE."
"What's your last name?"
"Yaghlaqar."
More tittering. "So your name is Jabba Yucky-car?"
I happened to have a bottle of Coca-Cola in my satchel, so I opened it up, took a big drink, and yard-sprinklered it all over them. "My name is JIAOHUA YAGHLAQAR, and if there is a towel on my head, you can shove it up your ass."
