Through the Gate

Chapter Six - Singing Like a Soprano

At lunchtime, Marco sat on a bench by himself, lamenting his misfortune. He was fully aware that the move was his fault, and he promised himself that this time would be better. He wasn't going to upset Marisol again. She was the only one left in the family that still had some faith in him. He swung his feet around so that he could lie down on the bench and closed his eyes. There was something magical about a siesta.

"Not a good place to nap," He heard a lyrical voice and opened one eye. A young woman in a silky white strapless dress was looking down at him, smiling. A flash of sunlight blinded him momentarily and he sat up straight. The woman was gone.

"Get out of my spot, new kid." A boy with a heavy accent snarled at him from a good twenty paces away.

"Do they put names on benches here in America? If so I don't think the trend will catch internationally." Marco smirked and exaggerated his movements to seem like he was lying down again.

"Get off my bench!" The boy stomped toward him, but failed to notice a small boy, maybe eleven or twelve years old, sneak up behind him.

Marco cocked his head to the side wondering what the small boy was doing, and chuckled as he landed a swift kick between the legs of the older boy. The bully dropped and the kid took off running, not that anyone was chasing him. Marco stood from the bench, patted the bully on the head with another smirk, and jogged after the kid. He chased him around the building and to the track and field area. The kid had settled in on one of the lower bleachers and opened his backpack.

"That was pretty impressive for a chiquito." Marco laughed.

His voice must've startled the kid, as he dropped his saran-wrapped sandwich. The kid looked relieved to not see his bully. "What's that even mean?"

"It's like a little boy. You know; a small fry."

The kid's face screwed up. "I'll get you like I got Czar if you think you can pick on me too!"

"Dios mio, I wouldn't dream of it." Marco chuckled, "I like my privates to stay intact, thank you."

"Okay," The kid went back to his sandwich and Marco settled in near him. Without a word, the kid handed him half of his lunch.

"Thanks kid."

"It's Ray, not kid!"

"Okay, okay! Thanks Ray." Marco ate the sandwich. "This is good; did your mother make it?"

"No, I did." Ray munched away and finally took a long swig from his water bottle. "My mom works two jobs so she can't do that stuff. Sometimes my sister does though."

"Ah, si, sisters can be nice when they want to be."

"They can be pretty mean sometimes too." Ray looked serious, "My sister filled my backpack full of underwear once. I spent the whole day at school trying to keep anyone from finding out."

"That is actually quite funny."

"It was funny," A female voice commented and ruffled Ray's hair. "What Ray didn't tell you is that this was after two weeks of me picking up his dirty laundry."

Marco turned around to see an American beauty with her blonde hair in a pixie style and bright green eyes. "You must be the sister."

"Sylvie," The girl answered.

"Encantado," Marco smiled genuinely and gave her his best bedroom eyes.

"Are you the one who put Ray up to that stunt?" Sylvie asked with her hand on her hip.

"Nobody put me up to it. He deserved it!" Ray shouted.

"Yea? And what if he tells someone on you? The whole school is talking about how Czar got dropped by a ten year old."

Ray looked like he was going to explode. "I'm thirteen!"

"Well you're still a squirt and I'm not bailing you out if you get in trouble for this. You'll be packed off to public school and we'll be lucky if he doesn't sue mom."

"I assure you, nothing like that will happen." A trio of boys came walking up, one of them patted Ray on the shoulder in a congratulatory fashion. The one who spoke before twisted his silver ring around and spoke again. "Czar is not the type to take any sort of action with the school or through legal means. He will do something though, that's certain."

"And you are?" Sylivie's hand was on her hip again. The girl had attitude and Marco was happy to just watch her snap at people.

"I'm Liam, that's Tyler and JD." The boy answered.

"We thought that Ray needed some bodyguards after what he pulled. When Czar stops singing like a soprano, he'll out for blood." Tyler added.

"Oh? And what are you three going to do about it?"

"We just need to make any sort of payback more trouble than it's worth. So from now on Ray, you're hanging out with us."

"Oh no, you don't! You will not corrupt my little brother!" Sylvie nearly shouted. "From now on, I'm not letting him out of my sight!"

Marco laughed lazily. "Ray helped me avoid a confrontation with this guy, Czar, earlier, so I am indebted to him. I will help you as well."

Marco and Sylvie introduced themselves to the trio and headed off to class as the bell rang, signalling the end of lunch. Marco shared his schedule and saw that he and Liam had English together. Tyler offered to walk Ray to his class with Sylvie and JD.

Miss Silva introduced Marco and Marisol to the class when the bell rang again and then proceeded on with the lecture. Marco noticed that Marisol had calmed considerably and she had even seemed to have made a new friend. The hour passed quickly and as the class was ending, Miss Silva announced a new class project. "Everyone but Marisol and Marco will present their oral reports tomorrow, but on Thursday, we will start a new project. You will be working in pairs that I assign."

The boy Morgan, had a taped up nose and black eyes. He had obviously been in a fight, but that didn't seem to deter him as he cried out in disbelief. "What? But we haven't even finished this last assignment!

"Mr. Anderson, you will have a full week to do this project, including the weekend and if you purposefully drag your partner down, I will fail you." Miss Silva continued on rattling names off, "Marisol and Stacey, Gweneth and Serena, Walker and Liam, Morgan and Marco-"

Marco groaned in irritation. Not only had he been paired with a troublemaker, as if Marco ever needed help causing trouble, apparently the kid was not the type to do his own work either. The fates were conspiring against him. It would have been so much better to have been paired with Liam, who he at least knew, or his sister who he knew would excel without much help from him.

Class ended and Marco saw Liam hand Marisol's new friend several sheets of paper. The girl, Serena, accepted the pack with a small smile, but Marco could see that there was no light in her eyes. He found himself hoping that Marisol would cheer her up.

Marco gathered the rest of his things and walked with Liam to find the rest of his new friends.

-

Author's Note - Michael Trevino as Marco Reyes.

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