We Come Alive 3

Stranded Part 2

Tuesday morning, Mateo woke up at his desk wrapped in a small baby blue blanket as he was laying his head on the desk. He looked around the fake office to see the other two coaches, Sam and Victor, sleeping on the floor wrapped up in blankets. Mateo let out a deep breath before standing to his feet and throwing the blanket off of himself since it had grown warmer in the athletic building. When he walked out of his fake office, he made his way to where most of the football players were.

The moment Mateo walked in, he saw the small emergency lights in the attic had gone off and the usual lights were on meaning the electricity had came on. He reached toward the light switch and turned them off so the natural light came through the windows. Most of the players were sleeping on the floors, and the ones who were awake were charging their phones so they could call their families to check up on them.

Mateo walked down the short hallway to the small room, but it was full of players. Nearly all of them sleeping and the ones who weren't were once again, calling their families. Mateo just stepped over them and got into the room where he saw the sudden cut off of the boys in the threshold. He looked across the locker room over to Clover and Manny who were sleeping together against the back row wall. They were sharing blankets and sleeping on their sides with Clover closer to the door as a way to protect Manny, even in their sleep.

Mateo turned around and went back out the rooms so he could get to the coaches area so he could sort breakfasts for them. Once it came around to 9:30, all of the teenagers were waking up and excited since the electricity was back on. They charged their phones to call their parents and watched news stories on their phones.

By 10 o'clock, the players were hungry and starting to complain, but luckily the coaches had figured out how to give them enough food for all three meals for the day. But, the meals were going to have to be a bag of chips since there wasn't much food for all of them.

Stephen walked out the makeshift office with his bag of Cheetos in his hand. He opened them up and instantly tried to cure his hunger. As he walked back into the large room, he heard someone calling his name. The moment he walked in, Stephen saw Diego leaning against the wall on his phone waiting for him.

"Took you long enough." Diego smiled. "You happy you got your food?"

Stephen smiled bright as he walked over to him. "Yeah. Where's yours?"

Diego went into his back pocket and pulled out a bag of Doritos. "Jose and Jacob still waiting?"

"Yeah." Stephen answered. "They are." He leaned against the wall with Diego and watched Clover and Manny walk into the large room. They sat down in some old chairs they had found yesterday. They were talking and laughing as they ate their portion of the food.

Diego chuckled as he watched the two girls laugh like they were the only two in the world. "Cute they got each other."

Stephen nodded slowly as he watched them. He admired how they joked like it was any other day at practice and not a natural disaster. Diego walked towards them with his phone in one hand and his chips in the other. Stephen used the charger while Diego left so he could keep his phone charged.

Diego walked up to the two girls and gave them a gentle smile before turning toward Manny. He looked down at her bump pointing out from under her white shirt that was tight on her skin, even before she was pregnant. Diego handed her his entire bag of chips and smiled to her.

"I'd rather starve." He spoke. Before Diego had a chance to turn around, he felt a hand on his back. Diego looked over his shoulder to see Stephen giving Manny the rest of his chips.