We Come Alive 5

Helping Hand

Wednesday near afternoon, with a hood pulled over his head from the rain outside and his keys swinging in his hands, Sam and Victor watched the boy they knew was their last hope walking through the athletic building with a confident stride.

Mateo looked up from his paper work to see the person he called into his office midway through the day. He let out a sigh as near shoulder length brown hair poured out the hood when he threw it off his head. The younger boy flopped down in the chair and threw his right leg over the arm rest to be in a relaxed position.

"Do you ever wash your hair, Ricky?" Mateo bantered, dropping his pen. "You're hair is so greasy today."

Ricky ran a hand through his hair, but shrugged his shoulders when his hand flopped in his lap. "I look like a natural beauty, don't I?" He winked. "But what's up?"

"This is important." Mateo scolded, lacing his fingers together as they were pressed firmly against the desk.

Ricky instantly dropped his leg off the chair and placed his feet against the floor. Mateo was sat up straight in his chair staring holes into Ricky's tanned face.

"I didn't do anything, I stay away from the school." Ricky admitted, but then smirked when he realized what was happening. "What you need me to do?"

"You know me well, Ricky." Mateo admired, leaning back in his chair. "You hear about the baseball tournament?"

"Through the grapevines, yeah." Ricky shrugged one shoulder and threw his hands back behind his head. "Why?"

"Need you to go, too. You're the assistant coach and equipment manager for the weekend." The Mexican man informed. "I'll pay you for it, too. Out of my own pocket."

Ricky snickered. "I work at a fast food joint, I'll have to get back at you."

Mateo gave Ricky a serious look that made the Egyptian boy laugh so hard to the point he dropped his hands down and nearly doubled over. Ricky slowly sat up and smiled knowing Mateo must be desperate.

"Alright, alright. I'll be there." Ricky assured him. "Why though?"

"You know these twenty kids are gonna have Danny all over the place. They respect you, fear you. So I need you to handle that for me. Just...make sure they don't go off the wire."

Ricky chuckled sinisterly. "Okay, cool. I'll go. But I'm serious about taking the weekend off at the fast food joint. Need to pay for my apartment some how. It's either that or I'm selling drugs."

Mateo glared at him as he pushed his chair to the black cabinet a few feet from his desk. "I'm gonna pretend like you didn't say that."

Ricky shrugged. "All the best men sell." He winked

Mateo glared at him again, but this time it was a more serious one. "Again, don't tell Manny that. She finds out, they won't find you at the bottom of the ocean."

Ricky held his hands up in defense while he jumped up from his spot in the chair and left the office so he could leave. He said a quick goodbye to Victor and Sam, who both were genuine with theirs back.

~**~

Thursday afternoon, after school was let out for the day and baseball practice was called early, Manny and Clover decided to spend the rest of the day at the mall to spend some time alone.

The two girls were sitting in the food court with their bags of items they'd bought from multiple stores over the last 40 minutes. Manny giggled as she bit into the pretzel she was eating.

"So, he's going to move to California with you?" Manny asked, listening to Clover explain what her and Dante were going to do. "How long are you two gonna live there?"