To Know Him

part one

In the blistering heat, in a small town outside of Dallas, Texas, Gloria sat at her school desk watching the clock at the front of the classroom ticking down to three o' clock. Summer was about to start at any second and being a senior so was the rest of her life. High school would soon be a thing of her past. Gloria slowly gathered her notebooks together and began inching out of her seat as her history teacher droned on to the last possible second. As soon as the bell rang she was the first one out her seat but before she could reach the door, Mr. Hines called for her to stay behind. She sighed lightly before turning on her black t-strapped Maryjane's and politely smiled at him as she approached his desk.

"I was just wondering," Mr. Hines said crossing his arms, "if you were still needing a recommendation letter for UT?" He leaned back in his chair.

"Isn't it too late Mr. Hines?" Gloria raised a brow.

"It's never too late. It'd be a shame to let your smarts go to waste."

"I'll have to talk to my father again... He has plans for me to work with him in the church."

Mr. Hines frowned. "Forgive me if this is rude but do you want to work as Pastor Castillo's secretary your whole life? I'd hate for you to-"

"I'll talk to him again Mr. Hines, I promise."

"Okay, fine," he scribbled his phone number on a sheet of notepaper and handed it to her. "Have a good summer, Gloria. And when you make a decision, please call. I'll have your letter at the ready."

"Thank you, Mr. Hines I will."

"It's 1959, ya know. Times are changing, you should take advantage of it, be a shame if you let it pass you by."
...

When Gloria walked out the school building the Texan sun beat down on her as the sweet feeling of relief washed over her. She didn't particularly hate school it was just that it became mundane as she was far too ahead of her class. Too often did she sit at her desk bored, finished with her work and doodling on the edges of her notebook waiting for her classmates to catch up.

Her girlfriends Rita and Marty were waiting at their usual after school meet-up. The water fountain in front of the school with a Robert E. Lee iron bust at the center inelegantly spewing water from the top of its head.

"What took you so long?" Rita said to her tossing her red pigtails behind her shoulders.

"Buncha junior boys showing off their paddles to each other in the way," Gloria shrugged her lie off.

"Well, you ready to get rid of these?" Marty said holding up her notebooks. "On three?"

The girls counted together and on three they tossed their books in the air, watching the loose papers slip out and rain down gently into the water while their notebooks plummeted, making a splash, water hitting them as they laughed in glee.

They scurried off quickly before an administrator could come to tell them off for the mess when Gloria was shoulder bumped by a tall girl with dark hair. She began to apologize but fell silent when the girl gave her a dark piercing glare with her charcoal liner rimmed pale blue eyes. She whipped her head forward and stomped off hopping onto the back of a motorcycle.

"Jeez, what's her deal she ran into me," Gloria said to her friends.

"Ah, she's a Saint or... at least all her brothers are." Marty said sparking up a cigarette that she often stole from her mothers' pack of Camel's in the morning.

"So that guy that picks her up is her brother?" Rita asked reaching for Marty's cigarette for a puff. " I thought it was her boyfriend?"

"Nope, that's her brother Gus. And I swear! I only know this because sometimes they come to my brother for motor parts. I don't care for them they're trash."