Hope °slow updates°

Chapter 2

Present...

I pull out my resume, and check for typos for the millionth times since I got here. Are my margins exactly an inch apart? From the corner of my eye I can see that the receptionist has a ruler. Maybe I should ask her if I can borrow it.

"Martinez, Esperanza?" A voice calls from behind the receptionist's desk causing me to break my eye contact with the ruler. It's a woman, with light brown hair with hints of gray near her hair line. She's wearing a dark purple skirt suit with black pointed toe pumps.

"Yes that's me." I answer getting up almost falling over the bench I was sitting on.

"Follow me." She turns and starts walking.

I scramble to get my things from the bench to follow her. I trip over the large potted plant, and start speed walking to catch up to her. She holds open the door to her office for me. I walk in and wait for her to tell me what to do.

"Have a seat Ms. Martinez." she gestures to a dark gray chair, "I have been reviewing your resume. Very impressive: you graduated from UC Berkeley earned a Bachelor's of Arts in English and another Bachelor's in Art Chicanx Studies with a minor in Creative Writing and to top it off a Master of Arts for Education. I have one question though, how did you wound up here?" She laughs.

I smile,"I actually grew up here in Freeridge, and I graduated back in 2012 from here. I was part of the dual enrolled program at the community college, and took some math and science classes there, so once that I was at Berkeley I was able to focus on my actual major.  If I'm honest,when I was doing my student teaching in Oakland, I realized how much I missed being around my family." I say.

"I was expecting some bullshitted reference to 'Stand and Deliver' about how you want to help out the quote-on-quote less fortunate. I'm glad you didn't answer with that. Well this concludes the interview, the receptionist will gave you a call. I hope to see you in the future Ms. Martinez." I shake her hand and thank her.

As I make my way to the parking lot, I feel a load fall come off my shoulders. I sigh and drag my feet to my car. I turn on my phone, the second it comes to life I'm flooded by texts and voicemails wishing my luck on my interview. I lock it and start my car. I make my way to my aunt and uncle's house where I'm staying for the time being. The last couple of months had been a bit tense for them after Olivia's quince, but slowly they have been pushing through it. Ruby was the most affected out of the most of us since he was madly in love with her. But her parents thought it would be best for her to be with them in Mexico, much to Ruby's dismay.

I was a couple if streets away from their house when a very familiar red Impala cuts me off. I pull up to the side of the street. I didn't see that car correctly. Please, god or whatever is in the universe, please tell me that wasn't Oscar. My hands start to tingle as my heart starts to race. My chest starts to hurt and I feel like I can't breathe. Sweat starts building up in my forehead. I squeezed my eyes shut just as tears trailed down my cheeks. I hug myself hoping that helps. I haven't had a panic attack in a while, and I completely blanked on what to do. A couple of minutes go by, my breathing slowly normalizes. I lean back in to my seat taking a couple of deep breaths. I run my hands through my hair, and pulled it into a ponytail. I grab a makeup wipe from my purse to clean off all the mascara that went down my cheeks.

I mindlessly make my way to my tíos' house. I silently made my walked in hoping nobody would notice me, but unfortunately I was pretty hard to miss being 5'9" and in these heels I was well over 6 feet.

"Mi'ja how was the interview?" my tía calls from the kitchen.

"It went well I think. Aver si me dan el teaching job." I said walking over to her kissing her cheek.