Jamal went wide eyed and looked up at Arcelia from the lunch table. "You and Ruby broke up?!"
Ruby looked up at the mention of his name and looked to Arcelia in confusion. "We did?"
Arcelia smacked her lips and shook her head. "No, Mateo from Childcare got taken away because someone came back and said they melted their baby's face with a blow torch and accidentally ran it over with a skateboard." Arcelia pouted. "I even bought him some onesies."
Jamal stared at Arcelia then shook his head. "Anyways," Jamal started, "Are you guys going to the Valentine's dance?"
Arcelia looked offended when Jamal switched the topic, so Ruby rubbed her back and threw an arm over her shoulders. "Ruby and Jasmine are entering the dance contest."
"Jasmine? Why aren't you doing it with him?"
Arcelia pursed her lips and stared at Monse. "Because I can't dance right when I feel pressured."
"Lies, you just don't want to lose against us." Cesar commented.
Arcelia just glared at Cesar who had an ugly smirk on his face. "Bitch, Oscar tried to teaching you for 5 years and you still can't even bachata. You barely learned how to do the Caballo Dorado last week."
Ruby looked between the two twins and grabbed Arcelia's hand. "Anyways, I called the venue and they said they have 20 round tables with 8 seats each and one long table with enough room for all of us. So, we can organize them and start seating everyone that RSVP'd." Ruby explained to the group, pulling out a folder that had all his notes for Arcelia's quince. "Oh, and I negotiated and got us a limo to take places for pictures."
"Negotiated?"
"Well, yeah. Oscar gave me a budget, so I made sure the limo wasn't too much money." Ruby explained. "Anyways, how are we cleaning the green?"
"Yes. Right now the money as is makes us targets. We need to move quickly to wash the cash so we can use the money and help Cesar survive."
Cesar nodded and aggressively bit into a fry. Arcelia looked at him weirdly and then looked to Jamal who started to talk. "Ok, so where are we meeting?"
After going through everyone's home availability, the group agreed on Ruby's house. "Oh, did you mom get more soup bowls?" Arcelia asked, leaning over on Ruby and nudging him with her elbow.
× × ×
After school, everyone walked to Ruby's house and while the group sat at the table, Arcelia was in the kitchen, watching the microwave rotate her noodles. The microwave beeped, so Arcelia took out the bowl and went out to the table after adding her lemom and Tapatio.
When Arcelia sat down, Ruby opened his blue notebook and everyone started laughing, but Cesar stopped when he saw "Arcelia ✔❤" and everything at the bottom scribbled out. "Wait whe-"
"No time!" Arcelia exclaimed, turning the page for Ruby and avoiding Cesar's gaze.
"Okay, team! We have 37-year-old cash that we can't spend without raising eyebrows. And we've all seen Breaking Bad."
Abuelita started counting her money outloud and Ruby went off until Arcelia hit him. "What if we start our own business?"
"Why can't we just use Jamal's dad? He literally owns a business."
Jamal shook his head, then everyone looked to Arcelia when she slurped some noodles. "My dad's super particular about the books. It would never work."
Jamal started arguing with Ruby about how the money is more serious than Ruby's "moral obligation" to Jasmine, and Arcelia just watched them as she ate. "You know what? I'm calling it for today. Let's reconvene tomorrow after a good night's sleep."
Short lil baby... like Ruby 😗 I didn't realize how off-script I went until today.
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