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chapter one your shoe's untied
DANIELLA looked out the window of the living room watching a few girls from her block swimming in an inflated pool across her house. The girls wore bright smiles and laughed for awhile with each other. She noticed a few boys passing by them and most girls put up a front acting as if they hadn't seen them. The girls just seemed like a fun group of girls to be with.
Daniella turned away from the window going back to fold her family's clothes feeling lonely. It wasn't the girls fault, they've asked her multiple times if she would want to hang out with them. It wasn't that she didn't because she did. Every time they'd ask her she'd get excited and would ask her parents if she could. But every time she'd ask it would be the same answer, 'no daniella, uno nunca sabe.' So because of that the girls would slowly stop going to her house to ask because they'd know the answer already.
"Nope! I'm not walking that dog ever again." Jesus announced to his mother as he grabbed a fork from the kitchen cabinet.
"Chuy! I don't want any pee in this house. Llévalo a caminar, pero ya!" Amira, their mother, demanded for his son to take the dog for a walk.
Daniella finished folding the clothes and put everything in baskets heading to the kitchen. "I can walk him."
Jesus raised his eyebrow at his younger sister, "You sure?" He asked, "I'm telling you Oso is the Tasmanian devil, he tries to jump on anyone and bark at everything."
"That's because Oso doesn't like you." Daniella replied grabbing the leash from the table.
Jesus scoffed, "Yeah, that's why."
Daniella shook her head walking away from her brother and looking for their new puppy they had just gotten last week. "Oso!" The golden retriever jumped up from his bed hearing his name and running towards the 16 year old girl. "Amonos."
Daniella turned left wondering why her brother hated walking their dog. When it came to Daniella, Oso would remain calm the whole time and obey. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw who was outside of Vincent's Drug Store. Benny Rodriguez laughed with his friends as they were probably waiting for one of the boys to come out of the store. She observed him for a bit, wondering how this boy could ever exist and live in her town. The town where no one really reached their goals and with the big dreams he had, she just wondered if he was going to succeed and live the life he's always wanted.
Daniella pulled on Oso's leash to stop him from walking any further. The pup whined at her probably wondering why she stopped him. "Look, Oso, we're going to have to pass by that group of boys and the boy in the dark blue hat with the white t-shirt—well I kind of like him. But he doesn't know I exist and we're going to keep it that way, okay? So please don't embarrass me." Daniella spoke acting as if her dog was a human understanding every word she told him. "Let me just tie my shoe really quick."
Oso watched his owner bend down to tie her shoe and at the exact moment she loosened her grip on the leash, the dog used all his effort to run off. Daniella's heart quickened as she looked up to see Oso running free surprising people and causing them to get mad. Daniella realized in a few seconds Oso was running exactly to where she told him not to. Quickly getting up she yelled after him, "Oso!" But before she could reach her dog to stop him the dog had reached someone.
Benny had turned to see who yelled Oso and before he knew it, he was on the ground with a puppy licking his face. The boys around him laughed at their friend on the floor as Daniella rushed to get her dog. Benny chuckled sitting up from the ground petting the cute dog who wiggled his tail at him. "Oso! Get off him!" Daniella yelled arriving to her dog, "I'm so sorry!"
"It's okay—" Benny replied back stopping mid sentence as he looked up to see who the owner was. He went quiet for a few seconds admiring the girl with the lose side braid and worried expression on her face. A smile slowly curved on his lips making Daniella very anxious and nervous over the fact that her crush was just staring at her. "Your shoe's untied." He stated pointing at her left shoe.
"Oh," Daniella quickly crouched down to tie her shoe as Benny got himself up standing on his feet while carrying the puppy in one arm, "thanks."
Benny nodded, "No problem."
From Daniella's side the tension was awkward as she got up but on Benny's end it seemed like he was in a comfortable situation holding her dog. Daniella started to avoid eye-contact for a few seconds before pointing at her dog, "um, can I have my dog back?"
Benny snapped out of his small trance, "Oh, right, yeah." Benny kneeled down to put Oso down making sure to grab onto the leash and handing it to Daniella.
"Thank you." Daniella spoke quietly shifting her weight onto her right foot. "I'm going to go now." She added walking around Benny and his friends avoiding eye-contact with any of them, "Bye."
Benny watched her walk away and as soon as the boys noticed she was far from them they started teasing the hell out of him.
"Your shoe's untied!" Ham mocked
"Let me tie them for you!" Bertram added
"This man forgot how to speak." Squints spoke, "how the hell do you forget to speak? He was just like it's okay—and started to drool."
Benny turned to his friends, "I was not drooling." He replied wondering for a few seconds if he actually did drool, "Was I actually?"
The sandlot boys started laughing at him, "Do you even know who she is?" Bertram asked
Benny shook his head, "No. I don't think I've ever seen her around. You think she's new?" Benny asked Bertram who stood next to him and shrugged his shoulders.
Kenny chuckled, "She's not new. She's been in all my math classes since freshman year." Benny turned to Kenny for more information who raised his eyebrows in confusion at his friend, "dude she sits behind us in calculus, she also has P.E. with us."
"What the fuck?" Benny stated wondering how on earth he never noticed her before.
Scotty spoke, "and all of you call me the oblivious one."
SPANISH WORDS TRANSLATED
1. no, Daniella, uno nunca sabe translation: no, Daniella, one never knows 2. llévalo a caminar, pero ya! translation: take him for a walk, now! 3. amonos! translation: let's go! 4. oso translation: bear
