Quince Clash (2 page)

Grandma Trini clapped cheerfully as Santiago dressed, then tossed him a pair of snakeskin boots to complete the vaquero look.

“Ay, mira,”
she purred, elbowing Abuelita Alpha. “So handsome, no? He looks just like Alejandro Fernandez.”

“But shorter and dumber,” Abuelita Alpha added, frowning with her arms crossed in front of her chest. “We better go before the nurse comes back and wants us to pay for the plastic water pitcher and cups you have in your purse,” she added to Grandma Trini.

“I didn't …” Trini blushed. “
Ayyy
, well, they don't need it anyway. They have so many. They won't even miss it,” she dismissed, holding tightly to her big, sparkly bag.

Fabi stood at the entrance, looking down the hallway. Was everyone's family this crazy? “Okay, guys, the coast is clear. Let's go before anyone notices.”

The five of them walked out of the clinic. At four in the morning, even that large a group didn't stir up much notice, especially when Santiago's glittery cowboy attire was all the rage in South Texas.

But they didn't quite reach the door.

“Excuse me!” a nurse called out, catching up to them outside the lobby. She was a young Filipina woman with an accent. Fabi and the grandmas smiled and acted surprised. The nurse handed Santiago a clipboard with the release forms that he had to sign.

Alexis pinched Fabi softly on her side. “You always assume the worst,” she whispered.

Fabi hated to admit that her little sister was right. She did always assume the worst. But she had good reason. Every time life seemed to go her way, like her quinceañera trip to New York City, someone or something would happen to ruin her plans. Although Fabi had forgiven her little sister for getting her in trouble, their father still held Fabi responsible for her sister's actions. Her dad was big on building character and believed that sacrifice and hard work were the keys to success. That's why he kept Fabi close to his apron strings — as an example. Now there was definitely no chance that she would go anywhere for the remainder of her teen years. Fabi was counting the days until she graduated high school and went away to college.

But for now she'd settle for getting out of this hospital and back to bed.

S
omething was up. Fabi felt the hairs rise on the back of her neck and shivered, even though the school marquee told her it was 90 degrees. That couldn't be a good thing, she thought. She watched in shock as Santiago grabbed his backpack from behind the car seat and followed Alexis and her into Dos Rios High School. The parking lot was crowded with trucks and SUVs parking or dropping off students. Usually, Santiago had some excuse as to why he couldn't go to school. But this time, he climbed the steps with them. He smoothed his curly locks out of his face as if he were nervous about something. Was he called in and going to be suspended? she wondered.

“Where do you think you're going?” Fabi teased.

“Where does it look like I'm going?” He blushed. “To school. I'm still a student, you know. At least, I think I still am.”

Alexis saw a bunch of her friends gathered by the big fountain (which never worked) and ran over to them excitedly. Fabi couldn't help but be happy for her sister's renewed popularity. For a while, Alexis had been taunted and bullied by a couple of football players. They called her a slut and bragged that she did all kinds of freaky things to them. Alexis's ex, Dex Andrews, had not only tried to ruin her reputation but had also tried to frame Santiago for a crime he didn't commit. But when Alexis helped Fabi prove Santiago's innocence, everyone at school realized that Dex was a lying bully. His family quietly transferred him to a military school near San Antonio. Alexis was remarkably thick-skinned, and in no time at all, things had gone back to normal.

Fabi and Santiago continued their walk into the school together. Just inside the doors, Fabi turned to her cousin, who had stopped abruptly. He looked a bit overwhelmed by the crowd of loud, unruly students in the hall. She was not used to seeing him like this. Santiago was normally a smooth, borderline cocky, charismatic trendsetter.

“You okay?”

Santiago gave her one of his disarming smiles. “'Course I am. It's just been a while, you know, since I've been here so early. I think I forgot where my first period is.” He laughed at himself.

“Santi!” a chorus of girls called out at once. The cousins turned to see three girls rush up toward them. It was Violet, Mona, and Noelia. The petite trio was dressed in matching preppy outfits and flower barrettes like some girl band. In a flash, their hands were all over Santiago, playing with his curly locks and touching his arms, back, and chest. The three girls had been friends since elementary school. Even then, the three were boy crazy.

“Did I hear you say you're lost?” Violet said, touching his arm.

“Don't you remember that we have home-room together?” Mona cut in, elbowing her friend.

“I'll take you,” Noelia piped up as she slipped her arm into the crook of Santiago's arm.

“I'll take you, too,” added Violet, taking his other arm. Noelia and Violet led him down the busy corridor as the bell rang.

“Hey,” Mona called after them. She turned to Fabi and inquired softly, “I heard that Maria Elena was sent to a convent in Monterrey. Is it true?”

Fabi shrugged, smiling to herself. Everything was definitely back to normal.

 

At lunch, Fabi caught up to her friend Milo in the lunch line. Students were skipping ahead of him, but he didn't seem to mind or notice. Milo was not from South Texas, and it was obvious by the way he dressed in his oversize coat, Adidas sneakers, and retro red glasses. He was nodding to himself, lost in his own world, totally absorbed in some new song he'd found, and bouncing softly to the beat. Fabi grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him.

Milo smiled, pulling out his earphones. “Hey, you have to listen to this song I just discovered by this French DJ. Check it out.”

Fabi held the headphones to her ear. The music was fast and good for dancing, with electronic beats. But it also sounded like every other song Milo raved about. Her stomach started to growl. “Hey, let's get lunch before they run out of the fruit plate.”

They grabbed their trays and headed to the food counter. Fabi turned away from most of the cuisine: chili cheese nachos, chocolate chip cookies, mac and cheese — Milo's favorites. But Milo was a short skinny kid who never gained a pound. Fabi was into eating healthy. She wished they had a salad bar like at her best friend's high school. But Georgia Rae was in McAllen, a real city. Dos Rios was a decade behind the rest of the country. They were surrounded by farms and had a large population of migrant workers who worked the fields up and down the country, but there was no place to buy organic produce in the neighborhood. Being a vegetarian was a constant struggle at school and at home — especially since her family ran Garza's, a traditional Mexican restaurant.

“Daddy said I can have a quinceañera if I really want to,” an annoying voice said behind her. “We already booked the McAllen Convention Center. And my dress is
so
cute. You're so going to love it. I designed it myself. It's a black-and-white strapless dress. My mom got the best fashion designer in Austin to make it. He was real expensive. But my mom says you only turn fifteen once.”

Fabi didn't have to turn around to know who was behind her. Melodee Stanton, head of the Dos Rios dance squad, was the most annoying girl at school. Her horde of worshipers swore her tweets were gospel. Fabi had hoped that their relationship would improve after Melodee (secretly) helped her prove Santiago's innocence earlier that fall. But Melodee was on no one's side. She only cared about herself. The best thing for Fabi was just to stay away from her. Besides, Melodee
enjoyed
making other girls' lives miserable.

Fabi leaned over the counter. “Excuse me,” she said to the lunch server. “Is there any more of the cottage cheese and fresh fruit platter?”

“Fresh fruit?” Melodee echoed mockingly behind her. “Some people just don't know when to give up.”

Fabi jerked back. “What's that supposed to mean?”

Melodee continued talking loudly to her friends, ignoring Fabi's comment. “If I looked like that, I'd just stop eating, period.”

Fabi could feel tears welling, but she held them back. That's exactly what Melodee wanted. She enjoyed pushing people's buttons. It gave her power. So Fabi bit back her hurt and left the lunch line.

She rushed over to her sister's table. Alexis was eating her lunch with a couple of her friends.

“Are you okay?” Alexis asked, sensing something was up.

Fabi tried to smile. “Yeah, it's cool.”

“Aren't you going to eat?” Alexis motioned at the french fries, chili cheese dog, bag of cookies, and soda on her tray. Fabi had left her lunch tray at the counter.

“I lost my appetite.”

“Hey.” Milo joined them, holding two lunch trays. “You left this,” he said, offering her the tray with green peas and milk. Milo was so considerate, she thought, looking at the food he got for her.

“What happened?” Alexis demanded. She glanced back at the line and noticed Melodee with her gang.

“It was nothing.” Fabi just wanted to end the conversation.

“Don't let her get under your skin,” Alexis said, trying to sound braver than she actually was. “Melodee is a psycho loser who is just jealous because she has zero personality. The only reason she has friends is because they're all scared of her.” Alexis had experienced Melodee's wrath firsthand when she dated Dex — who was Melodee's ex-boyfriend.

Fabi sighed heavily. “You're right. She's not even that pretty up close, you know? With that little beak nose of hers that she always has in the air like she smells caca or something, and those beady eyes all smudged over with charcoal eye shadow like a raccoon!”

“Totally!” Alexis laughed.

Trash-talking about Melodee felt good. Melodee thought she was so tough, but she was just a bully. “You should have heard her in the lunch line,” Fabi said, nodding to Milo for confirmation. “She was all talking about her quinceañera, how big it's going to be, how much of her parents' money she's going to spend. The girl is a serious poseur. She's not even Mexican!”

A coughing sound made Fabi look over her shoulder. Her breath caught and she swallowed. Melodee Stanton was standing right behind her. Melodee's pulled-back blonde hair and smoky eye shadow made her piercing gray eyes look especially evil. Fabi wanted to curl into a ball and roll away. Melodee was making a big foul face. Her lunch tray was pressed against her hip. The chatter in the lunchroom died down to an eerie silence. Everyone stopped to listen.

“So, Fatty apparently does have a spine after all,” Melodee said.

Fabi looked around, feeling the heat rise to her cheeks.

“What? Don't look away. You were talking smack behind my back. Now what? You've lost your tongue? You got something to tell me? Tell it to my face.”

“Ah, I'm sorry,” Fabi began, getting up to explain that it was all just a joke.

“You're sorry? I'm the one who's sorry. I'm sorry for saving your sorry-ass cousin. This is the thanks I get. Forget you're
sorry
.” Melodee pushed the tray into Fabi, trying to rile her up.

Alexis scurried around the table. “Get your stinky hands off my sister,” she cried.

Melodee laughed. “Oh, how cute,” she said to her crew. “Little sister has to stick up for poor Fatty.”

One of Melodee's crew cheered, “Yeah, Melodee, you tell her.”

“Oh, shut up!” Alexis snapped.

“Alexis, stop,” Fabi said, trying to keep her sister out of it. “Milo, help me,” she said as she pulled her sister away. But she also knew Alexis had just as much right to be mad at Melodee.

Melodee sneered. “Yeah, Milo, hold back your loser girlfriend's sister before she gets hurt.” She turned back to Fabi. “So when did you become Ms. Quinceañera Expert, huh?” Her friends chuckled at Melodee's joke. “Oh, wait, I forgot. You're already fifteen and didn't have a quinceañera. Couldn't afford it, could you? It must suck to be poor.”

“That's not true!” cried Alexis.

“Oh, no,” Melodee said, pressing her pinky fingertip to her mouth in a fake surprised expression.

“Alexis —” Fabi had to try to defuse the situation that Alexis was making worse. She couldn't care less about quinceañeras. She just had to get out of there.

“For your information, Fabi is having a quinceañera,” Milo stated. Fabi felt like she was going to choke.

“Yeah!” Alexis agreed. “And it's going to be the biggest
pachanga
ever.”

Melodee looked Fabi up and down and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right.”

“It is,” Milo exclaimed. “We got the hottest band.”

“Yeah, who?” Melodee snapped. She shook her head. “No, my quinceañera is going to be the biggest party in the Valley.”

“Oh, really?” Alexis said. “Well, we're just going to have to see about that. All I know is, we turned down the convention center because it was too small.”

“Guys,”
Fabi hissed between clenched teeth.

“Too small?” Melodee began to laugh, but then stopped. She stared Fabi in the eyes, as if trying to drill a hole to the truth. “All right,” she said with a nod. “You think your quince will be better than mine? It's on. You and me.” She pointed to Fabi. “We'll have a quinceañera competition. And everyone here will vote.”

Melodee turned to talk to the crowd. “You got that, everyone? You're all invited and you will vote for the best quinceañera. The loser has to —”

Fabi gulped.

“Shave her head,” Milo suggested. Fabi elbowed him to shut up.

“Be the winner's servant for a week,” Alexis said.

“Hey,” Santiago called out from behind them.
When did he get here?
Fabi wondered. “Why not do both? Bald chicks are hot.” He gave Fabi a wink.

“Guys.” Fabi rolled her eyes and slapped her sister on the arm. “You're not helping.”

Melodee smiled wickedly. It made Fabi cringe like there were hundreds of spiders crawling up her body. “The loser,” Melodee stated loud enough for everyone to hear, “must be a
bald slave
for a
whole week
and do whatever the winner says.” Melodee turned her devilish grin right at Fabi and declared, “This is going to be the best quinceañera battle in history. I hope you're ready.”

Fabi felt the blood drain from her face. She never wanted a quinceañera in the first place. Now she had to have one — and not just any quinceañera. Fabi had to have the biggest, best quince the Valley had ever seen.

Looking around the cafeteria at the sea of bobbing faces, Fabi started to feel queasy. She wasn't sure if she was going to faint or barf.