Chapter Four

After dropping off Linda’s ice cream, Mom and I play cards, our Friday night tradition, until Nick comes home from work. Covered in splotches of marinara sauce, Nick walks in smelling like yummy garlic. These are the perks of his part-time job at a pizza restaurant. That and the occasional breadsticks.

“Hola!” he says, tossing his name tag onto the counter. I notice that it says NICOLAS instead of Nick. I hold the name tag in my hands like evidence in a detective show.

“Nicolas?” I point at the name tag. “But you go by Nick.”

I don’t bother to mention that I used to call him Kiki. That’s when I was really little and couldn’t pronounce his name.

“Oh, they just made the name tag based on my application. I thought I’d try it out. Sounds kind of cool.”

“Weird,” I reply.

He messes up my curls. “You’re weird.”

Mom chuckles. “How was work, niño?”

“Fun. My friend John and I did a competition to see who could make the most pizzas tonight. He barely won.”

Nick starts stretching. He’s been taking karate classes. That is one reason he has a part-time job. He wanted to pay for them. Because of the classes, he stretches all the time. The bigger reason is that Nick wants to save up money to buy a car one day. It sounds very impressive and hard. He’s going to have to make many pizzas. I’ve seen game shows and I know how expensive cars can be.

“Well, I found out that I’m going to the Shedd Aquarium summer camp,” I say proudly.

“Way to go, sis!” Nick replies, while trying to do splits.

Standing back up, Nick says, “Mom, I was thinking.”

“Yes?”

“Do you think I could start driving lessons soon? I’ll be fifteen next month. I’m going to need to learn how to drive if I’m going to get a car.”

“Posiblemente. Let’s see how much they are.”

I look at Mom. She quietly gulps. I bet she’s thinking the same thing I am. Nick is turning fifteen years old. That sounds so old. Not as old as my abuelo, but pretty grown-up.

“But why do you need to drive?” I ask. “You can walk and ride your bike.”

“Yeah, but then I could drive us to school or maybe do pizza delivery. There are some older kids at the shop who do that. They say they make even more money delivering than just making pizzas. Especially delivering at the big houses.”

Nick then pretends to drive with a couch pillow as his steering wheel. “Vroom, vroom,” he says, dashing around the living room. “See, I’d be a great driver.”

I roll my eyes. He’s not that mature.

Nick looks over at me and winks. “Want a ride?”

He gives me a piggyback ride around the living room. I laugh so hard that I can barely breathe as he zips around. I guess it’s good that Nick isn’t too mature to have fun. When he drops me off on the couch, he adds, “Don’t forget to rate me and give a big tip!”

“Five stars,” I reply, still giggling.

Before going to bed, I go up to Pancho in my room. He swims in his fishbowl happily when he sees me.

“I’m glad I don’t have to worry about you changing or wanting to be named Francisco instead of Pancho. You always stay the same.”

I turn off the lights.

“Buenas noches, my fish friend.”