After school on Wednesday, Naomi Martinez walked over to the freshman area of the Chavez campus. The yogurt shop across the street was having a special on frozen mango and peach yogurt, two for the price of one. Naomi’s little sister, Angel Roma, had enjoyed it so much before, Naomi was springing for another trip.
“Hi, Angel,” Naomi called out cheerily when she saw the girl.
Angel broke from the girls she was with and hurried toward Naomi. “Hi, Naomi,” she replied. Usually she took the school bus to her home on Finch Street. But today Naomi was taking her home in her car. Naomi had gotten her mother’s permission the day before. On the short walk to the yogurt shop, Angel remarked, “You’re so fun, Naomi. I’m so glad you’re my big sister!”
“I’m glad to have a little sister like you, Angel,” Naomi responded. “You know, I have three brothers and no sisters at all. I always wanted a sister, but instead I got three big jerky brothers. But I love them. Still, now I got my sister, too.”
Angel was an attractive fourteen-yearold, but she wasn’t beautiful. She had pretty dark eyes and long lashes. Though only fourteen, she was already almost as tall as Naomi. She had been put on the at-risk list at Chavez because of some truancy and rebellious behavior. So she was someone at risk of dropping out of school.
The girls ordered their yogurts and sat down at a table.
“You know, Naomi,” Angel commented as she took a spoonful of her yogurt. “My grandma’s sick. She has this Parkinson’s disease, and it’s so awful. I mean, I love my grandma, but I hate it when I have to take her for walks like every day after school. She kinda shuffles along real weird like, and she holds on to me. The doctor says exercise is real important for Grandma, so she needs to walk every day. Mom works, and Grandpa doesn’t get home till late, so I’m stuck with it. The only reason I could be with you today is ’cause Grandpa said he’d get home as soon as he could.”
“Well, that’s a big responsibility for you, Angel,” Naomi agreed.
“Some kids in my class come on our street,” Angel continued, “and they snicker and say mean things. I’m so embarrassed. They go, ‘There goes Angel and her zombie grandma. Maybe Angel’s a zombie too.’ They’re so mean, Naomi. They make fun of me at school too. They ask me if I’m gonna get Parkinson’s disease pretty soon too. And then they say I’ll for sure be a zombie like Grandma. I hate those girls so much. Sometimes they walk behind me at school trying to imitate how Grandma walks. The other kids laugh and laugh and . . . ” Angel poked hard at the yogurt, her eyes suddenly filling with tears.
“Kids can be so awful sometimes,” Naomi remarked. She was shocked at what she was hearing, but she kept her voice calm. “I’m really sorry that’s happening to you, Angel.”
“Naomi, I wish I didn’t have to go to school at all,” Angel confessed.
“You have to, Angel,” Naomi insisted. “You need the education so you can graduate and get a good job and have a nice future.” Naomi had lost her appetite for the mango peach yogurt, even though it was delicious. She picked at it, taking only tiny bites.
The girl was silent for a few moments, and then she spoke. “If I tell you something really, really evil, Naomi, will you hate me forever? Will you stop being my big sister?”
Naomi turned numb. “Of course not, Angel,” she answered.
“Sometimes I wish Grandma wouldn’t be there anymore,” Angel confided. Her dark eyes had grown even larger and darker. “That she’d die or something.” After the girl said it, she looked frightened. “I must be a terrible, awful person to think stuff like that, huh, Naomi?”
“Maybe this is the ‘something else going on’ that I suspected,” Naomi thought without saying so out loud. Then she spoke carefully to her little sister.
“No, Angel, you don’t really mean it. It’s a big burden for a young girl like you to be taking care of someone that disabled. In your heart, you don’t want your grandma to die. You just want that burden to go away. You’re scared. We sometimes have awful thoughts rushing through our minds. How we feel is not our fault.”
“Did you ever in your whole life have such a bad ugly thought, Naomi? I bet you never did. You’re so sweet and nice.” Tears ran down Angel’s cheeks. “You never had an evil idea . . . ”
“Ah yes, Angel, I did,” Naomi told the girl. “I had job once where I was really scared. I worked at a frozen yogurt shop, and I loved working there. But an old man owned the restaurant, and I was so terrified of him. When he stayed away for a long time, I was hoping he had died. He was very old, and I would have been happy if I never had to deal with him again. Looking back, I realized that I didn’t really want him to be dead. I was just so glad to be rid of the problem.”
“Did he die?” Angel asked, her eyes wider than ever. Naomi could understand her tears and her guilt. Angel was thinking that her bad thoughts about her grandmother might actually cause her to die and that her death would be Angel’s fault.
“No,” Naomi answered. “But he went away to a hospital, and I never saw him again.”
The girls finished their yogurts in silence. Then, as they walked from the shop, Angel commented, “Grandma has this funny way of talking too. It’s like slurred or something. Some girl from my class heard it. Now when she sees me at school, she imitates Grandma, just to make fun of me.”
“Angel,” Naomi asked, “do you have any nice girls in your class who are friends with you? When I was your age, a freshman at Chavez, there were mean girls too. But I had this little group of friends who stuck by me. They helped me make it through. It was us against the world. We need friends so much. It’s hard to face the world alone.”
“I have one friend,” Angel responded. “She’s really, really nice. She stands up for me. Sometimes she yells at the mean girls and threatens them. I like her a lot. Her name is Penelope.”
Naomi only knew one Penelope in the freshman class. “Penelope Ruiz?” she asked. That had to be Abel Ruiz’s little sister.
“Yeah,” Angel said, brightening. “Do you know her?”
“Yeah,” Naomi replied. “Well, I know her big brother, Abel, real well. He’s one of my best friends. He’s my boyfriend’s very best friend, and we all like Penelope.”
“Sometimes Penelope’s brother picks her up at school,” Angel remarked. “But Penny said they fight a lot.”
“Yeah,” Naomi said. “Brothers and sisters fight sometimes, but deep down they love each other. Abel would do anything to help Penny if she needed it.”
“Naomi, I never told anybody how much I hate walking with Grandma,” Angel admitted as they reached the car.
“Well, I’m glad you shared your story with me, Angel,” Naomi assured the girl. “When something is bothering you, it helps to tell somebody else instead of keeping it all bottled up inside. When you just keep it inside, it’s like putting a lid on a kettle of boiling water. If you don’t take the lid off, it kinda explodes.”
Angel looked sorrowful as she got in the car. “It’s not Grandma’s fault that she’s sick like that. Grandma is only sixty-three years old, she sighed. “I mean, that’s old and stuff, but not really, really old. Most people aren’t sick like that when they’re sixty-three. Grandma gets real depressed sometimes, and that makes me feel worse.”
“Angel, just try to be nice to your grandma,” Naomi advised. “Don’t pay any attention to those mean girls. They’re bullies. When you ignore bullies, sometimes they stop bothering you. It’s more fun for bullies to taunt somebody they can hurt. You just hang with Penelope. And you and I’ll plan some fun things, Angel. We’ll go to the Safari Park some weekend. Would you like that?”
“Yeah!” Angel cried.
Naomi drove over to Finch Street. As the girls arrived at the door, Mr. Jesse Davila opened it.
“Hi, Grandpa!” Angel greeted. “This is Naomi Martinez, my new big sister.”
Mr. Davila smiled at Naomi. “I know this young lady, Angel. She’s one of the best students in my class,” he responded.
Angel gave Naomi a hug and hurried inside the house. Mr. Davila remained at the door for a moment. “Naomi,” he said sincerely to her, “it’s a really lovely thing you’re doing. It means so much to my granddaughter. Ernesto Sandoval is a splendid young man to have come up with this program for children under stress.”
Naomi thanked the man but didn’t know what else to say. After a moment, he smiled, went inside, and closed the door behind him.
Before going home, Naomi texted Abel Ruiz: “My little sister really likes Penelope. Angel says Penny is her best friend.”
As Naomi was pulling into her own driveway on Bluebird Street, her phone rang. It was Abel.
“Hey, Naomi, I’m glad the kid has a friend,” he said. “Guess what? My magnificent brother, Tomás, is coming to visit for the weekend. Mom’s ecstatic. It’s like the King of the Universe is coming. I think I’ll hang out with Bobby Padilla.”
“Well,” Naomi advised, “try to be nice.”
“I’ll do my best,” Abel replied.
At lunch at Cesar Chavez High the next day, to asked Abel how it was going with little brother Bobby Padilla.
“Great,” Abel responded. “I really like the kid. We kinda click. I never got along with Tomás, and Penelope and I fight a lot. But you know, you guys? Penelope said somethin’ last night that made me feel sorry for the kid. Penny said she was havin’ a hard time making friends at Chavez, and so far she had just one friend.” Abel turned to Naomi, “Angel Roma, the girl you took on as a big sister.”
Naomi turned to the other kids in the group and explained. “Angel and I had frozen yogurt yesterday, and she said she really liked Penelope.”
They all went back to munching their lunches for a few seconds.
“Heard anything more about the vandalism?” Ernesto asked after a while. “I’ve seen some stupid tweets but nothing solid.”
“The police are investigating,” Naomi remarked. “But I don’t think it’s priority number one. I mean, they have a lot of serious crimes to deal with. Spray painting dirty words in a high school library is probably on the back burner.”
“Yeah,” Abel agreed. “Some nut probably just blowing steam about something. There’s plenty goin’ on in school to be angry about.”
Abel took a small bite of his sandwich, chewed, and swallowed. He had more to say. “I was hanging with Paul and his brother, David, last night. David said the closest thing to being in prison is to be stuck in school with the bullies and the freaks that you can’t get away from. I mean, some guy whacks you, waddya you gonna do? Complain to the teachers? That gets you in worse trouble. I tell Coach Muñoz that some dude put a lotta hurt on me. Coach is gonna give me a look that says, ‘Hey, you’re almost a man, dude. Handle it.’ Now down at the Sting Ray if the nutty busboy decks me with a frying pan, I call the cops. But in school, how come we’re supposed to take the abuse? I don’t get it.”
“It’s not only boys, Abel,” Naomi commented sadly. “Angel Roma is really getting harassed by some mean girls. They taunt her when she goes walking with her disabled grandma. The poor kid is really stressed out.”
“Oh yeah,” Abel added. “She told Penny about that. One time, Penny even saw it going on. These two losers were stumbling down the street, pretending they were zombies. They were imitating Angel and her grandmother. Penny went after them with a huge palm frond. You know, the ones that fall off the Washington palms. They took off running.”
When Abel Ruiz got home that night, his mother was frantically cleaning the house for her elder son’s visit.
“Gosh, Mom,” Abel remarked, “you think Tomás’ll have a stroke if there’s dust on toppa the doors?”
“Don’t be sarcastic, Abel,” Mrs. Ruiz commanded. “I want my son to come home to a nice, clean house. He’s very particular. When he was living at home, his room was always so clean and neat.” Mom smirked at Abel. “Unlike yours, which looks like a tornado has struck.”
Penelope was lounging in a leather chair in the living room. “Mom, you know that boy at school I said I liked, but he didn’t like me?” she asked. “Well, does he ever not like me. I walked up to him today and asked him if he’d like to eat lunch with me. He just goes, ‘You’re so fat, you should be skipping lunch, girl.’ He actually said that. I was just totally sick, Mom. Am I really that fat?”
“No, you’re not, Penny,” Mom assured her, but in a scolding voice. “But you do eat too much candy. It wouldn’t hurt you to skip the candy bars for a while. Did you know Tomás won’t even touch candy? When he’s hungry, he eats a carrot stick.” Mrs. Ruiz carefully dusted the top of the piano.
“I’m sick to death of hearing about him, Mom,” Penelope snarled.
Abel glanced at his sister and whispered in a voice that Penelope could hear but not their mother. “You and me both, kid.”
“I don’t understand you and your brother, Penelope,” Mom declared. “I would think you’d be so proud of your older brother. He’s just been awarded the honor of being the top student in the sophomore class at college. He said they gave him this marvelous parchment in a walnut frame. We should all be proud of him.”
“You know what, Mom,” Abel suggested. “I think the U.S. Constitution should be amended to let us have a king. Then Tomás could be king.”
Abel and Penelope’s father, Sal Ruiz, heard the comment and laughed. He worked at menial jobs landscaping for his wife’s cousin. He had just entered the room, grimy and not smelling very good.
“For heaven’s sake,” Mrs. Ruiz cried, “will you change your clothes and shower, Sal? Tomás will be here in less than two hours.” When Mr. Ruiz disappeared down the hall to clean up, Mom shook her head. “It’s nothing less than a miracle that a boy like Tomás came from this family with a father like that,” she lamented.
A little later, when Penelope and Abel were alone in the living room, Penelope made a confession. She rarely confided in Abel but she told him, “I hate school. Angel Roma and I both hate it. The mean girls make fun of Angel because of her grandmother. And they make fun of me ’cause I’m fat. I wish I never had to go to school again.”
“You’re not fat, Penny,” Abel told her. “I bet that creep who said you were fat really likes you, and he hates to admit it. Guys sometimes treat chicks bad ’cause they like ’em. Especially guys that age. Hey, school’s a creepy place for most of us.”
“Yeah, I don’t blame whoever it was who sprayed the library walls,” Penelope said.
“My little brother, Bobby, he said he thinks he knows who did it,” Abel stated.
“I’m not telling you, Penny,” Abel replied. “You’d text it to everybody, and maybe it’s not even true. Anyway, Bobby thinks it was a freshman who’s in trouble with his history teacher, Mr. Lucas. Lucas is supposed to be tough, and this dude is always bein’ sent to the principal.”
“Yeah, I’ve got Lucas,” Penelope remarked. “He’s an ogre. The boys in that room are really bad. They talk all the time when Mr. Lucas is talking. They’re mean too. That punk who said I was fat—Rocky Salcedo—maybe he did it. Yeah, he’d do something like that.” Deep bitterness filled Penelope’s voice. “I’d love to see him busted for something.”
Penelope turned pensive. “You know, there was a real nice older guy who liked me a while back. We met on Facebook. His name was Max Costa. He even gave me a ride to school. But then he just disappeared.”
Abel focused intently on his laptop. He didn’t want his facial expression to betray what happened to Max Costa. Abel knew all about the guy. Abel had found out that some older guy was hitting on his little sister. He and his friends tracked him down and scared him off. Paul Morales and Cruz Lopez learned that the guy was nineteen, even though he said he was only sixteen. Abel thought a grown man had no right to be hitting on a fourteen-year-old girl, especially if the girl was his sister.
Abel would never forget the night he, Paul, and Cruz cornered Max and threatened him. Paul Morales showed his switchblade, just to scare him. Max Costa almost passed out.
Penelope never found out what really happened to the guy.
“I guess Max was just fooling me when he said he liked me,” Penelope now said wistfully. “I guess I am fat and ugly. No boy’ll ever want to be with me.”
“Come on!” Abel chided. “You shouldn’t be meeting guys on Facebook anyway. He was probably a lot older than he said he was. That’s dangerous, Penny. You don’t wanna be doing that. You’re lucky he had second thoughts about what he was doing and cut out.”
“I wish I didn’t have to be in school at all,” Penelope complained. “Me and Angel feel the exact same way. It’s just a big drag. And pretty soon that creep is gonna be coming through the door, and Mom is gonna go nuts—”
Mrs. Ruiz appeared, her face red with anger. “Did you just call your brother, Tomás, a creep, young lady?” she demanded.
“Well, he is,” Penelope shrieked. “All he ever does is brag, brag, brag. When he starts describing all the wonderful stuff that happens to him, I could puke!”
“Penelope Ruiz!” Mom cried. “I am ashamed of you!” Mom’s voice was wavy and emotional. “It is just so hurtful for a girl to talk about her brother that way.”
“Well, it’s the truth,” Penelope declared defiantly. “He makes me want to puke!”
Abel leaped up from the laptop. He had a brainstorm. “Know what, Mom? Why don’t I take Penny over to the mall to buy those jeans she’s been wantin’? You and Dad can welcome Tomás and have some quiet time together. Me and Penny’ll be back for dinner.”
Mrs. Ruiz had been shocked and hurt by Penelope’s hostility to her other son. Abel’s proposal came as a welcome relief. “Yes, Abel, thank you,” she replied. “That’s a very good idea. Maybe your sister will have a chance to get over her ridiculous, childish spell of jealousy. Maybe she’ll be more willing to welcome her brother appropriately. Then we can all have a nice family dinner with Tomás.”