Home is where your Heart is

The First Cross Country Practice

     The very next morning, Dad got permission. It was the next part where we hit a road block. No one was interested in joining a Cross Country team. Johnny Samaniego was the first to sign up and he became Dad's recruiter, but he had the toughest time. He was only able to get Victor Puentes and brothers Danny and Damacio Diaz to join. That was four runners out of seven. I had even worse luck. Not a single girl wanted to be part of a girls Cross Country team. Seeing how put down I was, Dad pulled a few strings and I was allowed to join the boys Cross Country team. That meant we only needed two more members and Dad really wanted one of them to be Thomas Valles. We got both on the same day and through devious means.

It was lunch time and Jose Cardenas tried to break into the soft drinks vending machine for change. Jose was unfortunate enough to be caught by Coach Jenks, the coach of the football team, also known as Jerk Jenks by the students. Dad swooped in to the rescue and made an excuse saying that Jose was only trying to get his change for him because it got stuck in the machine.

Instead of giving him a detention, Dad made Jose join the Cross Country team. At the same time I was with Lola when a boy sauntered up to her. Before he could say a word, Lola said in a voice that trembled, "You stay away from me." I knew then who this boy must be.

"Don't be like that Lola. I am really sorry for what happened and I want to get back together again." Unfortunately for him, Thomas caught sight of him then.

"I told you to stay away from my sister, man!" he roared, grabbing the boy. Thomas flipped him onto one of the tables and began punching him in the face.

"Stop it! Tommy! Tommy, stop!" Thomas' fury deafened him to his sister's cries.

I stepped forward and put a firm hand on Thomas' punching arm. He whirled on me. "Take a deep breath." I told him gently.

"What are you...?"

"Just do it. No, don't look at him. Look at me." With a sigh he did what I told him to and slowly, the fury melted out of him. I put a hand on his back and guided him away from the crowd that had gathered and the boy whose face was now swollen and covered in blood. We sat at a table out of hearing range of anyone else. Dad eyed us worriedly. I think he knew what I was going to do next which was why he kept the teachers who had witnessed the beating and wanted to step in and take Thomas to the office away from us. He was giving me time to help Thomas in the small, but influential way that I could.

"You cannot keep doing this Thomas. Look at your sister." Lola was with Sonia who was trying to comfort her as she cried. "You are causing Lola more distress than you are helping her."

"What do you know?" he shot at me bitterly, his hands clenching into fists. "You have no idea what we are going through."

"You don't know me. You have no idea what I have or have not been through. I happen to know exactly what you are all going through. I was where Lola is just a year ago except, unlike Lola, I was an unwilling victim." I was shaking as I made this confession. Unwanted memories flashed through my mind as did old pain. Emotion overwhelmed me and my eyes filled with tears. I hastily brushed them away, but my eyes filled again and one tear fell. I had opened up a gate that was locked up tightly until today and now I couldn't force it closed again.

Thomas was horrorstruck. He didn't know what to say or do. "I got pregnant. My father was much like you. He was so angry all the time. It got to the point where I thought he was going to go out and kill the guy who violated me. He was a stupid junior on the football team so Dad knew him. That was when I had the same conversation with him that I am going to have with you now.