Purpose ❆ Benny Rodriguez

05 | badass

09/11/2015

chapter five ;
BADASS

WARNING: lots of cursing in this chapter.

♡

TWO WEEKS PASSED by quickly and without a dull moment. Nearly every single day, it seemed, the Rodriguez family had something planned. The Sullivan family was always invited. Also, Jordan Phillips had not yet given up on making amends with the Sandlot Boys – not that he had made much progress.

　The third Friday of the school year rolled around, and I had begun to feel quite confident. Finally, I could easily find my way around the school – I knew where all of my classes were, and I never got lost.

　On another note, I had only managed to make a few enemies, and those consisted of Hannah and her group of preps. However, far from my knowledge, some girls held grudges against me. Some disliked me for reasons I could guess.

　History, fourth period, was the only class I shared solely with DeNunez. The teacher was a younger woman, with curled, chocolate hair and a pretty smile – Ms. Cook. For the most part, she was cool and nice, but she had no tolerance for disrespect. Needless to say, she was one of my favorite teachers.

　At the moment, we were playing a game based on World War I. Everyone was split up into groups, in which they were given a country. Basically, we all had to form alliances with and declare war upon other countries, and the leftover money, supplies and armies that were built all mattered in the end. The two sides would be compared at the end, during the "war", and the winners would get candy.

　Highlight of my day, honestly.

　Needless to say, DeNunez and I stuck by each other's side throughout the entire class. Our group had been given France.

　"If we buy three of these and six of those, we'll be good," the boy who kept the cards organized said. "But we could go higher, get more of these – "

　DeNunez elbowed me lightly, and I tore my attention away from the boy whose name I had not bothered to remember. I cast my best friend a questioning look.

　"That girl over there," DeNunez mumbled, slightly jerking his head to his left, "she keeps staring at you and laughing. Don't look now – "

　But he was too late. My eyes had already focused on the girl (Germany was her country). Initially, I had expected to find a preppy girl – Hannah, considering she shared the class with me. Instead, the girl, who stared back at me with a smirk, had a septum piercing and wore dark makeup. By the grungy look and the blue bandana tied around her shoe (a sign of disrespect to crips), I assumed that she was far from preppy. In fact, she looked like a tough girl.

　Even still, I held the gaze for a few more moments. Before returning my attention back to the game, I flashed her a smile and a wave.

　DeNunez cracked up. "Oh, God, Kayla. I told you not to look."

　"Maybe you should have told me not to look before I looked," I giggled.

　"You would have looked anyway."

　"True . . ." A moment later, I decided to put forth my piece. "Hey, man . . . Use half the money to buy a little bit of everything. You'll end up with more money if you get more of those one things . . ."

　The boy, slightly on the nerdy side, managed a nervous smile. "Good idea, Makayla, I'll do that."

　DeNunez chuckled, grabbing hold of my arm. "His cheeks are so red," he snickered quietly. "You have no idea, the effect you can have."