get a detention. After that comes suspension. Three strikes, and you’re expelled.”
When he takes a blue slip off his desk and hands it to me, I swallow hard. My first detention. I am not, no matter what, going to get two strikes. Even if it means being called Mex for the next nine months.
“Does this go in my permanent file?” I ask, looking down at the offending blue slip.
“I’m afraid so.”
Shit. I briefly have a vision of breaking into the school office in the middle of the night and making the detention disappear. In movies people break into offices and steal files all the time. It would definitely be an adrenaline rush, especially if I was able to pull it off.
“Now get out of here,” Aguirre says. “I don’t want to see your face back in my office unless it’s to tell me you’re on the honor roll. Keep your head in your books, and we’ll get along just fine.”
“Is that it?” I ask him.
“No.” He smiles and opens his arms out wide. “Welcome to Fairfield High.”
12
Nikki
Luis had been talking to Marco and Mariana when he got called to Dr. Aguirre’s office. He walked with confidence and purpose out of the courtyard, and I found myself having a hard time tearing my gaze away until he was out of sight.
I hope he doesn’t remember me, although I have a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach that he didn’t forget our encounter at his brother’s wedding. How could he? The last image I have is him waving to me … naked. He looked ridiculously hot back then, and he’s still got the swagger. Just from the way he walks I can tell he knows he’s one of those guys with the “it” factor.
In the halls, girls were staring at him. He nodded and smiled at every girl who looked his way. Marco was flirting with the girls right along with him, like they were a tag team.
The next time I see Luis, it’s the last period of the day. Chemistry with Mrs. Peterson. Luis seems amused when he walks in the classroom and finds me sitting in the back row with Kendall and Derek. When the pregnant teacher announces that she assigns partners and we’ll be sitting in alphabetical order, my heart starts racing. My last name starts with a C and Luis’s starts with an F . I panic that we could be assigned as partners, until Mrs. Peterson calls out, “Mariana Castillo, you’re partnered with Nikki Cruz.”
Oh, no. Mariana and I have only one thing in common: our parents were born in Mexico. That’s it.
Mariana Castillo hated me when Marco and I dated, as if I took away her property. The few times Marco and I hung out with his friends, she’d always glare at me and make sure none of the other south side girls liked me. I was an outcast in their group, but as long as I had Marco by my side I didn’t care. Even though Marco and I aren’t together anymore, Mariana still hates me.
“Eww. How come I get stuck with the fake Latina?” Mariana mumbles.
“There isn’t anything fake about me, Mariana. You got a problem with me, go tell Mrs. Peterson.”
Mariana waves her hand in the air. “Mrs. Peterson, Nikki and I can’t be partners.”
Peterson stops and looks down at Mariana. “Yes, you can and yes, you will. Believe me, Miss Castillo, I get complaints every year, and not once have I changed partners.”
“But—”
“Zip it, or you’ll get a detention.”
Mariana shuts her mouth, but sneers at me as Mrs. Peterson goes down the rest of her list.
Luis is assigned to the table across from ours. Derek is assigned as his partner. I try not to have eye contact with Luis, but I find myself glancing up. Our eyes meet for a brief second before Mrs. Peterson knocks on Luis’s lab table.
“So I see I’m blessed with another Fuentes in my class,” our teacher says. “Your brother Alex was one of my more … challenging students. I guess I should give you the same lecture I gave your brother, Mr. Fuentes. No talking unless it’s lab time, and even that isn’t supposed to be used for chatter