matched the name in his head, but failed. He could remember seeing Julian around school, but he couldn’t remember what his friends looked like.
“Ooh, that was him?” Maritza said, looping her rose-quartz rosary around her finger idly.
“Yeah, he was really annoying,” Patrice agreed as she braided a chunk of Maritza’s pink-and-purple hair. “Always messing around and kicking balls over to our side of the field.”
“That doesn’t sound like me,” Julian grumbled petulantly.
“He beamed me right in the back of the head once and then laughed about it,” Alexa said.
“Okay, that does sound like me.”
Yadriel did his best to turn his laugh into a cough, but Alexa noticed and sniffed indignantly, sticking her pointy nose in the air.
“Why do you care about Julian Diaz?” Patrice asked.
Maritza shrugged. “Yadriel was curious about him.”
All four sets of eyes swung to him.
Heat flooded his cheeks. “Uhhh.” He looked to Maritza for help, but the amused flash in her eyes said she was enjoying watching him squirm. “We, uh, we got assigned a group project together,” he finally managed to lie. “And I haven’t heard from him.”
“Good luck with that.” Alexa snorted.
Julian scowled. “I don’t like this one,” he said.
“He, like, never shows up to class,” she explained.
“That’s only half true,” Julian tried to defend himself.
“Hasn’t he flunked out by now?”
“I heard he got sent to juvie.”
“Hey!” Julian tried to interrupt. “I’ve only been arrested once, and that guy totally dropped the charges after my brother offered to fix his car!”
“I was going to try to get his number from one of his friends,” Yadriel cut in, trying to steer the conversation toward something useful.
Letti caught the ball and shook her head. “Nooo, you don’t want to go messing with them,” she warned. Unlike Alexa, she actually sounded sincerely worried.
Yadriel frowned. “Why not?”
“They’re, like, in a gang.”
Julian balked. “What?”
Yadriel looked to Maritza, who frowned back. Yadriel remembered hearing rumors about Julian and his group of friends. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, hearing them all listed off. Julian was clearly getting worked up, but was that because the rumors were true?
“He and his family are from Colombia,” Alexa went on, in a way that suggested a double meaning, but when everyone just stared at her, she added, “You know what they export from Colombia, don’t you?”
“Coffee?” Maritza guessed in a bored tone.
“Crack,” Alexa answered.
Julian let out a string of colorful curses.
“Don’t you mean cocaine?” Patrice asked, giving Alexa a dubious look.
“What’s the difference?”
“I’m half Colombian on my mom’s side, and none of us are drug dealers,” Letti pointed out.
Alexa waved a hand dismissively. “You don’t count. They’re street kids.”
Julian seethed and Yadriel tensed.
“His older brother took over the family drug trade,” Alexa went on. “He runs it out of his mechanic shop.”
“Rio is not a drug dealer!” Julian barked, but, of course, they couldn’t hear him.
“Yeah, I don’t remember his name, but he was really hot, too.”
“Too bad he’s a drug dealer preying on high schoolers.”
Julian stepped forward. “No, he isn’t!”
“Yeah, you really shouldn’t mess with those guys,” Letti said to Yadriel, her delicate eyebrows drawn together in concern.
Julian turned to face him. “This is complete bullshit!” he said, throwing his hands up.
Yadriel sent him a furtive glance. This was escalating too quickly, but he couldn’t find his voice to put a stop to it. Julian was losing his temper, which Yadriel couldn’t really blame him for, but he also didn’t want him to do something stupid.
With everyone around, he couldn’t exactly say something to Julian to calm him down.
“I think his parents are in jail,” Patrice added, thoughtfully tapping a finger against her cheek.
“No, his mom is in jail, pendeja.”
“I thought his mom ran off when he was, like, a baby?”
Julian visibly paled.
Oh no. That was a step too far. “Uh—” Yadriel tried to come up with something to derail the conversation, but they were off and running.
“He turned into a real asshole, like, a year ago, right around when he stopped playing soccer,” Letti went on, setting the soccer ball down by her feet. “Always getting into fights and starting trouble in class. Remember when he broke Pancho’s nose in biology?”
Julian snapped out of his daze. His face went from white to bright red in a matter of seconds. A cool gust of wind kicked up the fallen leaves that littered the ground.
“Oh yeah.” Patrice nodded. “I almost forgot about that!”
“That’s because—” Julian started, seething between his bared teeth.
“The violent gene must run in the family,” Alexa told them, flicking her hair back