Recuerdo una historia, mucho antes, que habló de los aztecas poderosos grandes

I dodged the glob of mud that was thrown at me from behind.

" Nyea! Neeeerd!" shouted a brutal male voice. " Nyea, nyea, nyea!"

Another dirt missile flew by my head, followed by another. The second clump of mud managed to hit me in the side of the face, showering my skin with dark brown bits of earth.

With a squeal, I pawed at my face and scurried into the girl's bathroom as fast as I could.

I hate school... I thought bitterly. Bullies suck in any environment...

I scooped a thimbleful of dirt from out of my eye socket and wiped my hand against the wall. The tan paint became smeared with streaks of dark.

" Only one more hour until lunch is over..." I mumbled to myself. " Only three more hours until the end of the school day. Only nine more hours until the end of Friday."

I said this over and over to myself, willing to believe it and make myself feel better.

" Hey, nerd!" came the voice from outside the door. " Come out and play with us!"

I heard multiple chuckles and a whistle or two. I frowned.

" Go away Rob." I said.

" Ooooooo! Are you telling me what to do, neeeerd?" Rob the Bully asked. I heard him crack his knuckles.

" Why am I a nerd again?" I asked. There was silence for a moment.

The fact was, I had no idea why Rob and his cronies liked to pick on me. I hadn't done anything wrong to provoke them, and I didn't have the kind of physical appearance that would make them want to tease me.

" You're a girl!" Rob finally decided, pleased that he had thought of something 'clever'. His cronies grunted in agreement.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

They have the intellect of a group of gorillas... I thought. They look and smell the same too...

Hard to believe they're ninth graders. I'm a grade below them, but I'm years ahead...

" Come out of there!" Rob said.

" No."

" Fine. Then I'll just have to come in..."

I saw the doorknob rattle, and the door opened a bit. A pair of squinty brown eyes peered through the small crack.

" Hello!" Rob said gleefully.

" And goodbye." I snarled, kicking the door shut with my foot. I heard the wood slam against Rob's nose and a howl of pain echoed across the school.

" AUUUUURGH!" he screamed.

I'm so dead. I thought, but a smile curled on my lips nonetheless.

Slowly, I back up and sat in one of the stalls. I drew my knees up to my chest as I waited.

This is the part where he comes in... I thought. And beats me up again.

Gingerly, I traced a bruise on my jaw and a cut over my eyebrow, awards of past days.

I winced.

" I just want to go home now..." I whispered to myself.

" So do I..." said another voice. I jumped, startled, and looked up to see a pair of wide blue eyes peeking over the top of the stall.

" Lani..." I sighed, relived. " How are you?"

" Good." Lani said in a quiet voice.

Lani Toranta was a small, petite little eight grader with long blond hair and unusually large eyes. To many people, Lani looked like a short, shy girl who kept o herself most of the time.

The only thing I could say to that opinion was: 'HA!'

Lani, in truth, was a small bundle of insane energy and randomness. She giggled, and laughed and squealed, cried for no reason, and was never allowed to drink sugar or caffeine because it made her super hyper. I knew everything about her, because she was my best friend.

" Yulari, you can't keep this up anymore..." Lani said, wiggling over the top of the stall and sitting on the top of the toilet. " Tell a teacher."

" I tried."

" Skip school."

" My mom won't let me."

" Fight back."

" Against that monster?" I asked miserably. Lani shrugged.

" You could. I've seen you fight."

" I hate hurting people."

" What if they're hurting you?"

" I don't want to talk about it." I said. " It's Friday. The weekend's almost here, and I'll be free of Rob for a little while."

" But then Monday will come..." Lani said in a low voice, fiddling with the tassels on her blue skirt. " And Rob will return."

Lani was always so dramatic.

" First thing's first..." I said. " I have to get out of here without walking out the door."

Lani smiled and stood up on top of the toilet.

" I am the sneaking champion!" she giggled. " Let's go through the air-vents, that's how I got here in the first place."

I looked up at the ceiling and shuddered.

" Okay." I said. " But quickly. I have history class in five minutes."

Lani nodded and climbed up on top of the stall. Balancing, she reached up and pried the grate off the air-vent. A gapping square hole loomed on top of us.

" Ladies first!" she said, grinning at me. I scowled. Slowly, I pulled myself onto the rim of the stall and squirmed my way into the vent. I coughed as a cloud of dust went into my lungs.

" I hate doing this..." I growled. Lani climbed up behind me.

" While we're in here..." she said, crawling past me in the vent. " Let's talk."

" Okay." I said, brushing a spider off my jacket. " What are you doing this weekend?"

" My mom is going to bring me to the movies." Lani said proudly, making her way through the metal tunnel. " We're going to watch: ' When Aliens Invade.'"

" That was a good movie..." I admitted, following Lani. " But there was one thing I didn't like."

" What?"

" They made the aliens look so evil..." I said. " In fact, almost every sci-fi movie I've seen makes aliens look like monsters."

" How do you know they're not?"

" I don't." I replied with a small frown. " But it just feels wrong."

" Well, if you find a nice one..." Lani said. " Let me know."

There were many things I liked about Lani. One of them was how she could talk about aliens while crawling through an air-vent like it was completely normal.

" How about you?" Lani asked. I shrugged.

" Nothing much. I have to help out on the farm. The harvest season is almost done."

I lived on an eight-acre property in the country with my mother. She and I were one of the few people who own a large plot of land in Southern California. It was fun working in the orchard that we had planted there and taking care of the gardens, but it did get pretty depressing when weekend fun was cut in order to run the farm.

" Maybe I'll come visit you." Lani said. " It'll be fun."

" Sure, but don't miss the movie." I said. " I don't want to you be miserable because of me."

Finally, Lani paused.

" We're right above the history classroom..." she whispered, point through the grate we were sitting on. Through the bars, I saw my teacher, Ms. Gerlane, giving a presentation at the front of the room.

I was late.

" Let's get in." Lani said, worming her fingers through the bars. " You might want to stand back."

" Lani, no-!"

My warning came too late. Lani popped the grate of the air vent and tumbled down. She landed on top of a classmate's desk, who screamed and fainted.

The funny thing was that is was a boy.

With a groan, I wiggled down after her. Covered in dust, my friend and I sat on top of the desk and gazed embarrassedly at our teacher. She raised her eyebrows.

" Late for class?" she asked.

Nod.

" Crawled through the air-vent?"

Nod again.

A smile crept over Ms. Gerlane's face.

" Creative." she said. " Revive Jimmy please, and brush yourselves off outside."

As a girl with short black hair slapped the fainted boy in the face a couple of times, Lani and I went outside and slapped at our clothes.

" Ms. Gerlane is amazing..." Lani sighed.

" Agreed." I said. " Let's never do that again."

Lani gave me a sly look that, for some reason, was more scary than all the bullies in the world.

In three hours, the end of school was announced and the student filed out of the classrooms. I walked alongside Lani, listening politely as she ranted.

" And the things we're learning!" she complained. " Why do we need to learn about the Aztecs of all people? Why not the Russians or the British or a living civilization?"

I cleared my throat.

" Because we need to learn about the past?" I suggested. " In order not to make the same mistakes in the future?"

Lani snorted.

" Like I need to learn about their mistakes..." she said. " I know I won't ever give away my trust and my possessions to some weird guy from across the sea who I've never seen before in my life!"

" The aztecs thought that Cortéz was a god..." I said. Lani rolled her eyes.

" It's not important, that's all I'm saying. The Aztecs are a dead people. They're gone forever."

" There's still people who are the descendants of the Aztecs..." I claimed.

" But they don't live in the stone temples and perform human sacrifices anymore."

" You don't know that..." I teased, prodding Lani in the stomach with one finger. She giggled.

We exited the school and walked along the grassy sports field. The sky was bright and blue.

" Such a nice day..." Lani sighed. " Too bad we spend most of it inside, doing work."

I fiddled with a strand of my long hair.

" You should come see the movie with me." Lani said. " It'll be fun!"

" Maybe..." I said. I saw my mother's car parked in the drop-off area. I patted Lani's shoulder.

" I'll see you this weekend." I promised. " Don't get into trouble."

" Don't get abducted by aliens!" Lani giggled.

" Don't get sacrificed by aztecs!" I countered, grinning.

Waving good-bye to my friend, I walked over to my car and pulled open the passenger door.

" Hi mom." I mumbled to the woman behind the wheel.

I loved my mother. She was an elegant spanish woman with golden skin and long, dark-brown hair. Her smile could light up a room, but most of the time she was strict. Still, she was my mother.

" Hello Yulari, darling." my mother said, touching the side of my face. " How was school?"

I winced as her fingers brushed past the bruise on my cheek. I had told her that my injuries were from sports.

I didn't play sports, but she didn't know that.

" Fine." I said, strapping on my seat-belt as my mother started the car. " Lani's going to the movies this weekend."

" Lani..." my mother said. " Such a nice girl. Strange, but nice..."

I slumped further into my seat. Glancing out my window, I watched at the buildings and towers of the industrial zone melted away into the golden hills and tall pines of the rural area.

" You have another cut on your cheek." my mother said suddenly, causing me to jump. Automatically, I clapped a hand over the wound underneath my jaw.

" It's nothing." I claimed. " Just a small scratch."

My mother gave me a suspicious look, but realized that I didn't want to talk about it and reluctantly shrugged it off.

" I've decided that we need a break." she said. " The apples and pomegranates are ripe, but we can afford to take one weekend off."

I sat up as she said this.

A weekend to myself... Wow!

" For real?" I asked. My mother smiled.

" For real. You can do whatever it is your heart desires, but I have to warn you, I have a job meeting on saturday. You'll be home alone. Are you alright with that?"

" Yeah." I said. I had been home alone plenty of times. I knew what to do and what not to do.

" Okay." my mom said as we pulled into our long driveway. " We're home."

Home... The word bloomed like chocolate on my tongue. My house say atop a large slope in the center of our property. Surrounding our house was a grove of different fruit trees. The house itself was quite large. It had been passed down in my family for generations. It was tall, with towers at the top like some sort of new-aged castle. It was a whitish-yellow color, like cream, with tall ceilings and dark, wooden gates. Slowly, my mother navigated the car over the bumpy asphalt and pulled up next to our house. With a sigh of relief, I opened the door the second the car stopped.

" Yulari!" my mom complained. " You could get hurt!"

" Yeah." I replied. I hopped across the cobblestone path and ran to the door.

" Open up, mom!" I begged. With a sigh, my mom threw me the keys.

" Be careful."

I slotted the key into the door and turned the handle. I barley paused to looked at the fresh roses on a table beside the entrance as I ran through the hall, heading for my room. When I got there, I slammed the door shut and turned on the shower.

With a groan, I undressed and stepped into the warm water, letting the drops slither down my skin. There was a mirror next the the shower, and I pulled apart the curtains for a moment to look at my reflection.

My skin was a tan color, like my mother's. At fourteen years of age, I was only about 5' 4", and my long, light-brown hair reached almost down to my waist. My eyes could only loosely be described as hazel: Green on the outside, brown on the inside, blue mixed in and orange in the very center, surrounding the pupil. Dark specks flecked my iris in random areas. I frowned at the bruise on my jaw.

" Stupid jerk..." I growled. " I could fight him if I wanted to..."

I traced a finger over my arm, feeling the muscles underneath. Wearily, I let my fingers drop.

Shutting off the valve, I stepped out of the tub and dried myself. I slipped into a simple nightgown, rubbing the soft cloth against my skin.

" I hate Fridays..." I mumbled.

" Yulari!" my mother called from somewhere in the house. " Dinner!"

I didn't have an appetite at the moment. I stuck my head outside the door.

" I'm not hungry." I said. " I'll just do my homework and go to bed."

The sounds of the kitchen stopped.

" Are you sure?' my mother asked, concern in her voice.

" Yeah." I said, slowly closing the door. Sleepily, I dragged my backpack over to my desk and sat down in the chair.

" I'll do a little bit of homework." I said to myself. " Just a little bit of history..."

I opened up my text book and began to read.

The Aztec Empire

' The Aztecs, who probably originated as a nomadic tribe in northern Mexico, arrived in Mesoamerica around the beginning of the 13th century. From their magnificent capital city, Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs emerged as the dominant force in central Mexico, developing an intricate social, political, religious and commercial organization that brought many of the region's city-states under their control by the 15th century-'

Even before I had finished the first paragraph, my eyelids began to droop. With a groan, my cheek pressed against the smooth pages of the book and I instantly fell asleep.