By Evenstar120
Disclaimer: If I owned 'em, I'd be a millionaire, not a college student! They're Saban's or whoever bought the rights.
A/N: This is the second story in my "childhood" series. I meant to write something else, but when I sat down, this just started itself. I've always thought Rocky, Adam, and Aisha would be fun little kids. Hope you enjoy! Comments, as always, either critical or positive, are welcome.
"Ewwww!" shrieked Cynthia Collins, glaring at a seemingly innocuous container on the desk next to hers.
Rocky DeSantos' eyes first reflected puzzlement at the girl's disgust, but just as quickly, the bemusement was replaced with a sparkling of mischief. A soft snicker from his friend Aisha Campbell served to offer the irrepressible young man encouragement. Picking up the container, a yogurt cup with small holes punched in the lid, he thrust it toward Cynthia grinning. "It's gonna get you, and give you lots and lots of warts!" Rocky announced gleefully to a background of Aisha's slightly scornful giggles and even quiet Adam Park's suppressed snort.
"I am telling on you, Rocky DeSantos!" snapped Cynthia furiously. She made a move toward the hall, where the teacher was supervising a quick restroom and drink break for the class. Students had begun to wander back in to the room and were watching the scene curiously as Cynthia stormed out.
"Quick!" hissed Aisha. "Give it to me." The girl quickly hid the cup in her desk behind her sunshine yellow pencil box just as Cynthia came back in with Mrs. Penn in tow.
"Rocky had it," said Cynthia, casting a dark glance at the trio and Rocky in particular.
Mrs. Penn examined the boy with a pained expression. It was only one o'clock in the afternoon, and she already could feel a migraine coming on. She loved teaching third grade, and she liked Rocky quite well, she just wished he would be a little bit less of a prankster. However, behind his eyes, she saw only a desire to have fun, not to hurt or upset anyone. She sighed audibly. "Rocky, do you have some sort of animal in here? You know that's against the rules."
Rocky shot her his most innocent expression. If one stuck to the exact truth, he didn't have the little frog Adam had found at recess and that they had made a nest for in Aisha's empty yogurt cup after washing it out so they could take it home. Not looking at Aisha's desk, he tried fervently not to let a slight twinge of guilt show in his face. "No, ma'am."
Mrs. Penn nodded, satisfied. At Cynthia's first syllable of protest, she fixed the girl with a stern look. "That's enough." Students trickled back into the classroom as the break ended.
"Take out your spelling books and turn to chapter seven," called the teacher. Aisha rummaged for hers, careful not to disturb the frog. She carefully pulled it loose from the stack, trying not to laugh as she saw several papers and assorted pencil stubs come drifting out of Rocky's messy desk as he rooted around for his spelling book. Exchanging a grin with Adam, she opened the book.
The lesson went fairly well until Mrs. Penn began giving instructions for the project that would accompany their spelling words that week. She assigned each child a word, and then instructed the monitors to pass out colorful paper. Dragging a box of ragged catalogues and magazines out of one of the cupboards, she instructed the class to search for images or associated with their designated word and paste them onto the paper. "Then," she said, "We'll decorate the room with your pictures this week to help you learn the spelling words."
The ensuing rush for the magazine bin was chaotic, much as the harassed teacher attempted to keep order in the room. Childish grumbles of "Hey! That's mine!" were met with stern admonitions about sharing, or in some cases, politeness. Suddenly, two of the more rambunctious boys (Rocky surprisingly not included in the number) began running back to their seats with their prizes. "JOEY! ISAAC! STOP THAT!" yelled Mrs. Penn sternly.
Neither boy paid her much attention, and unfortunately, the two were not paying attention to their immediate surroundings either. Tripping over a chair leg, one of the boys fell, slamming into Aisha and Rocky's desks. Books and pencils flew out of both desks at the impact, and much to Aisha's horror, the yogurt cup flew across the room, bursting open in the process. Blades of grass tumbled out as it rolled and bounced towards the startled teacher. Rocky, Aisha, and Adam all blanched as Mrs. Penn reached down to pick it up.
The scream that rent the room would be remembered in the legends of Harding Memorial Elementary, and indeed, in Stone Canyon schoolchild history. Once Mrs. Penn, who had a fear of most reptiles and amphibians, had sufficiently recovered herself, she quickly grabbed the lid to the container, hurriedly secured it, and then surveyed the room with the blazing look of a person who has been pushed past her limits. Her eyes rested on Rocky almost instantly, remembering Cynthia's previous allegations, but she knew with a teacher's instinct that Rocky was not the only culprit in this. Seizing on Aisha Campbell, whose wide eyed expression clearly gave her away, and Adam Park, whom she knew was never far from Aisha or Rocky in anything, she straightened her back and glared. "ROCKY DESANTOS! AISHA CAMPBELL! ADAM PARK! GO STRAIGHT TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE RIGHT THIS INSTANT!"
"But," Adam began to protest, but faltered under the steel in his teacher's face.
"NOW!" barked the poor woman. The three troublemakers silently took the passes she held out to them after a moment of scribbling on the pieces of paper and exited the room.
The walk to the office seemed to take forever. Adam glared at the other two. If only Rocky hadn't teased Cynthia and Aisha hadn't egged him on, at least Mrs. Penn might have been charitable and let them get away with a stern talking to. He loved his friends, and to be honest, he knew he was lucky to have them, but Adam was under no illusions about how mad his father was going to be when he heard about this.
Sitting down on the hard bench outside the principal's office after informing the secretary of their presence and giving her their passes, Adam balled his fists and glared at the floor. Mortified, he realized that he was trying not to cry. It was only when he looked over at Rocky whose face bore the same expression that he softened. Aisha sat with her chin out stubbornly.
"Mr. DeSantos?" came the deep voice of Principal Henderson. Rocky's tanned face blanched slightly as he stood up and went through the door.
"Ah, Rocky," said the principal, closing the door. "What brings you here?"
Rocky looked at the big man and then stared at his blue canvas sneakers. "Uhm…we found a frog at recess and wanted to take it home."
Principal Henderson, if truth had been told, was rather amused. He had read the passes that accompanied the trio explaining their crime, and he felt rather badly that he was going to have to punish them. It was such an innocuous offense, after all. However, rules were rules, and apparently Rocky at least had been teasing another student with the frog prior to its discovery. He sighed. "According to your teacher, you were teasing Cynthia Collins with it."
"But she started it!"
"Nonetheless, I'm afraid you shouldn't have had the animal in the classroom, and whether or not you meant to, you caused quite a disturbance. Also, you shouldn't tease your classmates. I'm going to have to call your parents."
Rocky blanched. His Mami was going to be furious! He didn't even want to think about what his Papi would do to him. The voice of the principal broke into his thoughts. "I'll leave it to them to decide what's appropriate. Go back out and sit down and send Aisha in."
With a heavy heart, Rocky walked out of the office. Having his parents notified was almost worse in some ways than being punished by the school. He stifled the rogue thought rising in his mind proclaiming that his parents were going to take this much more seriously than Mr. Henderson seemed to be. "Your turn, 'Sha," he muttered miserably, lowering himself onto the bench. Adam examined the Hispanic boy silently. Rocky had his arms crossed over his chest, and one tear was making its way down his cheek. Wisely electing not to say anything, he waited for Aisha to finish her turn.
She was out far too soon for Adam's taste. Walking into Mr. Henderson's office, he took his seat across from the principal. "Adam," said the principal, a slightly surprised tone coming into his voice, "what happened?"
Adam didn't move or speak. "Guilt by association?" inquired the principal gently. "Did you have anything to do with this? If not, I see no reason to call your parents." The principal had his suspicions that the quiet boy had been corralled and sent with the other two more for company's sake than anything else.
Adam fidgeted. He knew that no, he hadn't been teasing Cynthia, and he hadn't had the frog in his desk, and that only a few minutes prior, he had felt somewhat unjustly accused, but he also knew something else: he had known about the frog, and he had not discouraged Rocky from teasing Cynthia. Temptation reared its head. Adam had no desire to face his father's wrath, but he also had no desire to have a guilty conscience. He took a deep breath. "Yes," he muttered, not able to meet the man's eye. "I did."
Principal Henderson looked at him compassionately. "Honesty's a good trait, son." Dismissing Adam, he sighed. "Linda!" He called as Adam left, "Bring me the phone numbers for DeSantos, Campbell, and Park please."
~*~
"Mami!" protested Rocky as his mother, who had an iron grip on his wrist, dragged him towards the waiting car.
"Madre de Dios, Rockwell Mateo DeSantos! Can you not stay out of trouble for five minutes!" Another flurry of Spanish followed as Guadalupe DeSantos proceeded to vacillate between chewing out her son and muttering under her breath.
Rocky squirmed as he listened to her various mutterings and then winced. Any time his mother began invoking the name of St. Jude, patron saint of lost causes, or St. Monica, patron saint of difficult children, he knew he was in for it. "Mami," he tried again.
"Rocky, mi hijo, if this were the first time you had gotten in trouble for disturbing the class, it would be different…" she sighed, trying to calm herself. "But first it was talking in class, then making silly faces for the benefit of Adam and Aisha, and the banana incident, and now this. I am at my wit's end! You are lucky Mr. Henderson did not do worse to you for scaring your poor teacher like that!"
"But it was an accident! I didn't know Joey was going to bump the desk!"
"But you were already disobeying the rules by having that frog in your desk, Rocky."
Rocky did not think it a good moment to point out that technically, the frog had never been in his desk as he climbed into the front seat of the car.
~*~
Rihana Campbell was waiting when her daughter disembarked the school bus. Watching the girl kick the dust and stall on the way up the driveway, she sighed. If only Aisha would make a girl friend or two! It was not, she swiftly amended, that she disliked Rocky or Adam, much to the contrary, or that she didn't want Aisha to have friends that were boys, but Aisha was becoming quite a tomboy and in the presence of those two, any ideas the trio had were quickly magnified by the group dynamics.
However, she also knew that before Aisha had made the acquaintance of Rocky and Adam, there had been problems with her being teased by the girls. Rihana hadn't understood at first, but after being snubbed at a classroom open house by several of the mothers of the girls teasing Aisha, her eyes had been opened. Her husband, Alex, was happy in his job as a public defender, but he did not make much money doing it. Combined with that and a touch of racial prejudice, Aisha hadn't had a chance. Rihana sighed again. I ought to be thankful she's got such wonderful friends as Rocky and Adam, she scolded herself. They're so good to Aisha, and they don't have a problem with her skin color or clothes!
The door opened and a dejected Aisha dragged in. "Hi, Mom," she greeted her mother tentatively.
"Come in here, Aisha, and have a seat." Rihana gestured to the couch. Aisha sat.
"I'm sorry, Mom," she apologized immediately.
"I know you are," said Rihana gently, "but I'm still very disappointed in you. Aisha, teasing your classmates is unacceptable, as is breaking the rules, even if you see them as silly ones."
Aisha lowered her eyes. "I know," she mumbled, tears finally spilling over her cheeks. "But that Cynthia Collins makes me so mad!"
"Oh, baby," sighed Rihana. "There's nothing we can do about that. You've got to keep your chin up and show her you can rise above her ignorance. It's hard," she murmured, finally reaching out and soothing her daughter, who had begun to sob. Deciding to defer the subject of an appropriate punishment for her daughter until Alex arrived home, she rocked Aisha gently. "Oh, baby, I know."
~*~
Adam went straight up to his room after getting home, and immediately started on his homework. He had a sneaking suspicion he was going to be in a good bit of trouble when his father got home, and at least if he stayed out of sight and acted good for a while, he couldn't possibly get into more trouble. When he heard his father's Toyota pull into the driveway and smelled the normally appetizing scents of dinner being finished, his stomach twisted into a knot.
"Adam! Noah! Dinner!" Seung Park called to her sons. She heard Torrance enter the house through the adjoined garage door. He came into the kitchen and kissed Seung lightly.
"It smells wonderful, honey. How was your day?"
Seung hesitated. But she knew that Torrance would have to find out sometime. "Well," she began slowly, "I'm afraid Adam had a little trouble in school today."
Torrance's face darkened. He was a loving father, but there were few things that got his temper up like misbehavior, and he sensed it coming. "What kind of trouble?"
"Adam and Rocky and Aisha captured a little frog on the playground and took it inside in a container of some sort. I guess Rocky was teasing one of the girls with it, but Adam wasn't involved in that. The real trouble started when the container with the frog fell out of Aisha's desk…" Quickly, Seung related the rest of the story, the anxiety that Torrance would be furious evaporating as she noticed him struggling not to laugh.
Torrance shook his head. "If he had to get in trouble, at least it's an amusing story," he sighed. "But nonetheless, Adam did misbehave. We'll have to find a suitable punishment."
~*~
Ignacio DeSantos glared at his son. He was a fairly jovial man normally, and if it hadn't been for the fact that this was only the latest in a long series of complaints from teachers, he would have been inclined to laugh it off. However, while he knew his son was merely high-spirited, not maliciously misbehaving, the problem needed to be dealt with still. "Rocky," he said sternly as his son quailed under the stony gaze, "You know better than that, hijo."
"Yes, Papi."
"Since your Mami has already given you quite a lecture, I will not. However, we have decided what to do about this."
Rocky's face took an alarmed expression. His father continued. "Rocino, first, your attendance at Mass on Wednesdays as well as Sundays will be mandatory to aid you in reforming your ways." That had a two-fold purpose. Not only, thought Ignacio, would it expose Rocky to some extra religious teaching, which was excellent in and of itself, but it would also have him sitting still for an extra hour a week, something at which Rocky continually seemed to fail. Ignacio wasn't finished, though. "And, we are going to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Park, and Mr. and Mrs. Campbell, and whatever punishments Adam and Aisha are subject to, so too will you be."
Ignacio knew both sets of parents, and knew that the punishments they meted out would be fair.
~*~
Torrance Park picked up the phone and called the Campbells after the family had finished eating. He had given Adam a stern talking-to over supper, and then sent him to his room, but for once was at a loss as for a punishment. "Hi, Alex?"
"Yes." Alex Campbell's deep voice rumbled over the phone line. "How are you, Torrance?"
"Well, thank you. Listen, I'm sure you know by now about the little stunt the kids pulled today."
Alex choked back a laugh. "That was something else," he groaned. "I'd think it was funny, but I don't want to encourage Aisha. They did break the rules, after all."
"I think we are all in the same boat. Seung said she talked to Guadalupe and Ignacio DeSantos and they felt similarly."
"Well, that's good at least. I'm not so certain Rihana thought it was funny, she seemed rather upset, but I did finally come up with a suitable punishment for Aisha."
"What?" inquired Torrance. "To be honest, Alex, I can't think of a good one other than grounding Adam, but he already spends enough time up in his room, and I don't really want to encourage him to spend more."
"The county environmental office is right next to mine, and for some time, they've been advertising a county-wide volunteer effort to help clean up and beautify Stone Canyon Forest Park on Saturday. I called Jim Andrews, the man in charge of it, and he said that they'd be glad to have Aisha come help. It'll be supervised, and refreshments afterward. I thought it a good opportunity to both get Aisha to help in the community and make her give up her Saturday."
Torrance had begun to nod in concurrence as Alex spoke. "Do you think Mr. Andrews would want one more volunteer?"
~*~
Saturday dawned sunny and cool over Stone Canyon. Rocky woke up grumbling slightly to himself, and headed downstairs after getting dressed. He had not had a particularly restful night, his twin baby brothers Miguel and Salvador had been fussy, and Rocky awakened several times to hear Guadalupe's voice gently comforting and shushing the babies. He found his father seated at the table, enjoying a cup of coffee.
"Are you ready Rocino?" queried Ignacio gently.
"Yeah," muttered Rocky.
"Then we ought to go pick up Aisha and Adam. We do not want to be late."
~*~
"Man," grunted Adam as he pulled up a stubborn weed from the ground where he was supposed to be planting a small sapling, "I think I would rather be anywhere but here."
Aisha, her cheek streaked with soil, nodded. "Stupid frog," she agreed.
"All right!" they heard Mr. Andrews call, "Lunch time!"
"Thank heavens," moaned Rocky.
The trio scrambled down to where a simple buffet of sandwiches, packages of chips, soft drinks, water, homemade cookies, and assorted fruits were set out for the volunteers. "We'll resume work in an hour," Mr. Andrews continued. The volunteers, including the three children descended en masse upon the food.
Rocky claimed his food quickly and then suddenly grinned. As long as they were at the park, they might as well do a little exploring. When Adam and Aisha came over with their lunches in hand, he explained his idea. "We just have to make sure we're back in an hour," he said. "I've got a watch."
Adam's face clouded. "I'm not so sure that's a good idea, Rocko. We're here because we're already in trouble. I don't really want to add more to that."
Aisha's face had lit up, though. "Oh, come on, Adam," she said, "we're not going anywhere we're not allowed to. And what can happen if we're back here on time?" She skipped after Rocky, who was already heading for a trail, his lunch secured in the pockets of his baggy sweatshirt. Adam hesitated, but then followed his companions.
Just as Rocky had thought, the forest was beautiful, and hiking fun. Stopping every few minutes to check the watch, the children giggled as they hiked through a dry brook, and then turned off the trail to follow it for a little while. Sunlight beamed through the verdant canopy above them, and soft forest sounds whispered all around them. Eventually, the brook came out of the forest. A railroad track ran through, and the clatter of steel on steel announced the presence of a train.
"Look!" cried Aisha. "It's going so slowly! I thought trains were supposed to go fast!"
Rocky, always the daredevil, got a glint in his eye. "I bet I could climb into one of those boxcars," he boasted, gesturing to the wooden cars, empty and open that were passing.
"You could not!" cried Aisha.
"Could too!"
"Could NOT!"
"COULD TOO!"
With that, Rocky calmly clambered up the embankment to the tracks, and with little effort jumped into one of the cars. Aisha and Adam walked along side it as the train crept along. Aisha jutted her chin out. Oh, it just wasn't fair that Rocky came up with all the good ideas first. "I'm coming up!" she announced, and before Adam could get a word in edgewise, Aisha had scrambled into the boxcar alongside Rocky. Adam sighed. It went against his better judgment, but with both of his friends already in the car, he felt he had no choice and he hurried up, grabbed the wooden door of the car, and pulled himself in.
Aisha was munching on her sandwich. "Hey," she said suddenly. "We're on the track which goes past the front of the park. We can just ride the train back to where we're supposed to meet Mr. Andrews."
All of them relaxed and began to eat their lunches, enjoying the easy ride and scenery. Unfortunately, none of them felt the train gradually begin to pick up speed.
To be continued…