Disclaimer: I own nada

It was a Friday evening in El Paso, Mexico. Jaime was lounging on his comfy bed, trying to do summer reading, all whilst being deafened by girly giggling and singing, etcetera, from Milagro's room, the shouting from Louisa's room and the raucous, loud laughter from Raul and his friends. He sighed, glancing down at the book in his hands. Summer reading was so dull he was practically flat lining. Plus he had another monster headache on the way. It happened a lot, lately.

And, as was usual, Jaime was alone.

Well, not completely alone. He had that annoying chunk of rock stuck to his fricken' spine, of course, but even if it did speak to him a lot, it wasn't the best company.

I could say the same about you, sad the scarab into Jaime's mind, worsening his headache. But Jaime decided to ignore it.

Plus, his sister, Milagro, and her friends were playing in the room beside his. And Louisa (Jaime's step-sis) and her boyfriend, who having an argument, were on the other side. Raul (Jaime's step-bro) and some of his mates were in his room having a laugh with a few beers, directly opposite Jaime's room. All the better to push Jaime around every morning. And his mom was down stairs, talking to his step dad, Jose.

Probably talking about my newfound schizo-ness, thought Jaime miserably.

Scan's show they are indeed discussing your new habits, informed the scarab. This, again, did nil to help Jaime's worsening headache.

Of course, it was all the scarab's fault. His new habit of talking to 'himself', his parents discussing it, and the headaches. Jaime figured the headaches were from having to share head space with the annoying, homicidal mind and voice of the scarab.

That is exactly the reason, the scarab confirmed. But our amour is an asset!

"Shut up!" Said Jaime quietly, clutching his head as his brain exploding headache came in full force. He curled up as small as possible, bringing his knees up to his chest. His nails were digging into his scalp, drawing blood. It felt as if his brain was being fried. Resisting the urge to cry out, Jaime bit his lip hard. Too hard. It ruddy hurt. At any other time Jaime would have been a tad upset about this, but at that moment he was too busy dealing with his SIMHA (scarab-induced-monster-headache). It was a-g-o-n-y. 5 star pain. Jaime allowed a low groan to escape his lips, but it was drowned out by Milagro and co.

Behind his closed eyes, random images flashed in Jaime's mind, but they went so fast he didn't get a chance to really see them. But thankfully, the waves of pain had died down to the normal headache standard.

"Hey kid," said the cocky, arrogant voice of Jose from the door.

"Hola Jose," answered Jaime shortly. He had nothing good to say about Jose.

"Let me tell ya somethin'," growled the huge burly man.

Threatening intent, said the scarab. But, unlike he would with others, it didn't form a plasma gun or something. It knew that Jaime would simply not allow it, despite what Jose did.

"Don't you think I know that?" Snapped Jaime, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and standing.

"You little-" Jose punched Jaime hard in the stomach. Jaime doubled up and dropped to the floor, arms around his stomach, just under his ribs. As Jaime struggled to remember how to breath, whilst wincing at his head that had banged off the floor. Which hurt more because he still had the after-shocks from the original SIMHA.

It was as if the scarab had decided to dump a load of pointless info in his brain.

That's exactly what I did, the scarab stated. But it wasn't pointless.

"Well, how about you-" Jaime was cut off by Jose, kicking him as hard as he could in the ribs. He had forgotten he was speaking out loud, that Jose couldn't hear the voice too. The man leant down and hauled Jaime up by the scruff of his neck and punched his face twice. Great. Jaime now had a black eye and a split lip. Fun stuff.

"Anything else? You estupido niño?" Jaime did the safest thing and shook his head no. But apparently he did something wrong, because Jose dropped him again and stamped hard on Jaime's right ankle, hoping to break it.

Report: internal bleeding, no broken bones, reported the scarab, and for once Jaime listened, as he curled up into the smallest shape possible on the floor by Jose's feet. A doctor is recommended.

Jose glared at Jaime, before grunting.

"Your mother and I have decided to send you to get checked for schizophrenia, kid," said Jose, his voice softening, which meant that Milagro or Sofia, Jaime's mom, were out in the hall watching. "Now how about you get up off the floor, eh, muchacho?" Jose leant down and 'helped' Jaime up, before gasping.

You gotta hand it to the guy, thought Jaime bitterly, he's a good actor.

Indeed.

"What happened to your face, Jaime?" Asked Jose, tipping Jaime's face to see the bruises at every angle. There was the one on his left eye from just now, quickly swelling shut, and his lip was bleeding, but there was also a fainter one on his jaw, and another on his cheek bone. The ones on his jaw and cheek bone were from bullies. Milagro ran in to see what was wrong with Jaime, before gasping, putting her hand to her mouth, her eyes as big as saucers. Then Jaime's mom barged in, looking over Jose's shoulder and also gasped. There seemed to be a lot of that going around.

"Hijo? What happened?" She asked, examining Jaime's face with the air of the nurse she was. Then her face went stern. "Have you been getting into fights again?"

"Si, mom," said Jaime, dropping his gaze to the floor, shuffling his feet.

"You've got to stop this, Jaime!" Said Jose, crossing his arms over his chest. "Well, what do have to say for yourself? Worrying your mother and I like this!"

It almost strangled him, but Jaime managed to mutter, "lo siento."

"Louder. Or don't you really mean it?" Asked Sofia, angry. "And look me in the eye." Jaime mentally screamed, but looked up and looked straight into her eyes.

"Lo siento, mom, Jose," Jaime said, in a louder voice.

"Good, don't do it again," Jose said, turning to leave, "and don't do it again." And then el diablo vacated the room.

"Hijo…" said Sofia putting her hand to Jaime's face, a sad look on her face. A disappointed look. "You are worth so much more than this."

And then she left, taking Milagro, leaving Jaime alone to his thoughts and pain.

What do you think? Too dark? Sorry Jaime. Will be a Wonderbeetle fic, but at the moment it's just about Jaime.

Translations:

Hijo: son

Muchacho: boy

Lo siento: I'm sorry

Estupido niño: stupid boy

Si: yes (duh)

Hola: I'm sure you know what this means.