WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER: none
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH
All too quickly, Bart finished up his morning task; milking Daisy the cow. Of course, Mr. Kent had supervised him during the process. After the work was done, the elderly man had playfully slapped him on the back and laughed. "Good thing you're getting practice now! You might have to do this to a lady someday!"
Right. Ha ha.
Afterwards, Bart was alone in the barn, with not much to do. He talked to the horses and pretended like they actually understood what he was saying. Ginger seemed to be very impatient, stomping at her stable floor.
"Do you want out?" he asked her. The horse just whinnied. Bart shrugged. What the hell? He opened her stall, guiding the mare out. She seemed happy, and affectionately licked his face.
"Heh. You're funny. A lot nicer than Luna over there." Bart mumbled, then thought for a second. Moving quickly, he hopped onto Ginger's back, not knowing how she'd react. She didn't flinch. That was a good sign.
"YOLO, right?" Bart asked Ginger. She didn't respond. Of course she didn't respond- she was a horse. "Ah, I'm totally going to die a virgin at this rate. Whatever." he grabbed her mane and tried to get her to start trotting. He screamed as the mare began to go into a full gallop out of the barn. Bart continued to scream, digging his heels into the mare's side to try and get some sort of grip.
"Slow down! Neigh neigh! Slow down! Neigh!" Bart yelled, attempting to get into whatever contact he could with the horse. Ginger kept running though, and soon, they faced a fence.
"Don't jump! Don't jump!" he begged. And of course, she did. Bart lost his grip on her and went flying. He tried to land on his feet, though he landed at a more awkward angle, before falling onto the grass. He was silent for a moment before his brain registered the pain, and he screamed and swore, holding his knees to his stomach. Ginger sniffed him curiously.
After about fifteen seconds, he could hear the rumble of a machine, then footsteps approaching him.
"Mr. Kent?" he asked in hope and grunted in pain, "I think I broke my legs."
"No. Not Mr. Kent."
Bart turned his head to the voice, "Fuck! It's you."
Jaime rolled his eyes, "Whatever. What happened?"
"Just bring me back to the house. I seriously fucked up my legs." Bart responded. Jaime opened the gate of the fence and walked in, picking Bart up, loading him back into the ride-on lawn mower he was using. He began to drive, trying to ignore Bart's cries of pain.
"Fuck. This thing goes like, four miles an hour." Jaime grumbled, then turned around to face Bart, "I'll need to carry you back, okay?"
Bart nodded and winced at the pain. Jaime walked over to him, picking him once again, and sprinted towards the house. He continued to try and ignore Bart's cries, but he couldn't, and tried not to wince like Bart did every time he heard one. He finally arrived, and luckily for him, Mrs. Kent was knitting on the front porch.
"Mrs. Kent!" he called, "Bart is seriously hurt."
The old woman looked up, immediately rushing towards them, then guiding them into the house, to set Bart down on the couch.
"I'll get Jade. She's studying to be a doctor." Mrs. Kent explained, and Jaime nodded. Mrs. Kent went to search for her, leaving only the sound of Bart crying in pain again.
"What did you do?" Jaime demanded.
"I-" Bart winced, "I thought it would be-" he winced again, "-f-fun to ride Ginger bareback."
"You dumb ass!" Jaime hissed.
"I know it was stupid!" Bart exclaimed.
Jade soon entered, inspecting Bart. He let out yells of pain as she grabbed his foot, though she did it as gently as possible, it still hurt him.
"I'd need an x-ray to determine whether or not I'm right," Jade finally said, and by now, pretty much everyone was crowded in the living room, "but it looks like he twisted both of his ankles at most. I don't think anything's broken."
"What the hell was he doing to twist both ankles?" Roy asked.
"He told me he was riding Ginger bareback and fell off." Jaime explained.
"Hey," Dick smiled, "It's best he learns now before he decides to ride anything else bareback."
Cassie was the first to catch the joke, and she burst into a fit of laughter. Soon, the others followed.
"-ey man that's not fucking funny." Bart groaned from the couch.
"We need to give him some space." Jade said, returning to the serious atmosphere, "He needs plenty of bed-rest in order to heal properly."
"Conner, can you go fetch Ginger for me?" Mr. Kent requested. Conner nodded silently before leaving.
x
"Thanks for carrying me back to the house today." Bart said in the dead of night.
"You're welcome." Jaime replied blandly.
"You were crazy, man. You were like, that blond guy from Frozen when he was carrying Anna back to the castle." Bart attempted to make an analogy.
"You mean Kristoff?" Jaime asked.
"Somebody knows their Disney." Bart teased.
"Oh, shut up. You can't blame me. Mi primos used to watch it at every family event. I might as well have memorized every line in the movie by now." Jaime grumbled.
"Your primos?" Bart asked, confused.
"Cousins. My cousins." Jaime explained.
"I'm guessing español is your first language?" Bart suggested.
"Sí, pendejo."
"Hombre, eres tan amable."
"What the hell?" Jaime asked, sitting up in his bed, "How did you-"
"Never underestimate the freshmen." Bart chuckled.
Jaime rolled his eyes and flopped back down on his bed, "'Night. I'm done with you."
"'Night."
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14TH
Bart woke up the next day to Mrs. Kent delivering him breakfast. The thing Bart noticed before her was how badly he had to pee.
"Mrs. Kent. I have to pee. How do I get up?" he asked, almost panicking.
"Well, there's this bucket." Mrs. Kent gestured to the bucket by the end of Bart's bed.
"Are you serious? I have to piss in a bucket? I mean, no disrespect, ma'am, but-"
"You really think I'm the one who put it there?" Mrs. Kent laughed, "It's either the bucket, or you'll have to ask one of your boyfriends to help you in the bathroom."
Bart felt the heat hit his cheeks and he bit his lip, "I guess it's the bucket, then."
"Eat your breakfast before it gets cold." Mrs. Kent reminded, gesturing to the tray she had brought him. Bart nodded, and she left the room to give him privacy.
Bart finished his breakfast quickly, and was soon bored. He looked around for something to do. His eyes ended up landing upon the backpack that was by Jaime's bed. He knew he shouldn't be snooping through his stuff, but his boredom was eating away at him quickly, and his options were limited. He pushed his body towards the backpack, making sure to have his feet remain on the mattress. Carefully, he extended his arm and reached for the bag, trying not to dump over his piss-bucket. Once he got a hold of it, he pulled himself back to his own bed, and started going through the bag.
The first thing he noticed that was in there was a sketchbook. Curiously, he started to go through the pages. On the very first page was something he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. It looked like some sort of alien-human-thing. It was a good drawing, no doubt about that. Bart would have never guessed Jaime was the artist type. The drawing was detailed, too, with professional markers used on it. He continued to go through the pages, and he began to see drawings of superheroes that everybody knew of, like Captain America, the Hulk, Thor, and a few Deadpool drawings here and there. But god damn Jaime was talented. He saw a couple more drawings of the alien-human-thing, figuring by now it must have been another hero. Bart was quite the superhero geek himself, yet he had never seen this one. Was it a new one Marvel had just come out with? Or a really, really, unknown one?
He was about to close the sketchbook when he saw a paper slip out. Curiously, he flipped it over to look at it. It was the human-alien thing, though this drawing wasn't as nearly as good as the other ones. It looked like something a child had created. "Un héroe nuevo. ¡Escarabajo Azul!" was written in crayon.
"Blue Beetle, huh?" Bart asked curiously, translating the Spanish to himself. The door to the bedroom swung open. Quickly, Bart tried to stuff the sketchbook back into the bag, but Jaime had already caught him in the act.
"What the fuck are you doing? Are you going through my shit?" Jaime commanded.
"I was bored, okay? It's not like I can go anywhere!" Bart defended himself. Jaime grumbled, grabbing his backpack.
"Don't ever touch my stuff again." he warned, then looked down, "Is that a bucket full of piss?"
"Er... yes. But who is Blue Beetle?" Bart asked.
"It's just a stupid drawing I made when I was ten." Jaime grumbled, "It's nothing."
"But I saw cooler drawings of him. Like, recent ones." Bart said.
"It's just a dumb thing, okay?" Jaime grumbled again.
"I never knew you were so good at drawing." Bart commented.
"...thanks." Jaime mumbled.
"But seriously. Who's Blue Beetle? Is he... or she, a new Marvel character?" Bart asked.
"No, I made him up." Jaime explained, "It's... a long story."
"Well, it's not like I have anything to do. I'm all ears." Bart promised.
Jaime pulled out the old picture he had in his backpack. It was the very first time he ever drew Blue Beetle.
AUGUST 2010
"Jaime." Mr. Reyes smiled, grabbing his son's hand, "I'm going to need you to be strong for your sister and your mother."
"But papá!" Jaime cried, "I need you. You need to come home. Please."
"I'm sorry, it just doesn't work like that." his father apologized, letting go of his son, resting his arm back on the hospital bed, "I need you to be a hero for me, too."
"I can't be a hero. How do I be a hero?" Jaime asked.
"Make a hero. Draw me a hero. So whenever I look at them, I can think if you." his father suggested.
"Okay." Jaime promised, "I will."
x
"Dad. I have the hero." Jaime said as he visited his dad the next week, pulling out the drawing to give to his father, "I call him Blue Beetle. He's a human, so he technically doesn't have powers. But he has armor that can go over his body and give him special weapons. He can also fly."
Mr. Reyes smiled, "Oh, my. Creative, Jaime. I'll give you that."
Jaime smiled back, "I can draw more for you."
"That'd be great. Can you tape this one to the wall?" Mr. Reyes requested. Jaime nodded, and he took the drawing, looking for any kind of tape around the hospital room. Once he found some, he attached it to the wall, right where his father could see it.
SEPTEMBER 2013
It would be only a month until Jaime's fourteenth birthday, but he wasn't sure if he would receive anything fancy this year. His family was becoming increasingly more and more poor trying to keep his dad alive. Bored, he turned off his computer and looked out his window. The lights of Tim's large foster home across the street were bright, and he wondered if he should go over and ask him to hang out.
Suddenly, he heard a loud wail down the stairs. Concerned, he went towards the source of the noise. His mother was on the phone, on her knees, crying into the hand that wasn't holding the phone. Milagro was trying her best to comfort her sobbing mother, but failing.
"Mamá, what happened?" Jaime asked. Bianca looked at her son for a few seconds before continuing to cry. She finally hung up before dropping her phone.
"Y-your father's dead." she cried, "He unexpectedly died ten minutes ago."
Jaime stood wide-eyed while Milagro's eyes filled with tears. She began to cry along with her mother, and they hugged each other. Jaime began to cry as well, and he quickly wiped away his tears before running back up the stairs and jumping onto his bed, bawling into his pillow. He didn't know how long he did, though when he finished, he looked out the window and the lights to the foster home were no longer on.
x
The empty hospital room didn't feel right.
Why did he have to go so soon?! Jaime screamed internally. In anger, he ripped all of his Blue Beetle drawings off of the wall. Over the course of three years that he had drawn them, he had got increasingly better, and ended up drawing about forty. But he didn't want to see any of them anymore. He grabbed them, and stomped out of the room. When he had gotten home that night, he went to his back porch, and began a fire in the fire-pit. He threw the drawings in the fire, though one was caught in a wind-gust, and flew away. He chased after it, and after a couple of seconds, caught it. He looked at it.
He realized it was the first drawing he made for his dad. It was so crappy and poorly drawn, he cringed at it.
But...
he couldn't do it. He couldn't burn this one.
Grumbling, he folded up the paper and placed it in his hoodie's pocket.
This one would have to stay.
Bart shifted uncomfortably as he saw tears begin to roll down Jaime's cheeks. He had been sitting there in silence for almost two minutes, mumbling incoherent Spanish, the only thing he caught onto was "papá". He was obviously thinking deeply about something, Bart figured.
"Uh, Jaime?" Bart asked.
Jaime was snapped out of whatever trance he was in, and he wiped away his tears.
"Are you okay?"
Jaime's head turned towards Bart.
"I'm fine. Forget this ever happened." Jaime insisted. He stuffed the drawing back in his backpack, zipping it up before throwing it in the closet. He began to walk out of the door.
"Jaime! Wait!" Bart cried, but Jaime was already gone.
"Great." he mumbled to himself, "I probably reminded him of a traumatizing childhood memory or something."
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15TH
Bart woke up pretty late the next day, according to the wall clock, five p.m. He was quite surprised to see Jaime sitting on his bed, propped up against the wall, staring into seemingly nothing.
"You okay there, buddy?" Bart asked as he began to sit up.
"Oh. You're awake. Great." Jaime mumbled, "And don't call me that."
"What's wrong? Is it from yesterday?" Bart asked curiously.
"No. Tim and I just got into a huge fight, and I need some time to think it through." Jaime answered.
"Oh? Over what?" Bart asked, then caught himself, "If you don't want to talk about it, that's okay, too."
"No, it's fine. Roy went into town with Mr. Kent this morning to sell some of their crops and buy stuff like soap, toothpaste, shampoo, you know. Stuff like that. Roy bought some beer as well. He wanted to share it. All of us minus Mr. and Mrs. Kent went to the barn and drank some. Cassie drank too many too quickly. I guess she got kinda horny or something, because she started rubbing up on me and kissing me."
"Oh." Bart replied, honestly trying not to laugh, "Did you kiss back or something?"
"No. I didn't try to push her away, either. I was kind of just frozen there. Wasn't sure what to do. Tim saw and he got mad. Note that he's drunk, too. He called us both whores and sluts and stuff along the lines before attacking me. We got into a fight. Dick and Roy had to pull us apart." Jaime explained.
"Sorry that happened to you." Bart shrugged, "You know... about those drawings-"
"Drop it, Bart." Jaime commanded.
"I'm not gonna ask you about Blue Beetle anymore. I was gonna ask you if you could draw me as a superhero." Bart informed.
"Oh?" Jaime asked.
"Yeah." Bart responded.
"Well, what would be in it for me?" Jaime questioned.
"Let me see." Bart replied, bending over his bed so he could see underneath it, "Ah. There she is." he said with enthusiasm. He pulled out a jar full of weed and showed it to Jaime, "If you draw me a hero, I'll give you all this."
"Where the hell did you get that from?" Jaime asked, surprised Bart had that underneath his bed.
"Dick. Left over stuff from my birthday." Bart responded simply.
"Ah... of course." Jaime rolled his eyes, "Deal. We'll shake on it." Jaime insisted, holding out his hand. Bart took his free hand and shook it.
Did I just make a drug deal? Bart thought, Eh, whatever. Who cares?
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16TH
It had been exactly one week since they arrived to the Kent farm, Jaime had noticed. He finished up his drawing of Bart as a superhero. He ripped the pages off of his sketchbook, and woke up Bart, who was taking a late-evening nap.
"Hey, ese. I finished your drawing." Jaime informed, and Bart stirred from his sleep.
"Whoa... cool." Bart admired, "What's his name?"
"I call him Impulse. Because he acts before he thinks. Super-speed is his superpower. If running fast enough, he can run through walls, and break the light barrier." Jaime explained.
"Loving the name, hermano. Also, super-speed? Cool. Kinda like Quicksilver?" Bart asked.
"Except a lot faster." Jaime grinned.
"I like your style." Bart grinned back.
The door to the bedroom opened, and Conner blandly said, "Dinner's ready." Jaime nodded, leaving the room. Bart sighed, knowing he couldn't get up to go with him. He knew Mrs. Kent would be coming upstairs within a few minutes to bring him a plate, but honestly? Eating alone sucked.
Only a minute passed after Jaime returned, and he gave Bart his plate.
"Whoa. Aren't you supposed to be eating down there?" Bart asked.
"Yeah. I said I wanted to come back up here to keep you company. But in reality, I'm just trying to avoid Tim."
"Gee, thanks for making me feel special." Bart rolled his eyes.
"You are special. If you hadn't twisted your ankles I wouldn't have an excuse to avoid him." Jaime countered.
"Mhm. Sure." Bart replied in a sarcastic tone.
The rest of the time was silent. Bart finished first and put his plate on his nightstand. When Jaime finished his, he took Bart's plate as well before heading downstairs.
Bart himself fell right back asleep.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17TH
"Holy cow. I'm doing it! I'm doing it! I'm walking!" Bart said as he stood up.
"Kind of." Jaime responded, "Technically, me and Conner are taking all of your weight."
"Let me have this moment." Bart grumbled. They reached the bathroom, and let Bart go in on his own. They waited a few minutes for him to come out, and strange noises were heard inside. Some screams, yelps, and "What the hell?"s.
"Are you okay in there?" Conner asked.
"Sorry!" Bart apologized from the inside.
"What'd you do?" Conner responded.
"I think I flooded your bathroom."
Conner let out a large sigh, "Is it okay if we come in?"
"Yeah."
Conner turned the knob, and let out a grumble. Bart let out a nervous chuckle. Toilet water was filling the floor, and wet Bart's toes. "I'll clean it up." he muttered, "Jaime, help him back."
Jaime nodded, and Bart used Jaime as support for his weight as they began to walk back to his room.
"What the hell were you doing to even flood the bathroom?" he asked.
Bart bit his lip, "I... I don't know, honestly. Impulse was busy attacking the Toilet Monster."
"Ha. Okay." Jaime said, and Bart reached his bed and Bart sat down, letting himself relax.
"So how has avoiding Tim been?" Bart asked.
"Harder than I thought." Jaime admitted, "Things between me and Cassie are kind of weird, too."
"Do you like her?"
"No. I think she's attractive, no doubt. I just can't imagine being more than friends with her though. She's not my type." Jaime explained.
"Ah. You're not the romantic type?" Bart asked.
"No, not really. I try not to fall in love with people." Jaime admitted.
"That's pretty sad." Bart commented.
"True, though." Jaime admitted.
"Why's that?" Bart asked.
"Well... there was this person I met in eighth grade. It was right after my dad died so I was pretty emotional. They were always there for me, and we became great friends. I was always too scared to tell how I felt, though. At the end of ninth grade, they ended up moving. And I never got the chance." Jaime sighed, then narrowed his eyes, "I really shouldn't be telling you personal shit like this."
"No, it's okay." Bart reassured.
"So how do you do it?" Jaime asked, "How'd you leave the family you loved?"
"I... well, I just had to think of myself before them in that moment." Bart explained, and let out a small grin, "You didn't have any family at home?"
"I used to. I had a sister and a mom." Jaime began to explain, "Things weren't great."
Bart raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"
OCTOBER 2014
"Mom?" Jaime asked, peeking into his mother's room. She was lying on her bed, taking a swig at her seventh can of beer.
"Jaime? Oh, hey. Go play with your Power Rangers or something. Mommy's busy." she slurred.
Jaime walked into the room, and actually got a good look at her. Her used-to-be beautiful, black, glossy hair was a dry tangled mess. Her makeup was smeared, and her clothes were torn.
"Mom, I'm nearly fifteen. I stopped playing with Power Rangers years ago." Jaime reminded, "This needs to stop, now."
"Oh... then go occupy Milagro with her Barbies or something." Bianca suggested, obviously trying harder to get Jaime out of the room now.
"She's eleven. She stopped playing with Barbies years ago, too." Jaime grumbled, "Come on, Mom. I'll help you clean this up."
"I'm fine, hijo." Mrs. Reyes grumbled, wrapping herself in her bed sheets in an attempt to hide.
"Mom..." Jaime sighed, "Both Milagro and I need you to stop this. I know it's been a tough year for you without Dad. But we need you, as your kids."
"If you're almost fifteen, then take care of yourself!" Bianca hissed, "You can go make the money around here. Go be the man of the house!"
Jaime stood frozen, wide-eyed. His mother would never say something like that. He then narrowed them, "Fine. If that's what you want." and he walked out of the room.
x
"I need to find a way to make my family money." Jaime finally admitted as he was talking to his friend, Tim.
"You can't drive to work, though." Tim pointed out.
"I know. Well, not legally, at least. I won't be sixteen for another year, and frankly, I don't know if my family will be able to last one more." Jaime sighed.
"Well, there's two options I can think of." Tim informed.
"Oh? What are they?" Jaime asked curiously.
"Option one: become a male prostitute. Option two: sell things like weed, coke, meth. You know. That stuff." Tim suggested, "Or both at the same time."
"Isn't drug dealing what Dick does?" Jaime asked, ignoring the first suggestion.
"Yeah. I help him on the occasion. Maybe you can join in." Tim offered.
"If it makes my family money, then I'll do it." Jaime nodded.
"Great! Wanna shake on it?" Tim asked, holding out his hand.
Jaime took the offer and shook it.
SEPTEMBER 2016
"What the fuck is that?" Jaime demanded as he stopped his sister who was walking by the kitchen.
"What the hell are you talking about, hermano?" Milagro hissed right back. Jaime narrowed his eyes, grabbing his sister suddenly to get a better look at her neck. She tried to get away and yelled in protest.
"Dios mío, Milagro!" he scolded, "You have a hickey? You're barely in the eighth grade!"
"I can do what I want!" Milagro argued, shoving Jaime off of her.
"Dad wouldn't approve of that." Jaime growled.
"Well Dad has been dead for a long time." Milagro grumbled.
"I better not see your boyfriend around here." Jaime warned.
"I'll bring him if I want!" Milagro continued to insist.
"I'll beat him up so badly he'll go off running." Jaime threatened.
Milagro scoffed, "Ha! Okay! Well, I'd love to see you try!"
"She did end up bringing her boyfriend home one day." Jaime explained, "And the whole thing didn't go so pretty."
"Oh?" Bart asked.
"Yeah..." Jaime admitted in embarrassment, and he could feel the heat hit his cheeks.
"Is this who I think it is?" Jaime asked, entering the family room, glaring at the boy who had his arms wrapped around his sister. He soon got a better look at the boy. Holy shit. He recognized him.
"Bret the Brick?" he asked in surprise and shock. Bret the Brick, otherwise known as Bret, was a literally huge kid at his school, and not fat-wise. Muscle-wise. He was on the football team and one of the toughest members, and strong as hell, and he was only a freshman. To make matters worse, he regularly bought from Jaime and his crew.
"Oh, hey Jaime." Bret replied causally, "Gotta say, that bubblegum you sold me the other week was pretty good."
"What the fuck are you doing with my sister?!" Jaime demanded.
"Netflix and chillin' with her." Bret joked.
"Get out of my fucking house." Jaime grumbled.
"Why? What's your problem, man?" Bret asked.
"You're banging my fucking sister!" Jaime screamed in anger.
"Whoa!" Bret said, putting his hands up in the air, "You need to tone it down some. What Milagro and I do isn't your problem, buddy."
Jaime had already came at him though, and he punched Bret square across the jaw. Bret took only a few seconds to recover before punching Jaime so hard he saw stars, and Jaime fell to the floor, where Bret continuously punched him. Milagro started screaming at him, telling him to stop. Finally, at her request, he did. Jaime was barely able to sit up. He kept screaming profanities but they didn't come out as threatening as he intended them to be.
"Please, go home babe. I'll sort this out myself." Milagro promised.
"Ah, fine." Bret nodded, and kissed her quickly before leaving.
"After losing that fight with Bret, I felt humiliated." Jaime explained, "A little while later, Milagro and Bret broke up because of other things. Then she started to bring home guy, after guy, after guy, after guy... and I quit trying to protect her. I knew there was nothing I could do. I decided I needed to focus on keeping myself okay from then on."
"Wow..." Bart breathed, "Man... I'm sorry. Sucks that it happened to you."
"I know. But I'm in a better position now, I guess." Jaime shrugged, "Not in the best position, but yeah."
"Well, if you ever need to talk to me, I'm always here."
Jaime nodded, "I know."
The words caused Bart's face to light up somewhat, and a smile made its way onto it.
Perhaps things won't be too bad.