This is where the gang meets Lars' parents. They don't know about the discrimination until later in the story.


Chapter 7: Meeting the Parents

Sometime later after school, Jojo and the gang takes Lars back to the basketball court to play some one-on-one with the gang and as they began playing, most of them were really surprised at how Lars got really good at playing basketball as he did several slam-dunks that amazed Diego, Cody, Jonah, Zeke and Frankie while it shocked Mike, Max, Austin, Seth and Jojo that Lars has basketball skills.

"How do you say 'how the freakin' heck you did that' in Spanish?" asked Frankie, his mouth hung open.

Lars looked at Frankie a little cross-eyed, apparently confused by that question and asked, "What?"

Brent walked over and entered the courtyard and he was happy to see Lars there and said, "Lars, my new amigo!"

Lars greeted him in spanish and high-fived him, which made Brent respond with a fist bump and both of them started laughing and Diego said, "Well, glad you showed up early."

Brent scoffs at that and said, "Didn't know you guys were gonna be here."

Diego puts on his headband and brings in the basketballs and said, "You may be new here to us, but I'm still gonna kick your ass."

Brent smirked at that cocky tone in Diego's voice and said, "Not if I kick yours first."

Mike lets out a whistle, sensing there's gonna be a lot of competition between the two of them and that of course...made Diego look very serious about this and he said, "We'll see about that."

And with that, the boys went forward and did some B-ball playing as Brent dribbles the ball and Diego blocks in his way to prevent him from shooting some hoops, but Brent threw the ball anyway as it lands into the net and everyone started cheering for Brent, including Lars.

"Si yo puede!" Lars exclaimed.

Hoagie scratched his head in confusion and asked, "Uh...what?"

"It means 'yes you can' in Spanish. It's a mantra that runs in my family that whatever obstacle we may face, we always remember that quote because it has a lot of meaning to it." Lars explains.

Everyone seemed pretty impressed and inspired by that meaning and it touched Brent very personally at that and he said, "Yeah, that's something I'll remember for the rest of my life."

"Enough talk, dude. If you spent enough time playing basketball in the gym or in your backyard in Who-ami, you might as well handle a basketball court here in Whoville." Diego said.

Later on, Brent brought in Lars, Jojo, Jared, Ryan, Seth, Austin, Brutus and Marcus on his team while Diego brought in Jonah, Cyrus, Hawk, Travis, Sam, Mike, Cody, Frankie, Hoagie, Josh, Noah, Dustin, Zeke and Stephen in another team planning to go for the goals.

"Your team will be kicked in the balls when we win." Brent said, smirking.

"Mine or yours?" asked Diego.

Soon enough, Manny blew the whistle as a sign that game's on and everyone begins playing ball in teams and what was surprising for them is that Lars is gaining a lot of super skills, which surprises both teams as he keeps bringing in more slam dunks. Brent chuckled softly and said, "How are you so good at this?"

"I used to play basketball with my dad. He was always better than me." Lars replied.

"Dude, with those dunks, you could beat your dad." Mike exclaimed.

Brent and the others could tell that Lars had a lot of basketball practice in Mexico and with several more ball shots, he was able to beat out Diego's team very quickly. After only just an hour, Manny looks up at the scoreboard and said, "Okay...now for the score; between you guys' teams; it's 35-21."

Brent dropped his jaw in shock after finding out that his team had won the game and he said, "We won, guys!"

Diego rolled his eyes at that, but he couldn't blame Lars for being so good and he said, "Great game, Lars."

"Gracias, mi hermano." Lars said.

"De nada." Cody replied.

Not long after that, Lars' parents walked in and when Lars saw them, he was delighted to see them as he came towards them and said, "Hola, mama, papi."

"Hola, mi hijo," Lars's mother said.

"Ay, que paso?"

Brent walks over to meet Lars' parents for the first time and he said, "Hey, I'm Brent Rodriguez, Lars' friend."

Lars' father shook Brent's hand and he asked, "You know my son from school?"

"Yes, sir."

Just the, the rest of them came over to meet Lars' parents and Lars' mother was amazed at how many friends their son has gained and she said, "Oh, my..."

"Hello, Mrs. Ramirez. We're all Lars' friends from our high school." Jojo said, greeting them.

"Have you been taking good care of our son?" asked Mr. Ramirez.

"Si, senor. We've been taken very good care of him." Brent added.

Mr. Ramirez was utterly surprised that Brent does speak a little bit of Spanish and he asked, "You speak spanish too?"

"Only a little bit of it. My family and I are originally from Who-ami and I lived here for...about 2 months now, so it's a little different than what I'm used to...warm beaches, palm trees, the big houses...but my family keeps their When-eta Rico heritage too." Brent explained.

"I did not know that." Max stated.

Brent looks at Max and replied, "You never asked."

Mr. Ramirez pats his son's shoulder and said, "Come on, hijo. Time to head back to our casa so we can finish some unpacking."

"Esta bien, papi." Lars responds.

Diego chuckled softly and said, "All right, Lars. See ya tomorrow at school."

"Nice to meet you both." Jojo added.

Everyone said their 'bye's' to each other as Lars got in his parents' car and went back home and soon after, Marcus looks up and said, "Hey, it's been good...but I gotta head to work. My dad needs some help making this new invention of pizza called buffalo wing pizza."

"Sounds delicious." Mike said.

Marcus chuckled softly and said, "Yeah, thank goodness it's something I can actually taste."

As Marcus left the basketball court, everyone else seems to feel a little worried for Lars about how much longer most of the students at the school will continue to reject him because of his ethnicity, but no one was more worried than Brent because he has the same ethnic background as Lars and he knew that it's something that will never go away unless more people take the time to get to know a person before they make their judgment.

"You okay, B-Rod?" asked Mike.

Brent sighed heavily and replied, "I don't know. When I heard those rumors about Lars when he first came here and that everyone else rejected him because he's Mexican, it just makes me angry, you know? I wanted to punch, curse, scream at these people...anything I could to get this feeling out. No one deserves to be discriminated."

Diego walks over to Brent and said, "I agree, man. We need to do something about this."

Jojo looks over at the guys and asked, "And fast."


We've got drama coming up and trust me, it'll make ya salivate. And the aggressive mexican hater returns!