So, here's another chapter for those who actually read this story haha. I only heard from six of you last time, not gonna lie kind of depressing. So anyways wrote this chapter real quick, since it's annoying taking time to write stories and not getting any feedback, sorry if it totally blows. I felt the need to change things up a little. I needed Cruz to be a Fuentes. Haha. Sorry I'm a little cranky today, if you couldn't tell. I'm sure if you guys write stories you understand, but I hate when people stop stories right when it gets good, so I promise I will keep writing. It just may take awhile. So thanks for reading and understanding my frustration.

Cruz

Alicia's graduation party started out fine. Actually I don't even know how it started out, I was upstairs packing for Colorado when people started arriving. A was sitting on his bed throwing a tennis ball up in the air and catching it.

"Why are you leaving?" he asked.

"Cause I want to graduate," I answered throwing a pile of shirts in a suitcase.

He sighed, "I say Mamá should home school you."

I laughed, "A, that wouldn't work out much better."

He smiled and bounced the ball against the wall and caught it, "It's just gonna be weird. I mean I go from having three siblings living with me to none."

"You like attention, being an only child will be good for you."

He smiled, "Shut up."

"And anyways Paco's probably still gonna be around. His stuff is still in his room."

"What's up with him. He's never around anymore. Why doesn't he just take his stuff to Juli's?"

I shrugged and searched my drawers for any shirts I missed.

"Cruz, I feel like you aren't telling me something."

I looked at him and cocked an eyebrow, "Why?"

He shrugged, "I just have that feeling."

I didn't say anything.

He gasped, "so you're not telling me something?"

I shhhed him, "shut up, AJ."

He got to his feet and marched over to me, "What aren't you telling me?"

I looked at the door to make sure it wasn't open and sighed, "Paco knocked Juli up."

A's jaw literally dropped and he was speechless.

"But you didn't hear it from me, okay?" I told him.

He stood there and just gawked at me.

I shook my head and turned back to my drawer and started collecting socks and underwear.

"Are you serious?" He whispered.

I nodded, "He told me earlier, then he started crying. Papá knows, he walked in on us."

A scrunched his face up, "does Mamá know?"

I shrugged, "Not that I know of."

He collapsed onto my bed, "we should probably be going down."

I nodded and pointed a finger at him, "none of what I just told you gets repeated to anybody, comprende?"

He nodded and we turned to the door.

The whole party was outside and in our garage. We had a pretty big backyard for barbequing and bonfires. We also had a pool for people to swim in.

When A and I got outside it was already packed with family, Alicia's friends, and what seemed like the whole state of Illinois.

"Licia is more popular than I thought," A muttered under his breath.

I chuckled as we weaved through people and stopped where Papá and his brothers were grilling.

Papá was flipping burgers, Carlos had hotdogs, and Luis was sitting around watching them. Luis pulled me in a head lock.

"I can't believe you're deciding to leave your household for the devil's," He said.

A snatched a hotdog from Carlos' plate and talked with his mouth full, "that's what I told him."

Luis loosened his grip around my neck but slung his arm over my shoulder.

Carlos scowled at his little brother, "Cruz, I promise you Colorado is gonna change your life."

"It better, 'cause my life is pretty sucky right now," I muttered.

Luis squeezed my shoulder.

A sighed and added under his breath, "not as bad as Paco's."

Papa's head snapped up and his eyes were furious, but they grew into fear when Mamá's head turned towards us.

I didn't even know she was talking to some of her friends right next to the grill until she turned around.

She excused herself from her group and turned to us. AJ stopped mid bite when he was the look Papá gave him.

"What's happening?" Luis whispered to me.

"You'll find out in due time," I told him.

Mamá turned to A, "Why is Paco's life so bad?"

A looked at me his eyes huge with fear. I looked at Papá he was frozen with fear and anger molded his face.

"Not now," he breathed to Ma.

She changed her gaze to him, "Alex, what's happening."

He shook his head, "later, Brit."

She put her hands on her hips, her blue eyes glowing with impatience. Then she turned to me.

"Cruz, I know you'll tell me. What's going."

I looked at A, "I hate you right now."

"Cruz," Papá hissed. "Please not here, not now. Don't ruin it for Licia."

I turned my eyes on him, "it's like you live on secrets. I'm sick of hiding everything."

"Cruz," Luis warned tightening his grip on my shoulder.

People were starting to turn their heads towards us.

I shook my arm away from Luis, "I'm sick of this whole family being based on secrets!"

"What secrets?" Papá asked, his voice furious.

"All your fuckin' secrets. All the things you've done in the past!"

More people turned their heads.

"Cruz, please tone it down," A begged me. He knew I was close to losing it.

"I'm sick of people telling me what to do," I hissed, "It's like they think I'm so stupid that I don't even have a brain. I can't join skate competitions. I can't go to normal school. I can't join a gang with my best friend." I said the last words staring directly at Papá.

His face hardened even more at my words.

"Cruz!" Carlos stepped in for the first time, he tried to grab my arm, but I dodged his grip.

I stepped on to the table next to me.

"Hey everybody!" I yelled grasping people's attention.

"Cruz, don't!" Mamá pleaded quietly.

I went on, ignoring her, "My name's Cruz and I'm Alicia's brother. I'd just really like to congratulate her. I'll congratulate her on being the only normal one in the Fuentes family."

"Us Fuentes are former gang members," I pointed to Papá, "Don't have any contact with the rest of our family," I nodded to Mamá, "We're gay," I pointed to A, "We knock up our girlfriends," I caught Paco's stare across the yard, "And we fail sophomore year, run away, throw away the only girl who we felt something for, and ruin our sister's graduation party."

"So let's put our drinks up for Licia surviving this family so long."

Licia was ghostly white and her mouth was half open. She was huddled around a group of her cheerleader friends. They all looked at me like I was crazy, which I admit I was.

I jumped off the table and looked at the family I'd just thrown under the bus. Mamá was close to tears, but in the moment it didn't faze me.

I shook my head, "I'm going."

Nobody tried to stop me and everybody watched me leave. The yard was dead silent as I made my way through the people.

I grabbed my skateboard from the place it laid in the grass and put it to the ground. My feet took me to where I wanted to go.

I knew what it meant to rebel. I, Cruz Parker Fuentes, was the king of going against what people wanted just to make a point. But the thing I was about to do, not only crossed the line, but the whole damn boarder.

I hadn't been to Rio's house in forever. It looked the same as the last time I'd been there, ran down, and no signs of life anywhere.

I knocked on the door and it quickly opened.

"What the hell are you doing here? You're gonna get shot. Hell, you're gonna get me shot!" Rio hissed and pulled me into the house.

I'd never been inside his house before. He was always embarrassed about where he lived. He never took anybody around his padre in fear that he would harm more than just Rio.

His house smelt like a mixture of stale alcohol and air freshener. I assumed the air freshener was being used to try and cover the stench of the alcohol. The entryway was rather bare, just a few random shoes flown around.

"I want in," I said.

"What? In where?" He asked.

"In the Blood."

"What!" He hissed, his eyes growing.

"I want to become one of them, one of you."

"Cruz, no!"

"Just take me to your guy," I told him.

He shook his head, "No, fuckin' way."

"Fine, I'll just go find him myself."

I turned to leave, but he grabbed my arm, "why now?"

"For Lia," I lied.

I hated lying about Lia, but I had no other explanation. I wanted to join to prove a point, to tell people I'm not like my family at all.

"You really love her," he said.

I nodded.

He hesitated but nodded.

Before he left he went to make sure his papá and Zita were asleep. His papá was passed out on the couch, I could hear his snores from the entryway.

He came out of Zita's room and slipped his shoes on. He motioned for me to follow him out the door.

He grabbed his skateboard, I grabbed mine. Usually I would be the one leading since I liked riding faster, but Rio took the lead on this journey.

My heart pounded the whole time, I realized this was stupid, but I was too stupid to call it off. I needed to do this for myself, I needed to understand where I was supposed to be.

Rio kicked his skateboard up when we got to a gravel road, "are you sure about this, Cruz?"

I nodded and kicked my board up.

"Okay," he sighed and started down the road.

A couple minutes later we arrived at a gate. Rio stopped and shook the door a little.

A big guy, around four hundred pounds and about seven feet, appeared from a tiny shack next to the gate.

"Rio! ¿Qué pasa?" He asked with a grin.

"Nada," Rio repleied.

The guys face fell once he saw me.

"Hey, what the hell you bring him here for?" He asked Rio.

"Tito, will you let us in? We need to talk to Juan."

Tito cocked his head, "I'll let you in, but blue eyes isn't disappearing from my sight."

"Tito, he wants in."

Tito turned to me and stared me down, "You're a Fuentes. ¿Verdad?"

"What's it to you?" I asked.

He chuckled, "of course you're a damn Fuentes. Why do you want in all of sudden? Daddy didn't buy you the car you wanted."

I shook my head at him, "Daddy's a fake."

He cocked his head, "so, his own children are starting to see that?"

I didn't really like talking about Papá to some guy I didn't even know, but it needed to be done.

Rio spoke up, "Tito, can we just go talk to Juan?"

Tito stared at me for the longest time and then opened the gate, "no funny business, remember they take no shit."

Rio rolled his eyes as we stepped through the door in the fence, our skateboards in our hands. I looked around at the place where everything in the LB went down.

It didn't look like a place a gang would claim, it looked more like a military base. There was barbwire on top of the fence, the actually building was concrete with a tin roof.

"Come on," Rio said and pulled the massive steel door open.

The walls were concrete inside and it smelled like a mixture of rust and mold.

"This way," Rio said and turned down a long hallway that looked the same as the one we were in.

Our footsteps echoed down the hallway and with every sound they made it reminded me why I was doing this.

Rio stopped outside another steel door and looked at me.

I nodded and he knocked.

"Entrar," a deep voice said.

Rio pushed the door open and we were standing in a makeshift office.

A plump mexicano was sitting behind a wooden desk in a big chair. His feet her up and a lit cigar filled the air around him with smoke.

"Juan," Rio nodded and threw up the LB sign.

Juan returned the sign and nodded to the two seats in front of him.

We sat and Juan put his feet down at sat up straight. He inched close to me, so close I could smell the smoke from his cigar. Our eyes glared at each other, I knew I couldn't look away.

He stared at me for the longest time and then his face broke out into the creepiest grin I had ever seen, "it's about time a member of the Fuentes family realizes that this is where they belong."

I swallowed hard and squeezed my eyes shut, "I want in."

I heard Juan laugh, "you don't know what you want."

When I opened my eyes I was staring down the barrel of Juan's pistil. Rio stiffened besides me.

Juan went on, "why should I let you in? You're the son of a traitor."

Even though I knew that Juan could easily pull the trigger and kill me on the spot I felt my insides burn as the cockiness set in.

"I am a traitor," I said looking him in the eyes.

He cocked the gun, I kept my cool.

"I'm supposed to be the prissy rich kid, with a lot of friends. I'm supposed to be in sports. Fuck it, I could be that, but no I'm hanging out with a bunch of dirty gangsters because they understand me more than the people that are supposed to. Your people, are my people."

He stared at me and cocked his head. His finger lingered on the trigger.

My stomach started to roll and deep in my gut I realized this was the end. There was no way out, I was either going to die a stupid kid who felt the need to rebel or a gang banger.

Rio sighed in relief as Juan dropped the gun.

"Rio, go tell Tito to round some guys up for a jumping. Tell him to get the best of the best," Juan said.

Rio nodded and left Juan and I alone.

"You pull any shit tonight, you're dead," Juan said.

I nodded.

Then he smiled, "I kind of miss having the Fuentes' attitude around."

I leaned back in my chair, "well, you better get used to it 'cause I'm told I have a lot of that."

He chuckled and picked up his gun. He emptied the gun and slid the bullets in the drawer.

"Do I get one of those?" I asked.

He looked at me with a grin, "let's see if you survive first."