Chapter 1: Secret
"Oh, so it's okay for you to go buy a new power tool whenever you feel like it, but not okay for me to spend forty dollars on a haircut, Edward?" Daniella Sanchez yelled.
"Por favor, Angelita! Don't yell the kids can hear you!" Edward said, trying to calm his wife.
"Do you think I care right now?"
Miranda Sanchez groaned and threw her pillow over her face. Her screeching alarm clock coupled with her parents yelling at each other was NOT something she enjoyed waking up to every day. Sighing, she threw the covers off of her and climbed out of bed, nearly tripping over her pile of textbooks as she did so. She groaned. Her Science paper. She forgot about it. Oh well, maybe Gordo would let her copy his. She mulled through her closet trying to find something to wear, finally deciding on a red sweater, a black and white chekered skirt, black tights, and black converse sneakers. She braided a few strands of her longish black hair and threw a red sideways visor on for good measure. Finally she threw on some lipgloss and stuffed her books into her backpack and ran downstairs.
"Morning." she said, throwing her bag in the floor.
Daniella Sanchez looked her daughter over and raised her eyebrows. "Mija, must you dress like it's the 1980's every day?"
Miranda shrugged. "The 80's were cool."
"How do you know? You missed most of it." Edward said. "Hurry up, I'm going to be late for work."
"Don't want to miss your boss strutting around with her newly implanted breasts, do you?" Daniella glared at her husband.
Rolling his eyes, Edward turned to Miranda. "Let's go, querido."
"Coming, Dad. Bye Mom."
"Bye mija! Have a good day at school, don't get into trouble!"
"Yes, mom." Miranda said with a roll of her eyes.
It was another day at the Sanchez house.
* * *
"Okay, so how come Kate Sanders dresses like she's 30 and she can still pull it off without looking like a weirdo?" Lizzie McGuire asked as she leaned against the lockers.
David "Gordo" Gordon pulled his head out of his locker and looked at her. "Because she looks like she's 30?"
"So what?" Lizzie harrumphed. "Okay, so she's tall, and pretty, and has huge breasts..."
"She's too tall, she's not that pretty, and by the time she really IS thirty she'll be begging for a reduction." Gordo replied. "Lizzie, what's your deal today?"
Lizzie looked down at herself and frowned. "Did I mention how thin she is?"
"Oh here we go." Gordo groaned. "Lizzie, you look fine!"
"Fine? Look at me! I'm too short, I'm chubby, my hair is too thin and limp, and..."
"And...what?" Gordo asked. Before he tried to make her feel better, he may as well drag it all outta her first.
"I'm...flat chested."
"You're fourteen! You're not seriously expecting to look like Pamela Anderson right now, are you?"
"It would be nice." Lizzie replied.
"And humanly impossible. Lizzie, you're taller than me. You're not fat, your hair is fine, you look good, okay? Can we drop it?"
"You are such a guy sometimes." Lizzie said. "Oblivious to everything."
"And you're such a girl sometimes!" Gordo shot back. "You pick and pick and pick until you pick it to death!"
Lizzie shrugged. "I am a girl."
Gordo rolled his eyes. "Oy. Hey Miranda!" Gordo said, glad to be relieved from the current conversation. If he had to hear one more rant about Lizzie's nose he would shoot himself in the face.
"Hey guys." Miranda said, opening her locker. "I swear, can I move in with one of you?"
"Why?" Lizzie asked. "Parents still at each other's throats?"
"Yup. Today it was...let's see. Power tools. Hairdressers. Oh yeah, and implants."
Gordo almost spit out the juice he was drinking. "Okay, correct me if I'm wrong, but, I'm the guy, I think I should be the one talking about breasts and implants and Pamela Anderson and all that...stop taking away my duties!!!"
"Pamela Anderson?" Miranda asked quizzically.
"Don't ask." Lizzie said with a roll of her eyes. "So what happened?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary. Oh, but I did learn a new swear word in Spanish!" Miranda said.
"Now you can swear at the migrant farm workers. Good job." Gordo said sarcastically.
Miranda rolled her eyes. "Anyway, Gordo, lemme see your Science homework."
"No way. After the incident with Lizzie and the science project, if Mr. Pettus catches me cheating again, I'm toast." Gordo replied. "Anyway, I have to go return this book to the library before it's overdue."
"Like you don't have ten cents to spare?" Lizzie asked. Gordo shrugged.
"See you guys in English." he replied, jetting off to the library.
As Miranda grabbed Lizzie's Science homework and began to copy it fervently, Lizzie sighed and leaned against the locker as Ethan Craft walked by. "He looks so good in blue, don't you think? I love when he wears blue."
Miranda groaned. "Lizzie, why don't you just TELL HIM you like him?"
"No! Are you crazy? He'd...I'd...it'd just be...BAD!"
"Chill, drama queen. Besides, from the way his eyes just seemed to naturally drift towards your...ahem...yesterday when you dropped your pencil, I don't think he'd mind all that much."
"Miranda! He was not! I was wearing really cool jeans yesterday, the embroidery on the pockets was really interesting."
"Oh yes, we all know how Ethan Craft is SO fashion concious, he simply had to check out your jeans." Miranda said in a more "official" sounding voice. "Lizzie, come off it."
"Well, he could have!!!"
"Lizzie, my guess is that he wasn't all that interested in the jeans, but what was BEHIND the jeans, if you catch my drift."
"Miranda!" Lizzie said, blushing. They walked past Claire Miller, who was currently examing her flawless skin in her locker mirror. Lizzie sighed. "Why can't I look like her? I bet he would like me then."
"For starters? Your parents are white, so you can't look like Claire. Secondly, he likes you!"
"He does not." Lizzie replied.
"He does! He loves you and he wants to have ten thousand of your babies."
"Miranda, that doesn't make any sense." Lizzie said.
"Yeah? Well, neither does anything else in my life." Miranda said with a roll of her eyes, walking into English class.
Miranda had almost fallen asleep sitting up when she felt a note hit her shoulder. She grabbed it before the teacher could see it and opened it up. She recognized it as Ethan's handwriting.
'I need a favor.'
Oh, here we go. Miranda thought. 'Tell me what it is and I'll consider it.' she wrote back. She put it on the floor and slid it over to Ethan with her shoe. Ethan picked it up and scribbled something on it, then passed it back to Miranda.
'I need you to talk to Lizzie for me.'
Miranda tried not to grin. This was gonna be fun. Ethan was cool and all, but it was quite fun to annoy the hell out of him from time to time, keep him on his toes.
'About what?'
'You're a really bad actor, even on paper, you know that? I need you to talk to her about ME.'
'I talk to her quite a bit about you. Anything special?'
'Knock it off! You know what!'
'I know. I'm just messing with you. What do you want me to say/find out/etc...?'
'Find out what she thinks about me.'
'Oh, I can tell you what she thinks about you right now. No middle man needed.'
'You can? What?'
'Ask her out.'
'That's what she thinks of me?'
'Just do what I say. Ask her out. You won't be sorry.'
'Okay, I will.'
And my work here is done. Miranda thought with a smile.
Later, at lunch, while Miranda was in the lunch line, she was nearly knocked over by Lizzie.
"Miranda! Miranda! Miranda! Oh my god!"
"Breathe, Lizzie." Miranda said with a laugh as she paid for her lunch.
"He asked me out!!!" Lizzie said.
"Ethan?"
"Yes, Ethan! Can you believe it?"
Miranda tried not to laugh. "Wow. That's...great, Lizzie. So when are you going out?"
"Friday night." Lizzie said with a grin. Miranda's face fell.
"Wait, I thought we were going to go see the new Ben Affleck movie on Friday night." There was NO WAY she wanted to sit around Friday night listening to her mom complain about her dad.
"Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about that. Miranda, you know I would never cancel on you, but..."
Miranda held up her hand. "I know. It's okay. I'll just...call my cousin Rosa and we hang out Friday night."
"Wait, isn't she the seventeen year old with the tattoo and the ashtray for a backseat?"
"That be her. It's not like I have anything better to do." Miranda said as they sat down at the table.
"You could...organize your closet." Lizzie suggested.
"Oh yeah, I'm a lean mean organizing machine." Miranda said, rolling her eyes.
"Hey guys." Gordo said, sitting down at the table.
"Hey Gordo." Miranda said.
"Hey." Gordo said before digging into his lunch.
Lizzie looked at Gordo. "Gordo, Miranda was just talking about spending Friday night with her cousin Rosa."
"Rosa the Unibrow?"
"Gordo!" Miranda and Lizzie exclaimed.
"What?" Gordo said. "She has a unibrow!"
"Gordo! Her beauty methods aren't the main concern right now." Lizzie said.
"Then what it is?" Gordo asked.
Lizzie sighed. "You are such a guy."
"Ahframuhgoh!" Gordo mumbled, his mouth filled with sandwich.
"What?"
Gordo swallowed. "I said, I am a guy."
Miranda rolled her eyes. "Anyway. Lizzie, Rosa's not that bad."
"She drinks and she smokes, how else would you classify her?"
"A rebel?"
Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, ok."
* * *
Miranda slammed her front door shut and began to run up the steps.
"Mija come in here!"
"Do we have to tell her now?" Edward said in a low voice.
"She needs to know, Edward." Daniella said.
"I need to know what?" Miranda asked, walking into the kitchen.
"Mija, your father and I..."
"She just got home from school do we need to tell her now???"
"No, tell me." Miranda said.
"Your father and I have decided to seperate, mija." Daniella said.
Miranda stood there in shock. "What?"
"Now, this is not divorce, mija, it's simply..."
"Not divorce? Give me a break! It's step one of divorce!"
"Mija calm down!"
"Calm down? Calm down? I will not calm down! I...god. Just leave me alone!" Miranda said, tears streaming down her face. Turning on her heel, she ran up the steps and slammed her door shut.
"Well that went well." Edward said.
"You're not helping." Danielle said, glaring at her husband.
"And neither are you! If it weren't for you, this wouldn't have happened!"
As Miranda's parents continued to yell, she pulled clothes out of her dresser and shoved them into her bag. Pulling the huge wad of cash out of her sock drawer she had been saving up to buy a new leather jacket, she stuffed it in the front pocket of her bookbag. She cranked her radio up and locked her door. Then, opening her window, she climbed down the tree next to her window and took off down the street.
School. Parents. She just couldn't handle it anymore.
She came to Gordo's house and checked for cars. Good, his parents weren't home. Walking down the sidewalk, she knocked on the door.
"Miranda. Hey, what's up?" Gordo said. He took a second look at her. "Miranda, are you...why are you crying?"
"Gordo, I was wondering...maybe...if you wouldn't mind..."
Gordo saw the bag she was carrying and sighed. "Yeah. Come on in." Gordo said. He took the bag from her and they walked upstairs to his room. Throwing it on his bed, he turned to her. "Alright, what's going on?"
"My parents. School. Everything." Miranda said before bursting into tears again.
"Shh. Don't cry." Gordo said, hugging her. "It's alright."
"Okay if I crash here for awhile? I just need to take a break."
"It's fine with me. But you know you gotta stay in here, cuz if my parents catch you..."
"I know." Miranda said. She sat down on the bed. "They'd throw me out in a hurry."
Gordo grinned at her. "First they'd analyze you to death."
"Oh, the horror." Miranda said with a laugh.
"Just chill here, I'll go get us something to drink and some food. Be right back."
"Okay." Miranda nodded.
Miranda laid back on Gordo's bed and stared at the ceiling. It was good to have someone she could count on like that.
Even if he'd never know how she really felt about him.
"Oh, so it's okay for you to go buy a new power tool whenever you feel like it, but not okay for me to spend forty dollars on a haircut, Edward?" Daniella Sanchez yelled.
"Por favor, Angelita! Don't yell the kids can hear you!" Edward said, trying to calm his wife.
"Do you think I care right now?"
Miranda Sanchez groaned and threw her pillow over her face. Her screeching alarm clock coupled with her parents yelling at each other was NOT something she enjoyed waking up to every day. Sighing, she threw the covers off of her and climbed out of bed, nearly tripping over her pile of textbooks as she did so. She groaned. Her Science paper. She forgot about it. Oh well, maybe Gordo would let her copy his. She mulled through her closet trying to find something to wear, finally deciding on a red sweater, a black and white chekered skirt, black tights, and black converse sneakers. She braided a few strands of her longish black hair and threw a red sideways visor on for good measure. Finally she threw on some lipgloss and stuffed her books into her backpack and ran downstairs.
"Morning." she said, throwing her bag in the floor.
Daniella Sanchez looked her daughter over and raised her eyebrows. "Mija, must you dress like it's the 1980's every day?"
Miranda shrugged. "The 80's were cool."
"How do you know? You missed most of it." Edward said. "Hurry up, I'm going to be late for work."
"Don't want to miss your boss strutting around with her newly implanted breasts, do you?" Daniella glared at her husband.
Rolling his eyes, Edward turned to Miranda. "Let's go, querido."
"Coming, Dad. Bye Mom."
"Bye mija! Have a good day at school, don't get into trouble!"
"Yes, mom." Miranda said with a roll of her eyes.
It was another day at the Sanchez house.
* * *
"Okay, so how come Kate Sanders dresses like she's 30 and she can still pull it off without looking like a weirdo?" Lizzie McGuire asked as she leaned against the lockers.
David "Gordo" Gordon pulled his head out of his locker and looked at her. "Because she looks like she's 30?"
"So what?" Lizzie harrumphed. "Okay, so she's tall, and pretty, and has huge breasts..."
"She's too tall, she's not that pretty, and by the time she really IS thirty she'll be begging for a reduction." Gordo replied. "Lizzie, what's your deal today?"
Lizzie looked down at herself and frowned. "Did I mention how thin she is?"
"Oh here we go." Gordo groaned. "Lizzie, you look fine!"
"Fine? Look at me! I'm too short, I'm chubby, my hair is too thin and limp, and..."
"And...what?" Gordo asked. Before he tried to make her feel better, he may as well drag it all outta her first.
"I'm...flat chested."
"You're fourteen! You're not seriously expecting to look like Pamela Anderson right now, are you?"
"It would be nice." Lizzie replied.
"And humanly impossible. Lizzie, you're taller than me. You're not fat, your hair is fine, you look good, okay? Can we drop it?"
"You are such a guy sometimes." Lizzie said. "Oblivious to everything."
"And you're such a girl sometimes!" Gordo shot back. "You pick and pick and pick until you pick it to death!"
Lizzie shrugged. "I am a girl."
Gordo rolled his eyes. "Oy. Hey Miranda!" Gordo said, glad to be relieved from the current conversation. If he had to hear one more rant about Lizzie's nose he would shoot himself in the face.
"Hey guys." Miranda said, opening her locker. "I swear, can I move in with one of you?"
"Why?" Lizzie asked. "Parents still at each other's throats?"
"Yup. Today it was...let's see. Power tools. Hairdressers. Oh yeah, and implants."
Gordo almost spit out the juice he was drinking. "Okay, correct me if I'm wrong, but, I'm the guy, I think I should be the one talking about breasts and implants and Pamela Anderson and all that...stop taking away my duties!!!"
"Pamela Anderson?" Miranda asked quizzically.
"Don't ask." Lizzie said with a roll of her eyes. "So what happened?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary. Oh, but I did learn a new swear word in Spanish!" Miranda said.
"Now you can swear at the migrant farm workers. Good job." Gordo said sarcastically.
Miranda rolled her eyes. "Anyway, Gordo, lemme see your Science homework."
"No way. After the incident with Lizzie and the science project, if Mr. Pettus catches me cheating again, I'm toast." Gordo replied. "Anyway, I have to go return this book to the library before it's overdue."
"Like you don't have ten cents to spare?" Lizzie asked. Gordo shrugged.
"See you guys in English." he replied, jetting off to the library.
As Miranda grabbed Lizzie's Science homework and began to copy it fervently, Lizzie sighed and leaned against the locker as Ethan Craft walked by. "He looks so good in blue, don't you think? I love when he wears blue."
Miranda groaned. "Lizzie, why don't you just TELL HIM you like him?"
"No! Are you crazy? He'd...I'd...it'd just be...BAD!"
"Chill, drama queen. Besides, from the way his eyes just seemed to naturally drift towards your...ahem...yesterday when you dropped your pencil, I don't think he'd mind all that much."
"Miranda! He was not! I was wearing really cool jeans yesterday, the embroidery on the pockets was really interesting."
"Oh yes, we all know how Ethan Craft is SO fashion concious, he simply had to check out your jeans." Miranda said in a more "official" sounding voice. "Lizzie, come off it."
"Well, he could have!!!"
"Lizzie, my guess is that he wasn't all that interested in the jeans, but what was BEHIND the jeans, if you catch my drift."
"Miranda!" Lizzie said, blushing. They walked past Claire Miller, who was currently examing her flawless skin in her locker mirror. Lizzie sighed. "Why can't I look like her? I bet he would like me then."
"For starters? Your parents are white, so you can't look like Claire. Secondly, he likes you!"
"He does not." Lizzie replied.
"He does! He loves you and he wants to have ten thousand of your babies."
"Miranda, that doesn't make any sense." Lizzie said.
"Yeah? Well, neither does anything else in my life." Miranda said with a roll of her eyes, walking into English class.
Miranda had almost fallen asleep sitting up when she felt a note hit her shoulder. She grabbed it before the teacher could see it and opened it up. She recognized it as Ethan's handwriting.
'I need a favor.'
Oh, here we go. Miranda thought. 'Tell me what it is and I'll consider it.' she wrote back. She put it on the floor and slid it over to Ethan with her shoe. Ethan picked it up and scribbled something on it, then passed it back to Miranda.
'I need you to talk to Lizzie for me.'
Miranda tried not to grin. This was gonna be fun. Ethan was cool and all, but it was quite fun to annoy the hell out of him from time to time, keep him on his toes.
'About what?'
'You're a really bad actor, even on paper, you know that? I need you to talk to her about ME.'
'I talk to her quite a bit about you. Anything special?'
'Knock it off! You know what!'
'I know. I'm just messing with you. What do you want me to say/find out/etc...?'
'Find out what she thinks about me.'
'Oh, I can tell you what she thinks about you right now. No middle man needed.'
'You can? What?'
'Ask her out.'
'That's what she thinks of me?'
'Just do what I say. Ask her out. You won't be sorry.'
'Okay, I will.'
And my work here is done. Miranda thought with a smile.
Later, at lunch, while Miranda was in the lunch line, she was nearly knocked over by Lizzie.
"Miranda! Miranda! Miranda! Oh my god!"
"Breathe, Lizzie." Miranda said with a laugh as she paid for her lunch.
"He asked me out!!!" Lizzie said.
"Ethan?"
"Yes, Ethan! Can you believe it?"
Miranda tried not to laugh. "Wow. That's...great, Lizzie. So when are you going out?"
"Friday night." Lizzie said with a grin. Miranda's face fell.
"Wait, I thought we were going to go see the new Ben Affleck movie on Friday night." There was NO WAY she wanted to sit around Friday night listening to her mom complain about her dad.
"Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about that. Miranda, you know I would never cancel on you, but..."
Miranda held up her hand. "I know. It's okay. I'll just...call my cousin Rosa and we hang out Friday night."
"Wait, isn't she the seventeen year old with the tattoo and the ashtray for a backseat?"
"That be her. It's not like I have anything better to do." Miranda said as they sat down at the table.
"You could...organize your closet." Lizzie suggested.
"Oh yeah, I'm a lean mean organizing machine." Miranda said, rolling her eyes.
"Hey guys." Gordo said, sitting down at the table.
"Hey Gordo." Miranda said.
"Hey." Gordo said before digging into his lunch.
Lizzie looked at Gordo. "Gordo, Miranda was just talking about spending Friday night with her cousin Rosa."
"Rosa the Unibrow?"
"Gordo!" Miranda and Lizzie exclaimed.
"What?" Gordo said. "She has a unibrow!"
"Gordo! Her beauty methods aren't the main concern right now." Lizzie said.
"Then what it is?" Gordo asked.
Lizzie sighed. "You are such a guy."
"Ahframuhgoh!" Gordo mumbled, his mouth filled with sandwich.
"What?"
Gordo swallowed. "I said, I am a guy."
Miranda rolled her eyes. "Anyway. Lizzie, Rosa's not that bad."
"She drinks and she smokes, how else would you classify her?"
"A rebel?"
Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, ok."
* * *
Miranda slammed her front door shut and began to run up the steps.
"Mija come in here!"
"Do we have to tell her now?" Edward said in a low voice.
"She needs to know, Edward." Daniella said.
"I need to know what?" Miranda asked, walking into the kitchen.
"Mija, your father and I..."
"She just got home from school do we need to tell her now???"
"No, tell me." Miranda said.
"Your father and I have decided to seperate, mija." Daniella said.
Miranda stood there in shock. "What?"
"Now, this is not divorce, mija, it's simply..."
"Not divorce? Give me a break! It's step one of divorce!"
"Mija calm down!"
"Calm down? Calm down? I will not calm down! I...god. Just leave me alone!" Miranda said, tears streaming down her face. Turning on her heel, she ran up the steps and slammed her door shut.
"Well that went well." Edward said.
"You're not helping." Danielle said, glaring at her husband.
"And neither are you! If it weren't for you, this wouldn't have happened!"
As Miranda's parents continued to yell, she pulled clothes out of her dresser and shoved them into her bag. Pulling the huge wad of cash out of her sock drawer she had been saving up to buy a new leather jacket, she stuffed it in the front pocket of her bookbag. She cranked her radio up and locked her door. Then, opening her window, she climbed down the tree next to her window and took off down the street.
School. Parents. She just couldn't handle it anymore.
She came to Gordo's house and checked for cars. Good, his parents weren't home. Walking down the sidewalk, she knocked on the door.
"Miranda. Hey, what's up?" Gordo said. He took a second look at her. "Miranda, are you...why are you crying?"
"Gordo, I was wondering...maybe...if you wouldn't mind..."
Gordo saw the bag she was carrying and sighed. "Yeah. Come on in." Gordo said. He took the bag from her and they walked upstairs to his room. Throwing it on his bed, he turned to her. "Alright, what's going on?"
"My parents. School. Everything." Miranda said before bursting into tears again.
"Shh. Don't cry." Gordo said, hugging her. "It's alright."
"Okay if I crash here for awhile? I just need to take a break."
"It's fine with me. But you know you gotta stay in here, cuz if my parents catch you..."
"I know." Miranda said. She sat down on the bed. "They'd throw me out in a hurry."
Gordo grinned at her. "First they'd analyze you to death."
"Oh, the horror." Miranda said with a laugh.
"Just chill here, I'll go get us something to drink and some food. Be right back."
"Okay." Miranda nodded.
Miranda laid back on Gordo's bed and stared at the ceiling. It was good to have someone she could count on like that.
Even if he'd never know how she really felt about him.