Chapter 3 My New Enemy
Manny Santos POV
It's Tuesday morning and I hope I have better luck today. All I can do
is wish. Mom isn't home this morning and she usually doesn't leave the
house until Dad drives me to school. My brother finally came home last
night from his date with the mysterious Christy. He's so bad at
sneaking in the house but mom and dad never get mad at him. Last night
I think he bumped into the staircase because I heard a high-pitched
scream and it woke me up. My dad drives me to school and the whole way
we don't speak and I'm listening to my Walkman trying to tune out the
world. The car stops and I prepare for another lonely day.
"You're here sweetie!" Dad says.
"Yeah don't remind me. Bye dad."
"Have a great day."
"I'll try but I highly doubt I will." I say and dad drives away quickly. He must be running late. Maybe I should have a better attitude about this situation, more positive but how is that possible? I walk into the hallways of Degrassi Community School watching the happy couples and students pass me laughing and smiling. Yeah rub it in my face! Why don't you? Then I see Ashley and Ellie near by me and Ashley is just giving me dirty looks. Why must you punish me God? Who's this? I see a tall, thin, brunette walking with Paige, Hazel, Jimmy and Spinner. I just stare at her wondering who she is. Oh no she sees me and doesn't look very friendly.
"Hey geek stop staring at me." The girl says rudely. Oh I see we are going to be friends. Obviously I'm lying.
"I wouldn't stare at you if someone paid me."
"A little feisty too. I already met my enemy."
"Rachel don't give Manny such a hard time. After all she is my friend." Paige said.
"Oh really would've never guessed. Hi there what's your name again?" Rachel says.
"The name's Manny. Forgetting can be easy! Can't it? I'm sure it will be easy to forget about you too." I say while Spinner and Jimmy ooh and ahh. Why do guys enjoy watching girls fight? I mean I don't get all excited when guys fight unless guys are fighting over me but that's just me.
"Manny, Rachel can't we just be friends?" Paige asks. I laugh. Very funny Paige but I'm going to have to disagree. Rachel and me say no at the exact same time. Well we have one thing in common. We both hate one another but I don't think that is enough to build a friendship. Hey I tried.
Rachel Sanchez POV
The sleazy dressed girl struts off. Wonder what's her problem? I'm a very kind person but she just ticked me off and I don't deserve that kind of treatment. I just got to this school and I already have an enemy but I'm not going to let that get in my way to having the best year ever. I'm already hanging out with the popular kids. I came here with my mom, dad, older brother Josh and aunt Abby. My mom and dad just got divorced but I saw coming when I was nine years old. I'm just surprised they lasted this long and say they were together for us kids which I don't understand. It is completely not true because all these years my brother and me had to suffer by watching these parents of mine fight every day of my short life. Who are the kids now? I feel like half the time I'm more of an adult then them. They can learn a lot from me but otherwise the whole divorce and fighting thing they are over all great parents but we don't hang out that much but once you get older you don't hang with your parents that much. At least that's how I see it and you know what I hate? When your parent s try to be buddy/buddy with you and try to act cool but the whole cool image doesn't work with them. They just make themselves look like complete fools. Parents can be so clueless sometimes (understatement) and I don't know where they would be without their kids.
My parent s don't actually live in the same house but we all live with my aunt and my dad lives in the back yard in a tent. No seriously he doesn't but he does live in the guesthouse and he treats it like a guesthouse because he comes and goes and rarely ever stays home. Mom says he works a lot and I guess that is true half the time but I bet he spends the other half with his girlfriend and at bars but he denies it. Once I saw a women drop him off one night when I was trying to sleep. I don't sleep that much and I guess you could call me an insomniac and it started when I was nine when mom and dad questioned the idea of divorce. Anyways so we moved here because of my little mischievous schemes in California. I've gotten in some trouble over the years and I'm finally paying for it and moving to Canada is my punishment but I don't call it a punishment just a new start. I can't promise to be good though but I can already tell that, that is what people get from me as a first impression since I'm a cheerleader and all but not quite yet but I will be soon. Yeah so I left my best friends, adorable boyfriend who I really miss and my bad reputation. . . yeah right. An incident happened three weeks ago, which caused the cops to bring me home early in the morning. I don't usually drink but I only had one and that was too much for me and well I paid for it. My boyfriend Tommy is older than me and just got his driving license and was drunk but he attempted to get me home by driving that night which wasn't the smartest thing to do. We got into a car accident but nobody was seriously hurt but Tommy was more beat up than me and had to be rushed to the hospital and after that night my parents never let me speak to him again. Well that's my exciting story and I'm here to start a new story but hopefully with a better ending. Got to get to first period. English with Mrs. Kwan!
Manny Santos POV
I'm in class trying not to fall asleep. Wouldn't want my little incident to happen all over again and get stuck in that terrible room called detention. Great! Just Perfect! It's her Miss Know It All Rachel and all the boys check her out while I roll my eyes. She's not all that or am I just jealous that they are paying more attention to her than me? No I can't be! Mrs. Kwan has a smile on her face with Rachel next her. Oh great she's going to introduce herself to the class and then we'll see how shallow she actually is. "Hello class. We have a new student and listen while she introduces herself to us. Remember to be respectful." Mrs. Kwan says. "Hi my name is Rachel Sanchez and I moved here from California so it's a big change living in Canada. My hobbies are acting, dancing and cheering. I love cheering and hoping to become a cheerleader at Degrassi so there's a little bit you should know about me. " Rachel said and smiled while most of the boys were in awe. Sickening! Completely sickening! When she walked over to her seat by Sean she gave me an unfriendly smirk but I'm not threatened.
"Class settle down now. We have a homework assignment that is due tomorrow so let me explain." She says while handing out some papers, "Your assignment is write a poem about your family or friends or you can include them both into one poem. It's pretty simple but for some of you it's more challenging." Yeah it will be pretty challenging for those who don't have any friends and for those who have unloving families. That's me sadly. It feels my like my whole world is crumbling before my eyes and there's nothing I can do about it. Bell rings and it's off to 2nd period. Time sure doesn't fly when you want it to.
Rachel Sanchez POV
That poem assignment should be so easy. I mean I have great friends and am popular. It's the life all the other girls wish they could have but they might never experience it so I guess you could call me lucky. My life at home isn't perfect but it's one or the other but let's not get into that subject. Second period is computers with Mr. Simpson. This should be interesting. I love computers when it doesn't include research or something educational but even when I'm assigned to do research I always just surf the Internet instead. It's so much more fun and my mom doesn't care if I don't get a good grade in computers and how can you not get a passing grade in Computers? You must be really stupid but that doesn't apply to my friends because duh they're my friends and that would just be wrong to call them stupid. Oh so I get in class and there is that Miss. Feisty. Is she like stalking me or something like that? Two classes in a row with her is not a good sign because it means we'll be seeing a lot of each other.
"Hey Mr. Simpson teacher. I'm new!" I tell the teacher who's wearing a fake wig and I stare at it not trying to be rude but it's just all out there. I think he notices but just smiles. I suppose he gets a lot stares and used to it.
"Hey so I guess you must be Rachel Sanchez." Mr. Simpson says.
"Ah hah that's me. So where should I sit?"
"By Manny!"
"Who?"
"Manny Santos over there in front." He says and points to Manny.
"I thought I heard you right but wish I didn't."
"What?"
"Nothing!"
I slowly walk over to the chair next to Manny because I honestly don't care if I don't ever get there. She sees me and I see her but she quickly turns away and tries to ignore me but is not very good at it. Mr. Simpson gets up from his chair and comes to the front of the classroom.
"Hello class on this lovely morning." Half the class moans, "Then I guess I'm the only one having a good morning."
"I'm having a good morning so you aren't alone." A tall, blonde girl says.
"Thanks sweetie." Sweetie! They must be related or extremely close.
"And today we have the pleasure of having a very special addition to our class.
Everybody say hello to Rachel Sanchez." The class says hello loudly.
"Nice to meet you too. I'm happy to be here." I say and sit down.
"Okay on your desk there should be a pamphlet explaining the assignment so it's pretty easy if you just read each step and follow but if you have questions you can always ask me." Mr. Simpson says.
Manny Santos POV
This assignment should be an easy A but it looks like Rachel is having more trouble than me because she hasn't even got to step two and just rereading the same question over and over and looking more puzzled each time.
"What in the world? Shoot!" She shouts at the computer screen.
"Would you mind not yelling?" I say because I am trying to work here.
"Oh shut-up Manny Santos. Go back to doing your work while I figure this out by myself."
"I guess you aren't perfect after all."
"Everybody needs help once in a while so can you help me and after that I won't bother you anymore."
"How about no? You don't trick me with your whole nice cover up so do me a favor and stop talking."
"Oh you little."
"I'm not little anything. Mr. Simpson will you tell big mouth over here to shut her big face?" I shout and Mr. Simpson comes over to where we are sitting.
"I don't think it is humanly possible to shut my face."
"You know what I meant!"
"Excuse me but I don't speak stupid." Rachel says as her tone gets even louder.
"Looks who's talking."
"Oh you little brat."
"Ooh I'm scared now. Go back to doing what you kind of girls do."
"Hey, Hey, Hey Manny, Rachel stop acting so childish." We both stop and I look around the room and I notice that we are the only ones speaking and the whole class is staring at us in amazement or disgust. I can't tell.
"But I didn't start it. Manny did!" Rachel shouts looking my way.
"I did not. You did!"
"No it was all you."
"Do I have to separate the two of you?"
"Yes!" We both shout at the same time because that's what we both want.
"Consider this a warning girls but next time there will be consequences. Now get back to work. The bell will ring in a few minutes."
After computers I rush out of class completely upset with that mean Rachel Sanchez. I hate her and I don't hate very many people. I run out side and I trip over someone's legs and I fall flat on my butt and all my books fall out of my hands. I scream because I've had it.
"Watch out where you're going." I look up and it's Rachel. I hate her and she thinks she's so much better than me. Did I mention I hate her? We'll I'll say it again I hate Rachel Sanchez. She laughs and walks away leaving me on the ground in embarrassment.
"Oh you idiot." I shout but she doesn't even turn around. I get up.
"Excuse me!" A tall, dark, Latino guy says.
"Oh sorry not you just this stupid girl."
"And who is that?"
"You probably don't know her. She's new and goes by the name of Rachel Sanchez when it should be Miss. Bad Attitude!"
"Oh her."
"You know her?"
"Kinda! After all we are related. She's my sister."
"Oh I must be mistaking her with somebody else."
"No it sounds like my sister. She's a little rough on the edges but once you get to know her she isn't that bad. I'm Josh."
"I'm Manny Santos. Are you her older bother?"
"Yeah I'm in tenth. Well I'll be seeing you around and I'll have a talk with my sister. If it makes any difference I think you're all right. Got to get to class." He says and smiles. Oh what a smile?
"Bye!" I say and nearly melt into a million pieces. He's so nice and so, so, so cute. Break me off a piece of that hotness! It's hard to believe he's related to her but I wouldn't mind getting to know him better.
Manny Santos POV
It's Tuesday morning and I hope I have better luck today. All I can do
is wish. Mom isn't home this morning and she usually doesn't leave the
house until Dad drives me to school. My brother finally came home last
night from his date with the mysterious Christy. He's so bad at
sneaking in the house but mom and dad never get mad at him. Last night
I think he bumped into the staircase because I heard a high-pitched
scream and it woke me up. My dad drives me to school and the whole way
we don't speak and I'm listening to my Walkman trying to tune out the
world. The car stops and I prepare for another lonely day.
"You're here sweetie!" Dad says.
"Yeah don't remind me. Bye dad."
"Have a great day."
"I'll try but I highly doubt I will." I say and dad drives away quickly. He must be running late. Maybe I should have a better attitude about this situation, more positive but how is that possible? I walk into the hallways of Degrassi Community School watching the happy couples and students pass me laughing and smiling. Yeah rub it in my face! Why don't you? Then I see Ashley and Ellie near by me and Ashley is just giving me dirty looks. Why must you punish me God? Who's this? I see a tall, thin, brunette walking with Paige, Hazel, Jimmy and Spinner. I just stare at her wondering who she is. Oh no she sees me and doesn't look very friendly.
"Hey geek stop staring at me." The girl says rudely. Oh I see we are going to be friends. Obviously I'm lying.
"I wouldn't stare at you if someone paid me."
"A little feisty too. I already met my enemy."
"Rachel don't give Manny such a hard time. After all she is my friend." Paige said.
"Oh really would've never guessed. Hi there what's your name again?" Rachel says.
"The name's Manny. Forgetting can be easy! Can't it? I'm sure it will be easy to forget about you too." I say while Spinner and Jimmy ooh and ahh. Why do guys enjoy watching girls fight? I mean I don't get all excited when guys fight unless guys are fighting over me but that's just me.
"Manny, Rachel can't we just be friends?" Paige asks. I laugh. Very funny Paige but I'm going to have to disagree. Rachel and me say no at the exact same time. Well we have one thing in common. We both hate one another but I don't think that is enough to build a friendship. Hey I tried.
Rachel Sanchez POV
The sleazy dressed girl struts off. Wonder what's her problem? I'm a very kind person but she just ticked me off and I don't deserve that kind of treatment. I just got to this school and I already have an enemy but I'm not going to let that get in my way to having the best year ever. I'm already hanging out with the popular kids. I came here with my mom, dad, older brother Josh and aunt Abby. My mom and dad just got divorced but I saw coming when I was nine years old. I'm just surprised they lasted this long and say they were together for us kids which I don't understand. It is completely not true because all these years my brother and me had to suffer by watching these parents of mine fight every day of my short life. Who are the kids now? I feel like half the time I'm more of an adult then them. They can learn a lot from me but otherwise the whole divorce and fighting thing they are over all great parents but we don't hang out that much but once you get older you don't hang with your parents that much. At least that's how I see it and you know what I hate? When your parent s try to be buddy/buddy with you and try to act cool but the whole cool image doesn't work with them. They just make themselves look like complete fools. Parents can be so clueless sometimes (understatement) and I don't know where they would be without their kids.
My parent s don't actually live in the same house but we all live with my aunt and my dad lives in the back yard in a tent. No seriously he doesn't but he does live in the guesthouse and he treats it like a guesthouse because he comes and goes and rarely ever stays home. Mom says he works a lot and I guess that is true half the time but I bet he spends the other half with his girlfriend and at bars but he denies it. Once I saw a women drop him off one night when I was trying to sleep. I don't sleep that much and I guess you could call me an insomniac and it started when I was nine when mom and dad questioned the idea of divorce. Anyways so we moved here because of my little mischievous schemes in California. I've gotten in some trouble over the years and I'm finally paying for it and moving to Canada is my punishment but I don't call it a punishment just a new start. I can't promise to be good though but I can already tell that, that is what people get from me as a first impression since I'm a cheerleader and all but not quite yet but I will be soon. Yeah so I left my best friends, adorable boyfriend who I really miss and my bad reputation. . . yeah right. An incident happened three weeks ago, which caused the cops to bring me home early in the morning. I don't usually drink but I only had one and that was too much for me and well I paid for it. My boyfriend Tommy is older than me and just got his driving license and was drunk but he attempted to get me home by driving that night which wasn't the smartest thing to do. We got into a car accident but nobody was seriously hurt but Tommy was more beat up than me and had to be rushed to the hospital and after that night my parents never let me speak to him again. Well that's my exciting story and I'm here to start a new story but hopefully with a better ending. Got to get to first period. English with Mrs. Kwan!
Manny Santos POV
I'm in class trying not to fall asleep. Wouldn't want my little incident to happen all over again and get stuck in that terrible room called detention. Great! Just Perfect! It's her Miss Know It All Rachel and all the boys check her out while I roll my eyes. She's not all that or am I just jealous that they are paying more attention to her than me? No I can't be! Mrs. Kwan has a smile on her face with Rachel next her. Oh great she's going to introduce herself to the class and then we'll see how shallow she actually is. "Hello class. We have a new student and listen while she introduces herself to us. Remember to be respectful." Mrs. Kwan says. "Hi my name is Rachel Sanchez and I moved here from California so it's a big change living in Canada. My hobbies are acting, dancing and cheering. I love cheering and hoping to become a cheerleader at Degrassi so there's a little bit you should know about me. " Rachel said and smiled while most of the boys were in awe. Sickening! Completely sickening! When she walked over to her seat by Sean she gave me an unfriendly smirk but I'm not threatened.
"Class settle down now. We have a homework assignment that is due tomorrow so let me explain." She says while handing out some papers, "Your assignment is write a poem about your family or friends or you can include them both into one poem. It's pretty simple but for some of you it's more challenging." Yeah it will be pretty challenging for those who don't have any friends and for those who have unloving families. That's me sadly. It feels my like my whole world is crumbling before my eyes and there's nothing I can do about it. Bell rings and it's off to 2nd period. Time sure doesn't fly when you want it to.
Rachel Sanchez POV
That poem assignment should be so easy. I mean I have great friends and am popular. It's the life all the other girls wish they could have but they might never experience it so I guess you could call me lucky. My life at home isn't perfect but it's one or the other but let's not get into that subject. Second period is computers with Mr. Simpson. This should be interesting. I love computers when it doesn't include research or something educational but even when I'm assigned to do research I always just surf the Internet instead. It's so much more fun and my mom doesn't care if I don't get a good grade in computers and how can you not get a passing grade in Computers? You must be really stupid but that doesn't apply to my friends because duh they're my friends and that would just be wrong to call them stupid. Oh so I get in class and there is that Miss. Feisty. Is she like stalking me or something like that? Two classes in a row with her is not a good sign because it means we'll be seeing a lot of each other.
"Hey Mr. Simpson teacher. I'm new!" I tell the teacher who's wearing a fake wig and I stare at it not trying to be rude but it's just all out there. I think he notices but just smiles. I suppose he gets a lot stares and used to it.
"Hey so I guess you must be Rachel Sanchez." Mr. Simpson says.
"Ah hah that's me. So where should I sit?"
"By Manny!"
"Who?"
"Manny Santos over there in front." He says and points to Manny.
"I thought I heard you right but wish I didn't."
"What?"
"Nothing!"
I slowly walk over to the chair next to Manny because I honestly don't care if I don't ever get there. She sees me and I see her but she quickly turns away and tries to ignore me but is not very good at it. Mr. Simpson gets up from his chair and comes to the front of the classroom.
"Hello class on this lovely morning." Half the class moans, "Then I guess I'm the only one having a good morning."
"I'm having a good morning so you aren't alone." A tall, blonde girl says.
"Thanks sweetie." Sweetie! They must be related or extremely close.
"And today we have the pleasure of having a very special addition to our class.
Everybody say hello to Rachel Sanchez." The class says hello loudly.
"Nice to meet you too. I'm happy to be here." I say and sit down.
"Okay on your desk there should be a pamphlet explaining the assignment so it's pretty easy if you just read each step and follow but if you have questions you can always ask me." Mr. Simpson says.
Manny Santos POV
This assignment should be an easy A but it looks like Rachel is having more trouble than me because she hasn't even got to step two and just rereading the same question over and over and looking more puzzled each time.
"What in the world? Shoot!" She shouts at the computer screen.
"Would you mind not yelling?" I say because I am trying to work here.
"Oh shut-up Manny Santos. Go back to doing your work while I figure this out by myself."
"I guess you aren't perfect after all."
"Everybody needs help once in a while so can you help me and after that I won't bother you anymore."
"How about no? You don't trick me with your whole nice cover up so do me a favor and stop talking."
"Oh you little."
"I'm not little anything. Mr. Simpson will you tell big mouth over here to shut her big face?" I shout and Mr. Simpson comes over to where we are sitting.
"I don't think it is humanly possible to shut my face."
"You know what I meant!"
"Excuse me but I don't speak stupid." Rachel says as her tone gets even louder.
"Looks who's talking."
"Oh you little brat."
"Ooh I'm scared now. Go back to doing what you kind of girls do."
"Hey, Hey, Hey Manny, Rachel stop acting so childish." We both stop and I look around the room and I notice that we are the only ones speaking and the whole class is staring at us in amazement or disgust. I can't tell.
"But I didn't start it. Manny did!" Rachel shouts looking my way.
"I did not. You did!"
"No it was all you."
"Do I have to separate the two of you?"
"Yes!" We both shout at the same time because that's what we both want.
"Consider this a warning girls but next time there will be consequences. Now get back to work. The bell will ring in a few minutes."
After computers I rush out of class completely upset with that mean Rachel Sanchez. I hate her and I don't hate very many people. I run out side and I trip over someone's legs and I fall flat on my butt and all my books fall out of my hands. I scream because I've had it.
"Watch out where you're going." I look up and it's Rachel. I hate her and she thinks she's so much better than me. Did I mention I hate her? We'll I'll say it again I hate Rachel Sanchez. She laughs and walks away leaving me on the ground in embarrassment.
"Oh you idiot." I shout but she doesn't even turn around. I get up.
"Excuse me!" A tall, dark, Latino guy says.
"Oh sorry not you just this stupid girl."
"And who is that?"
"You probably don't know her. She's new and goes by the name of Rachel Sanchez when it should be Miss. Bad Attitude!"
"Oh her."
"You know her?"
"Kinda! After all we are related. She's my sister."
"Oh I must be mistaking her with somebody else."
"No it sounds like my sister. She's a little rough on the edges but once you get to know her she isn't that bad. I'm Josh."
"I'm Manny Santos. Are you her older bother?"
"Yeah I'm in tenth. Well I'll be seeing you around and I'll have a talk with my sister. If it makes any difference I think you're all right. Got to get to class." He says and smiles. Oh what a smile?
"Bye!" I say and nearly melt into a million pieces. He's so nice and so, so, so cute. Break me off a piece of that hotness! It's hard to believe he's related to her but I wouldn't mind getting to know him better.