Mis Esperanzas/ My Hopes
Disclaimer: I do not own West Side Story or any of the characters contained therein. Raquel, however, is mine, so please don't steal her!
Author's Notes: Thanks to my Spanish teacher, I had to watch West Side Story for a culture project on Latinos in the movies. I fell in love with it, and was doubly excited when I found the movie at Wally World for only $7.50! Wow, I was a happy girl! But anyways... This is my first WSS fic, so please be gentle.
Chapter 1: Loss of Hope
Raquel was 16 years old, nearly 17. And had she stayed in her home of Puerto Rico, maybe... Maybe things would have been different. But as it was, she had come to America with her brother Chino. And at the tender age of 16, she had lost all of her dreams in one moment.
It was a long story. And a strange one at that. A story that very few people knew. In fact, the only person who did know the whole tale was her best friend, Maria.
And the one who had died that night, taking all of her dreams with him was Maria's brother. Bernardo. True, he was Anita's. He had always been Anita's. And though Raquel liked Anita enough, she had still held on to hope that one day, when she was a woman, Bernardo would care for her. But now, her hope was gone. Killed by that God-aweful Polack. Tony. He had killed him! Why could he not have stayed out of the fight? Why could the fight not have gone down fairly, just 'Nardo and the Jet they called Ice?
Why was it that every dream Raquel had ever had was dead? And her brother, Chino, the only relative she had in America... He had done the thing that she had so desperately wanted to do. He had killed the Polack. But now, he faced the death penalty for what he had done. And as the people she loved were slowly being torn away from her, she felt the overwhelming desire to do something about it.
She was so angry. Angry with her best friend. How could Maria have forgiven Tony? This man had murdered her brother, and yet she had loved him. Even after the murder. How could she betray Bernardo like this?
Raquel knew that, had someone killed Chino, she could never have forgiven them. Much less loved them. How could anyone ever mean more to you than your family?
Someone had to do something. But all of the Sharks had been seemingly corrupted by Maria and her love for Tony. So she figured she'd have to take care of the Jets herself. Noone should ever get away with what the Jets had done. And she wasn't going to let them
.- - .- - .- - .- - .
Baby John was young. Too young, really. Only 17. Riff hadn't wanted Baby John in the Jets to start with, but Tony and A-rab had talked him into it. But he was still far too young to have witnessed all that he had seen in his very short life. To be honest, he was scared. But being scared embarrassed him. And out of all the other Jets, only A-rab knew how scared he had been. Only A-rab had seen him hiding in the shadows crying. Baby John was glad to have friends, even if sometimes his friends were wrong and did things that scared him.
Baby John's Ma had died giving birth to him. And something inside of him always made him feel that it was his fault. And the way that his dad drank and mistreated him only helped to further his belief that everything was his fault. So, when he'd found the Jets, he was happy. Because, for once in his life, he felt like he belonged.
But then, in one night-- one horrible, frightening, fatal night-- his whole life had changed. That night was the only thing on everyone's mind. And, as always, Baby John was blaming himself. A-rab told him that there was nothing anybody could have done. It was just going to go down that way, no matter what. But it was no use telling him that. He still blamed himself. The Jets were like his brothers. And Riff had been great to him... once he got used to having him around, that is.
Baby John wondered what things would have been like if his mother had never died. If she had lived, he knew she would have loved him. She would have taken care of him, and he never would have run away and become a Jet.
But he would never know for sure. Because, as it was, she was dead, and she couldn't take care of him. How he wished things could have changed. He wished that he could talk to Tony and Riff. They were good to him.
He heard voices in the ally below. He figured he'd better get down there, because he heard A-rab, Ice, and Action talking, and from their tones, he knew something was going down soon. So he climbed down the ladder from the roof he was sitting on to see what the deal was.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review!