"Walk on, through the wind,
Walk on, through the rain,
Though your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart,
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never walk alone."
Judy Garland, "You'll never walk alone"
Riley laughed at a joke Madison was telling her as the two girls entered the school. This was their first day back at school since the retreat, and it was bound to be an interesting one. As they proceeded to Ms. De's office, Madison asked Riley a simple question.
"How are you feeling?"
Riley responded with a dirty look.
"Right on" Madison replied. Ok, So Riley not only didn't want to talk about her disease, but she also didn't want anyone to ask how she was feeling, or anything of the sort…Wonderful.
Riley came to a halt outside Ms.De's office and a wary look came over her face. There was screaming going on inside. Ok not screaming, but an argument at any rate.
"Who the hell are you!" They head Mr. Santiago ask furious. "Who the fuck do you think you, coming in here like you are some kind of big shot, demanding to see Madison and Riley, who by the way, are MY girls, not yours, if anyone's, completely bypassing me, when I was nothing but polite to you!"
Madison and Riley stormed into Ms. De's office, ready to unleash hell on whoever was pissing of their teacher when they saw the person. They froze for a second before dropping all their belongings and jumping on her.
"What the fuck?" Mr. Santiago asked Ms. De
"Relax Antonio. Maria over there, is well…she's the female you to them" The other teacher responded placing her hand on his shoulder
"Excuse me?" The Shakespeare teacher asked
Riley looked over at him for the first time since she entered the room and bounced over to him. Hugging him she smiled and said "Thank you"
"Don't touch me" He answered her and returned the hug for a minute before letting go
"Don't tell her not to touch you!" The strange women told him, her arm over Madison's shoulder
Placing his arm over Riley's shoulder he responded "I can tell her whatever I want, she's MY student."
"She was my student first, they both were" Maria responded grasping Riley's arm and pulling her towards her
Riley blinked at Madison.
Santiago reached out and grabbed both Riley's arm and Madison's. "Then it sucks that you're living in the past"
Maria stared at the young man in front of her. This was the Mr. Antonio Santiago that she heard so much about. She had thought Riley and Madison in freshmen year, and though she had left the school in their sophomore year, they had never lost touch. When the girls had started speaking to her about their Shakespeare teacher at the beginning of this year, she had thought they just had a crush on the young man. Now it was obvious to her and anyone with two eyes, an ear and any common sense that their was a bond between these two students and this teacher…similar if not identical to the one she had with them.
"You really think you're something special huh?" Maria responded. Not paying attention to any of the other girls that had walked into Ms. De's office, she continued on with her monologue to her replacement, in more ways then one.
"Mr. Big Shot. 21 year old? Fresh outta college, got yourself a job in one of the best schools in the district. All girls nevertheless. Please prior to getting your job here, your probably dated girls within the age gap of you and Madison and Riley."
"I'm 22" Santiago cut her off as Madison and Riley pulled free of his gasp and stepped to the side
"Whatever. You can never be as important to them as I am."
"One word. Shakespeare"
"That's a name you idiot!" Maria cut him off
"Hey!" Madison and Riley said
"Hush!" Both teachers said in unison causing their students to sigh
"I introduced them to Shakespeare" Maria said
"What play?" Santiago asked her
"Romeo and Juliet" She responded proudly
"Oh wow, and what did they do? Watch the movie Titanic? Great teaching skills there" Santiago said crossing his arms across his chest.
"OKAY THAT'S ENOUGH OF THAT!" Madison cut them off, as Riley stood there with a bewildered look on her face.
"You are both extremely important to us. So can't we all just get along?" Madison asked
The two teachers looked at her and then at each other. At once they started arguing again
"Great job Maddie!" Riley said, looking at her best friend
"You do it then"
"No way"
"You're Guyanese!"
"You're Puerto Rican!"
"You watch wrestling!"
"So do you!"
"You're dating a wrestler!"
"Am not!"
"Well you're in love with one!"
"That is so not the same thing!" Riley protested
"I don't see why it isn't!" Madison said to her best friend
"Cause he treated me like dirt!" Riley said
"Bros before hoes!" Madison said
"Did you just call me a hoe?" Riley asked her
"Yes. in a way…Riley did you talk to him?"
"No?" Riley responded
"Why not?"
"I don't know!"
"You've been home for over a week! We were on vacation after retreat!" Madison said to Riley
"I was busy!"
"Busy sleeping!"
"That's time consuming"
"Suck it up!"
"Fuck you!"
"GIRLS!" Mr. Santiago and Maria said in unison
"What!" the girls replied
"What the hell is going on with you two?" Maria asked them
"She won't talk to Randy!" Madison complained
"Who's Randy?" Maria asked
"Randy Orton, WWE superstar. Hot as hell. Sweetest guy" Madison said
"Put me through emotional hell for like 3 months!" Riley countered
"He apologized!" Madison countered
"Riley, maybe you should" Maria began
"NO!" Santiago said loudly
"Excuse me?" Maria said
"Yes, excuse you. Look I'm not stupid. I know you mean lot to the girls. I accept that. I even accept that you call them your girls…which they aren't. But if Riley doesn't want to talk to Randy, no one, not her best friend" He stopped to look at Madison and then Jackie
"And not her former teacher, or her current teachers "He gestured to Maria and the rest of the teachers in the room. "Can or should make her" he finished
"Riley is 18! She doesn't know what she could be missing out on"
"Riley is 18. She has a lot of growing up to do."
"You don't like him" Maria stated
"Orton? Fuck no! But I hate that Cena kid even more"
"He does know that both John and Randy could fold him up like an accordion, stomp on him and throw him away, right?" Riley asked Madison
"Uh, his head does, but you know he don't use that"
"Right" Riley nodded
"I think that Riley should talk to Randy" Maria said
"And I think that Riley should freaking graduate high school and finish being a senior in said high school before she goes throwing herself into lovers dungeon again!"
"This isn't a Shakespearian play!" Maria said
"And it all goes back to Shakespeare" Riley said tossing herself down on the couch
"Riley's going to do what she wants to do!"
"Riley wants to take a nap" Riley said as the bell rang. "Riley is also late for homeroom" she said as she got up and kissed Maria on the cheek. "Bye Ms. Rodriguez. Bye Idiot. See you in class"
"Call him!" Maria said
"No!" Santiago said
"Sleep with him!" Jackie said and laughed as Riley grabbed her arm and dragged her down the hall.
"JAQUALINE!"Ms.De screamed as the girls ran down the hallway.
Later that day
Riley sat in her apartment, As you like it, one of Shakespeare's plays sat in her lap. She was in no way, shape or form, reading. That would be doing homework. Riley…homework for Shakespeare class? No way. Riley was thinking. Thinking back to the letter Santiago had written her. "All the world is a stage, all the men and women merely players" He had quoted Shakespeare. Jaques in As you like it.
He was right. Jaques and Santiago. Riley did play many roles in her life. Daughter, friend, student, cousin, aunt, girlfriend…The one role Riley refused to play was victim. Victim to her disease. Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. Better known as HCM. It's a genetic disease that causes the heart muscles to thicken, making it harder for the heart to pump blood through out the body. And it was the one thing that controlled Riley's life.
Control Riley's life it did, but make Riley a victim…no chance in hell. But the disease did force her to make choices. Like leave the Cena's. When she was young, Riley couldn't imagine walking away from them. They were her other family. John especially. She loved them almost as much, if not the same amount as her own family. But the Cena's had been through so much pain and heartache. When the doctor had told Riley that she could suddenly die from the disease, she had chose to walk away. It was her choice, and it was the one she had made and dealt with up until this past October. John had walked back into her life, turned it upside down, and walked back out.
The phone suddenly rang, and Riley was jolted out of her thoughts.
"Hello?" She answered
"Kid"
"Don't fucking call me kid Nicholas"
"That's what you are!"
"Bastard"
"Whore"
"Pantsy!"
"Riley!"
"Yea?"
"What up?"
"Nothing…a lot" Riley answered her friend of over twelve years.
"I figured." The two friends launched into a discussion which involved Nick's crush on Madison among other things, when Riley heard her doorbell
"Nicky, lemme call you tomorrow, someones at my door"
"Riley its 12:30 in the morning"
"Yea…oh right, ok stay on the line"
"I didn't mean that!" Nick said as Riley walked towards the door
Laughing into the phone Riley pulled the door open and gasped
"Randy…"