CHAPTER 18

First time in an American high school, and it was an overwhelming experience, to say the least. Marcos was honestly shocked at just how incredibly large the institution was. Not so many people in his neighborhood in Brazil actually went to school, but with his mother working as a teacher herself, it had always been mandatory in his household. But school back home was nothing like this. The sheer size of the school… it was like a mall! Hundreds of students traveled through the corridors in a fashion almost like a tidal wave. Marcos at that moment felt so… small. He was merely an ant in a colony, just one of so many in West Valley High. He also felt very much alone. Everyone seemed to be hanging around their respective friend groups, but Marcos had no one.

Soon after Marcos walked into the building, he found his locker and managed to gather the materials he needed for class. He had arrived very early for school that morning, as nerves of the day ahead had prevented him from being able to sleep or wait any longer, so he still had nearly 20 minutes before homeroom, his first class of the day. At that point, Marcos had found Kyler and a few of the other Cobra Kais, who quickly invited him over, but he had declined their offer. He didn't feel like socializing right now. He was so nervous, he just wanted to get to class, sit down and get ready for the day. So instead, he walked to his homeroom class and sat right in the far corner of the room, the only person there in the silent, empty classroom.

Marcos knew that he had a fair bit of time before everyone else arrived, so he decided to pull out a book that he had borrowed from the public library the other day. It was Sun Tzu's "The Art of War", an extremely deep book for any teenager to be reading, but that didn't really matter for Marcos. Not because he was very bright for his age. If anything, the opposite. Marcos was not reading the book for its actual content, as he had already read the entire book in Portuguese, but instead he was reading it to try and learn how to read in English. That's right. 17 years old and he still couldn't fucking read English. He didn't know what it was. He didn't know how. But it was a serious deficiency that had slipped through the cracks when he was younger, and now he was in a position that he couldn't exactly bring it up, at risk of massive embarrassment. It was one of his deepest secrets, and one he was determined not to be revealed, at least not yet anyways. He wasn't stupid. He knew how high schools worked. He didn't want to be known as the "dumb new kid who couldn't read," as that was an utterly humiliating thought.

"I-i-i-if y-o-o-u-u k-now." Marcos internally stammered to himself, before slamming the book down in frustration. Not even one sentence! Not even three words he could read! He didn't know why this was so hard for him either. After all, the characters in Portuguese were mostly the same as English, and some of the words were even similar too. It should've been a breeze for him. It was just every time he tried to read, his brain completely shut down, and he wasn't able to do any more than stutter furiously through a word letter by letter, and then quickly lose his patience. Running a hand through his hair, Marcos looked down and sighed. He knew he needed to sort out this issue out as soon as possible, but he just had no idea how.

All of a sudden, a gentle hand on his shoulder caused his head to shoot up.

"Hey stranger." A familiar voice said. Before Marcos even turned to look up at them, a wide smile broke out on his face as he knew exactly who it was. But it was someone he definitely didn't expect to see here in West Valley High.

"Sarah!" Marcos exclaimed, shocked to see her there. For a second, there was an awkward moment between them as they didn't know how exactly to greet each other. Should they hug? Kiss? Shake hands. In their last encounter two nights ago, it had ended with them kissing, but they hadn't spoken to each other since. This resulted in a pretty awkward hug between them, before they sat opposite each other in the otherwise empty homeroom. "What… what are you doing here?" He stammered.

"I did it! I managed to break out of the bubble wrap!" Sarah declared proudly, unable to keep her beaming smile off her face. While Marcos was terrified about his first day, Sarah was absolutely buzzing with excitement for hers. Sure she had a lot less to worry about as she was only coming from a private school across the city, while Marcos was coming from a different country, but in both cases it was like they were arriving from a whole other world.

"Your parents actually said yes to you transferring?" Marcos asked, flabbergasted. He had only met her dad for about a minute when he had first arrived at their house, but he knew just from that that this wasn't exactly the type of man to be so welcoming of his only child transferring from one of the best high schools in the country to the local public school.

"Eventually." Sarah replied. "It took a LOT of convincing. I got the whole yelling spiel about how I'm throwing my entire future down the toilet. How I'm destroying everything they worked so hard to give me. It was brutal."

"Yeah, I'm sure it was." Marcos murmured, trying hard not to roll his eyes or laugh. Yeah, it must've really sucked, sitting in their house in Bel Air, arguing about which school Sarah spent her senior year in before she inevitably went to a great college and got a great job anyways. Sarah noticed the expression on his face and she glared at him.

"Shut up!" She snapped playfully. Marcos laughed and raised his hands in the hair.

"I didn't say anything!" He exclaimed.

"I know what you were going to say! I'm still getting used to all of this, okay? Give me a break!" She told him, slapping him gently on the shoulder. Marcos, who had a genuine smile on his face, nodded.

"Yeah, fine. Alright, continue. So you were sitting in the Bel Air mansion, drinking tea, listening to classical music and talking to your parents. What happened next? Did your butler come to your aid?"

Sarah narrowed her gorgeous ocean-eyes at him.

"Is literally everything you know about Bel Air what you got from Fresh Prince?" She remarked, noticing exactly what Marcos was talking about. Marcos shrugged and nodded, surprised that she actually got his reference.

"Yeah, kind of." Marcos chuckled. Sarah rolled her eyes.

"Anyways, yeah, I continued pressing them about it all weekend. I think my dad eventually realized that I was actually serious about this. It wasn't just me chasing thrills. So after a couple more hours of them trying to talk me out of it, they eventually relented. A few calls later and bang, I'm an official student here."

Marcos couldn't keep the grin off his face. His anxiety about the day ahead had temporarily been alleviated, and his happiness had risen a hundred-fold, just knowing that she was here too, that he wasn't totally alone in all of this.

"Well, can I just say I'm really glad that you're here. I'd like to permanently welcome you to the good life." Marcos said, and this time it was Sarah whose smile shone brightest.

"I'm happy to be here." She responded. Marcos laughed.

"I hope so. Because there's no turning back now!" He pointed out, to which Sarah nodded.

"Yup. No turning back now." She agreed. The two of them both sighed contentedly. They didn't know what it was, but there was something special about their relationship. The way they were able to joke with each other, the way they were able to playfully poke fun at each other… it was like they had known each other for years, not just 2 days.

Neither one of them said a word at that moment. Both of them instead leaned in and simultaneously kissed one another. Their hands slowly snaking onto each other's bodies and faces, they continued to make out for several moments, until they heard the door of the classroom opening and they were forced to quickly break apart, still remaining pretty close together though. Marcos' eyes flickered upwards to see who had walked in. As he did, his jaw immediately dropped, and he sat up in his chair, his whole body tensing up.

"What's going on?" Sarah asked, obviously noticing the change in Marcos' mood, her head flickering between the group of random high schoolers who had just walked in, and Marcos' rattled face. After staring at the teenagers, who hadn't actually noticed Marcos yet, Marcos eventually turned his head back towards Sarah.

"Hey. So you know how you wanted to see what life's like outside the bubble? Well you're about to get your first taste of it." He remarked, coyly. "Those people over there and me… not friends."

"What? You know them already?" Sarah asked. Marcos nodded.

"Yeah, um… we might be in two warring karate dojos, hell bent on destroying one another. We got into a scrap over the weekend. I beat the latino guy pretty badly."

"WHAT?!"

Sarah's loud exclaim got the attention of the group of teenagers who had just walked in, and they all turned. When they saw Marcos there, their expressions matched his, and if anything they looked even more spooked. They were practically shoving each other in their haste to get as far away from him as possible, at the other side of the room. They all sat down, but their eyes remained fixed on Marcos, all of them murmuring to one another in the meantime. Sarah couldn't help but laugh as she turned back to Marcos.

"Yeah, they all clearly love you." She remarked. Marcos shrugged.

"What can I say? I'm a pretty lovable guy." He responded, looking down and fiddling with his hands for a while. He didn't really know what to do right now. Neither did the Miyagi-Dos. They were stuck in a stalemate. They knew that as soon as there were even traces of a fight breaking out, they'd all be kicked out of the school. They also were well aware that even though there was nothing personal between them just yet, except maybe with Miguel who was still feeling the impact of his beatdown over the weekend, their dojos meant that they were sworn enemies, so they couldn't help but feel hatred for another.

All of a sudden, Sarah looked up at the group of Miyagi-Dos, and she stood up. Marcos turned to her.

"Where are you going?" Marcos asked.

"Away." Sarah responded simply. Marcos' eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Why?" He asked. Sarah pointed over Marcos' shoulder, and he turned to see all of the Miyagi-Dos now standing, and walking his way. The only people Marcos hadn't spotted amongst them that had been there yesterday were the short brunette boy and the blonde girl. That didn't mean that Marcos wasn't uneasy though as he saw 4 of them walk his way.

"I'm going to give you guys a minute. Maybe dial the 9 and the 1 on my phone, so all I need to do is dial one more 1 if things go south." Sarah replied, before standing up and walking away, allowing Marcos to then turn his full attention to the approaching Miyagi-Dos, clenching his jaw in anticipation. Here we go…