Chapter 6: Horatio
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Disclaimer: I don't own Bully or Fillmore!. There.
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His eyes opened. He had no idea what he was doing there in bed or how he got there. He didn't lift up his head, feeling weak, but he could see that he was inside a hospital and it was in the middle of the day. He didn't see anyone around and despite not lifting his head, he glanced around the room, tilting his head as he did so.
How did I get here? he asked himself. His mouth was dry and he felt feeding tubes in his arms. He glanced at his thin body, wondering how long he had been in the hospital.
Horatio Vallejo then lifted himself up, grimacing as he felt how weak he had become. He glanced over at the calendar and could see that it was August. The last thing he remembered was early spring.
He had been there for at least a few months and he tried to remember what had happened beforehand. He had no idea what had occurred all those months before.
He swung his legs over the side, disgusted by how thin they were and hating that he was wearing a hospital gown. Glancing around, he searched for a way to call a nurse or something.
The Mexican-American boy found the button and pressed it hard.
He waited for a couple of minutes before the nurse finally showed up, surprised that he was there, sitting.
"You're awake…" she said, shivering from shock.
"Yeah," Horatio replied with a nod. "How long have I been here?"
"Since late May. You came here with severe head trauma. How much do you remember?" she asked.
Horatio stared into the distance. "Nothing. I don't know what happened."
The woman nodded. "I'll be sure to call your parents. They deserve to know that you're alright."
He turned to her and gave a short nod as she made her way to the phone, dialing the number on the piece of paper that she had with his information on it.
That was two years earlier.
###
Since they ended up sleeping in a little later than normal due to the showdown with the Punks the night before, Connor and Fatty ended up having to make up for the fact that they missed their training session with Bo by working out with him at lunch. "There you go, guys, keep those legs moving!" Bo exclaimed as they worked a massive sweat on the bikes.
Great, I hate leg day! Connor thought to himself, reminding him of the times he would go to the gym with his dad and his uncle and all the times pumping his legs on those cardio machines after using the weight machines to work them out. He glanced over at his roommate who looked like he disliked the exercises as much as Connor. Then again, the redhead needed more than the blond.
Pretty soon, though, the training was over. They had spent fifteen minutes on the exercise bikes and were pretty sweaty. "Alright, guys, that's a wrap. Hopefully I didn't push you too hard," Bo remarked.
"Are you kidding? I feel like taking a nap instead of going to gym," Fatty replied, wiping his forehead off with a workout towel.
"Yeah, I'm definitely hitting the showers and then heading straight to the cafeteria to have some more burnt pizza," Connor declared, somewhat jokingly.
"Remember, guys, try to work on that diet of yours. A large part of a good exercise program is having a good diet with lots of veggies," the black boy advised as the duo made their way into the showers.
While they were showering, the two had a conversation. Thankfully there were partitions between them so they didn't have to see each other, though they talked anyway.
"What are you going to do this weekend?" Fatty inquired, washing off his chest.
"I'm probably just going to sleep in tomorrow and savor it," the blond replied, lathering up one of his arms.
"That's cool," the redhead responded. "You want to go play Grottos and Gremlins after school and maybe go to the comic-book store in the afternoon?"
"Sure, that sounds like a plan," the blond replied. Truthfully, he felt a little guilty not spending as much time with his roommate as he could have, but he still needed to train with Jimmy in case any more of the cliques from his old school arrived.
After washing off his legs, Connor switched off the shower and exited, drying himself off at his locker. Fatty showed up soon thereafter just after the blond put his boxers on. "So, what else is going on?"
"Not much," the heavy kid replied, drying his back off.
"Maybe we should go bowling or something," the blond suggested as he put his shirt on, facing away from the redhead as he put his clothes on. He had gotten used to not looking at other guys in the locker room and as far as he could tell, so had Fatty who wasn't as afraid of using the dorm showers as he used to be.
When the blond was done, he got his backpack together and left the locker room, followed by Fatty. As the duo moved toward the cafeteria, they talked about more ideas for Sunday, plans that would inevitably be dashed to pieces as soon as they ran into Jimmy.
"There you are!" he exclaimed, frustrated at his friend. "I've been trying to look for you all lunch hour."
"Sorry I left Math as soon as the bell rang," the blond responded as he entered into the school, his stomach grumbling as he did so. "I had an appointment with Bo for some weightlifting. What's up?"
"Your friend in Maine is in danger. It turns out the Mobsters are going after him!" Jimmy exclaimed, causing Connor to look at him with an expression of shock.
"Ugh, you've got to be kidding me! We just dealt with the Punks!" he exclaimed.
"So, who are the Mobsters, anyway?" Fatty asked as they entered the cafeteria. The nice thing about the time they were there was that there was nobody in line. Unfortunately, they only had about twenty minutes before the bell for their next class so they had to eat pretty quickly.
"The Mobsters are a clique consisting of the sons and daughters of the Mob and they tend to embody every stereotype associated with them. Think Greasers only stupid," Connor explained before ordering his food. "Hey, what's on special today?" he asked Mr. Galloway, who was currently the volunteer chef on duty. He didn't cook too bad, surprising everyone.
"Well, today we have tacos, burritos and enchiladas, if you'd like some," the English teacher responded in an upbeat manner. Jimmy was amazed at how different he was since Mr. Hattrick was fired. All it took to get him off most of the alcohol was getting rid of one person, one bully.
"I guess I'll have three enchiladas. I'm assuming they're high in protein, right?" the blond inquired.
"Hah, yes! They were made using the best chicken the school could buy," Mr. Galloway told them, getting Connor's dish for him. "Here you go! Now, what would you want, Francois?"
"I'll have three burritos with lots of hot sauce," the redhead replied with a smile, getting some from the English teacher.
"And you, Jimmy?"
"I already ate, remember?" the King of the School replied with a smile.
"Oh yeah, that's right. It's easy to forget these things," the English teacher remarked. "Well, see you around, James."
"You too." The trio made their way to their usual table and started digging into their food. Fatty was the messier eater compared to Connor, though, especially since the blond at least used a knife and fork.
"So, what's the plan, Jim?" Connor inquired in between bites.
"Well, since we need to have a head start on those Mobsters, we're going to need to take the bus as soon as we can after school. There's one leaving for the town in Maine where your friend is at a little after four. We just need to get there on time and with a group that can take on these guys."
"We could bring Bo along, but I doubt we'd be able to take on all of the Mobsters without proper planning and backup," the blond remarked between bites. Once he finished with his current bite and swallowed it, he spoke again. "The Mobsters has, like, thirty members."
"What?" Fatty asked, almost spitting out the food he was eating.
"That's crazy!" Jimmy replied, remembering how small the cliques at Bullworth were.
"Yeah, the Punks were one of the smaller cliques. Other small cliques include the Prettyboys and the Hipsters, though both of those are tougher than they look," Connor indicated before eating more of his second enchilada. At about that time, Zoe came into the cafeteria and sat down next to Jimmy.
"Hey, guys, what's up?" Zoe greeted with a smile.
"We're going to have to go to Houlton, Maine to rescue Connor's friend there," Jimmy stated with a bit of disdain, mad at the cliques at Van Buren High for all their stupidity.
Zoe was kind of surprised at that but she seemed pretty excited. "Cool, a vacation that might possibly contain some fights," the girl remarked with a grin.
"Yeah, and we need to get a group together to deal with a thirty-strong clique," the King of the School added.
"Even better. I like those odds," the redhead remarked. "Okay, I know that's a bit of a stretch."
"Hah!" Connor scoffed. "I was already making plans for the weekend when this happens."
"Maybe I can get some weapons from the rest of the nerds," Fatty suggested.
"And I can recruit some people. You know who you want to come?" she asked.
"Bo, Russell and a few others, I guess," Connor suggested, naming off the ones he knew.
"We could invite Bob or Hal along. We'll need all the firepower we can get," Jimmy said.
"I'm not sure if Bob's a good idea. I kind of had a bad experience with him," Fatty remarked, shuttering at what it was.
"Yeah? Was he bullying you?" the King of the School asked.
"No, it wasn't that. You see…" Fatty was a little embarrassed but he leaned over and whispered in Jimmy's ear.
"Okay, that's a little weird. I think I get what you're saying especially since I had to stop using the Jock clubhouse because I kept on coming across him… yeah…" The King of the School shuddered. "So, he might not be a good idea to bring along. Maybe we should bring that black guy from the Greasers that has a giant hammer. He would be good to have."
"Yeah, we should also take Melvin with us, you know, as a strategist," Fatty suggested.
"Alright, let's do this!" Jimmy exclaimed.
###
PE went by pretty quickly for them as they approached the time for school to be out. While they were in PE, they made sure they invited everyone on the list to come along so they could help.
Strangely enough, most of them accepted, even when it was someone new like Connor doing the inviting. The blond was exhausted after that, but he pushed on, bypassing the showers along with everyone else and getting their things packed for a couple of days in case they needed to stay a little longer.
When all was said and done, they made their way to the school gates where everyone met.
Connor was a little taken aback since he didn't know half of the students there. He glanced over at Jimmy who seemed as confident as ever. The heavy blond carried his duffle bag with him as they all made their way to the bus station where Jimmy paid for their tickets.
"You better not cause any trouble on this trip," the ticket attendant warned Jimmy.
"Don't worry, we're just going on a quick little weekend trip, that's all," the King of the School told the person giving out passes.
"Okay, just keep in mind that if you cause any trouble you will get kicked off the bus and you'll have to find another way back home. Got it?" she replied.
Jimmy nodded and made his way back to the group. He was sure to hand passes to everyone. All in all, there were about ten people there from Bullworth. What Jimmy hadn't expected upon getting on the bus was a certain lunch lady. "Oh, hey, Jimmy!" she exclaimed, hugging the King of the School tightly, not knowing that he was one of the ones that conspired to get her fired in the first place. "How've you been?"
"Good," Jimmy responded, trying not to inhale her smell too deeply. "What are you doing on here, Edna?"
"Oh, you know, just going to Canada. Did you hear that that idiot Dr. Crabblesnitch fired me? What a moron! The food's all going to suck without me around!" The woman laughed out loud so that everyone on the bus could hear. All the Bullworth students made a point to sit on the opposite end of the bus from her, including Jimmy.
"Yeah, it's absolutely terrible without you cooking it," he replied sarcastically.
"I know, right! Nobody knows how to add flavor to it like I do!" she exclaimed some more.
"Well, I've got to go sit down with my friend Connor over there. See you around," Jimmy said with a wave, heading off to sit with his friend.
"Yeah, see you around, Jimmy-boy!" she called out as he went over to sit next to Connor.
"Ugh, how can you talk to her?" Connor asked, not liking it one bit.
"I don't know, man," the King of the School responded. "I guess I kind of feel sorry for her."
Connor nodded. "I'm not sure I do. If she had been a good lunch lady, she wouldn't have gotten fired." After a few seconds, the heavyset blond remembered something else. "Plus, there's this rumor that she took Dr. Watts into a hotel while he was high on sedatives. I just can't respect a woman like that."
Jimmy nodded, hating that he had been involved in that very incident, even going as far as getting her the sedatives from a trashcan. He shuddered.
"Hey, can I borrow your phone real quick?" Connor requested.
Jimmy responded by simply giving it to him. "What do you need it for?"
"I just thought I'd call my uncle and have him bring me my bike over the weekend. He lives about halfway between here and my parent's place so I thought I'd have him get it. Plus, the Van Buren dirtbags won't be as likely to follow him here as they would my parents."
"You think they're being watched?" the King of the School asked.
"I know it. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if they figured something was up today when the Punks didn't show up at school," Connor responded, dialing his uncle's phone number before holding the phone up to his ear. After a couple of rings, he got a voice. "Hey, Uncle Nigel, this is Connor, how's it going? Good, good. School's going good. Hey, so is there any way I can have you take my bike to my school? Uh-huh, uh-huh. Okay, cool. I'm going to go help out a friend and I might be staying at his place over the weekend, but you can leave it with whoever's inside the auto-shop or with the people at the front desk. Alright, see you around, Nigel."
"Nigel, huh?" Jimmy asked as Connor hung up and handed him the phone.
"Yeah," his protégé responded. "He and my dad are twins so they're really close and since my uncle doesn't have any kids of his own, he's basically a second father to me."
Jimmy nodded. "That's kind of cool. I've never been close to my family."
"That sucks," Connor responded. He had heard rumors. "Is it true your mom was married ten times?"
"No, only five. So, I've had four stepdads and I haven't seen my own dad in ages," the King of the school stated, glancing at his phone.
"Have you ever tried looking him up?" Connor inquired out of curiosity.
"I would but… I don't know. It's been fourteen years. I don't even remember what he looks like," Jimmy replied.
At about that time, the bus started running. Connor hadn't realized just how complicated his new friend really was.
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Horatio got busy packing his things as soon as he got the e-mail from Vallejo. He was barely adjusting to this school as it was and was trying to get past the initial shock of being in a place surrounded by people he didn't know. Even his roommate was too busy for him, constantly going on dates with different girls, almost a different one each night. One time he walked in on him doing something he'd rather not think about.
The black-haired boy made sure he had everything packed by the time his roommate got back. "Hey, Hor, how's it going?" the boy's annoying roommate greeted. He hated the nickname with a passion.
"Fine, I guess," he responded, leaving his red uniform on the bed before sitting on it. "You?"
"Oh, great. Wait, are you leaving?" the pale red-head asked.
"Yeah, it turns out a bunch of my enemies are coming and I should get out as soon as I possibly can," the heavy boy replied. In reality, he was definitely smaller than Connor or even Algie.
"Hah! Always the conspiracy theorist, Hor! So, would you mind getting out of here since I'm going to have my girlfriend over tonight?" the roommate requested, his expression suddenly turning serious.
"Yeah, which one?" Horatio inquired.
"Ha, ha! Good one!" the curly-haired redhead exclaimed with a laugh and Horatio exited the premises, making his way to the front of the school before putting on a blue hat and putting his blue duffle bag down. He kept watch as he did so.
In truth, he really didn't like his school that much, especially since the student body seemed to consist almost entirely of snobby rich kids. Plus, he really didn't have any friends there. The promiscuous roommate definitely didn't count. It probably didn't help that he probably had every disease under the sun.
"Oh, hey, what are you doing here, Horatio?" he heard someone from behind him say. He didn't really have any friends but he did have someone who was kind of an acquaintance. She had long brown hair tied up in a ponytail. Strangely enough, though, she was one of the only girls in the school that was actually kind of nice. She was wearing a red uniform and had on a green skirt.
"Oh, hey, Rachelle. Just waiting for some friends to get here," he responded in his gruff voice.
"Going out of town for the weekend?" she inquired.
"Probably leaving for good," Horatio replied. "Got an e-mail this morning. Some of my enemies from my old school are headed this way, so my friends that are still there are arranging for a transfer to Bullworth Academy."
"Bullworth? I've heard about that place," the brunette girl responded. "Well, I'll miss you."
"Yeah? Don't you have any friends here?" he asked, getting a shake of the head in reply.
"I got here on a scholarship and because of that, nobody likes me, saying I don't deserve to be here because I'm poor," she replied. Horatio winced at the description.
"Ouch! Well, you can come along if you'd like," Horatio said in response, smiling at the poor girl.
"I heard about that school. From what I hear it's not a good place to be," she responded.
"Well, I might be needed there, then," the heavy boy said. "To be honest, at my old school, I had to start up a new version of the Safety Patrol because there was so much crap going on and nobody was taking care of it. I guess I must be a cop by nature because when I got here, I got bored. There's nothing happening except that my roommate's screwing a different girl every night."
The girl looked disgusted at that. "And because of that, every girl in the school is going to have herpes by the end of the semester, I bet."
"That's what I'm thinking," Horatio responded.
"You know, that's something that could be reported since he's not supposed to be bringing girls into the dorm," Rachelle replied. "Come on, if you're leaving, you might as well do it."
He smiled. "That sounds like a good idea to me." The boy saw something in the corner of his eye, though. There was a car, an old, black Cadillac, that didn't look like it belonged in that area with a New Hampshire license plate headed for the school, causing Horatio to bolt in the opposite direction and toward the school. Rachelle followed, not wanting to get caught up in whatever was coming. She had faith in Horatio's sense of danger.
The duo kept on running, even as the car started to drive through the school grounds. Various kids were forced to jump out of the way as they did so.
Thankfully, after a couple of years at Jefferson, Rachelle knew where to go and turned sharply before dragging Horatio into the school's basement, quickly shutting the door behind them as they did so. Almost immediately, Horatio grabbed a hold of a steel pipe against the wall and put it between the door handles.
"Hope that holds them," he said, also hoping that the pipe wasn't anything essential. It was actually just a drain pipe.
"Quickly, come with me," Rachelle told him, grabbing his hand and pulling him further into the basement, shutting the doors behind them as they did so. After several areas, the duo found the area that Rachelle had been looking for. They were in a room filled with numerous computer monitors.
"Logan Ramirez, are you here?" the brunette asked and a figure rolled in toward them in a chair, not bothering to get up.
"Oh, it's you," he said with a grin. He was wearing a long, black trenchcoat over the normal red uniform and was wearing a pair of prescription sunglasses to shield his blue eyes from the sun. The boy also had natural black hair and a bit of a moustache forming. "What are you guys doing here in my lair?"
"A bunch of goons from my old school showed up and started chasing me," Horatio explained.
"Oh, those mobster-wannabes that were driving through the school parking lot," the hermit deduced, rolling towards one of the monitors. "Here they are! Acting like they own the place. Little do they know that I do instead!"
"You don't own this place!" Horatio objected, thinking the hacker was crazy. Logan laughed.
"Right, of course I don't. I just monitor it from the distance. I'm their secret guardian."
"Anyway, what I really brought Horatio here for is that he needs to be transferred to a different school," Rachelle stated with a little bit of impatience. "We need to get him transferred before the Mobsters break in!"
"Oh, why didn't you say so, man?" the trenchcoat-wearing boy asked, before doing some typing on the computer. "Where'd you want to transfer?"
"Bullworth Academy, Bullworth, New Hampshire," Horatio replied, causing Logan's eyes to widen.
"That place, huh? I hear that was once one of the worst schools in the nation, well until some kid named Jimmy Hopkins stopped this guy named Gary Smith," Logan said. The mention of the last name Hopkins made Horatio's eyes widen. He had heard of Jimmy and even heard that he had been working with Connor and the disbanded Safety Patrol, but he hadn't realized just how important he was, nor did he realize he was a Hopkins.
"So, can you hack into their systems to put me there?" the Mexican boy asked.
"Hacking doesn't consist of just typing in random code and, aha! You're in! I need three things: an e-mail belonging to a student there, the password to that e-mail, and an administrative account."
Horatio grumbled at that before he pulled out his cell-phone to call Jimmy Hopkins.
###
Jimmy received the call while they were on the bus. Upon seeing that it was Horatio Vallejo, he immediately answered it. "Hello?"
"Uh, hi, Jim, I need your e-mail address and password," Horatio responded, not liking what he was doing.
"What? Why?" Jimmy asked, confused and not wanting to give away his school e-mail address.
"Well, I know this hacker who can put me in Bullworth. The thing is, though, that I need your e-mail, your password and the e-mail of an administrator, probably the principle or headmaster of the school."
Jimmy begrudgingly gave all of those things to him with the plan to change his password as soon as he could so that this hacker friend of Horatio's wouldn't use it to send out spam e-mails or something. "There? That enough?"
"Yeah, thanks man. The mobsters are already here, dude, so you have to hurry up!"
Jimmy grimaced at that one. "Okay, we will, it's just that we're on the bus right now and it'll take a while."
"Thanks, man!" With that, the gruff Mexican-American hung up.
"What's going on?" Connor asked, concerned.
"The Mobsters are already there," the King of the School informed him.
###
Logan immediately went to work; using Jimmy's account to send an e-mail with a virus on it to Crabblesnitch's computer that would immediately give the Jefferson student instant access to the Headmaster's computer and school records.
Lucky for them, Crabblesnitch noticed that Jimmy had sent him and e-mail and opened it within seconds after it was sent, not knowing about the virus that was included. Instead, all he saw were cat memes. "Lolcats? What in the devil is this?"
###
In Maine, Logan quickly got to work as soon as he gained access, transferring Horatio's grades and class info to Bullworth. "Alright, I was successful!" Logan exclaimed, typing away with a grin. "You're now a student at Bullworth, effective immediately," he laughed. "Wow, this is quite the school. Now, what else did you want to do?"
"Alert the faculty to my ex-roommate's promiscuity," Horatio responded.
"Okay, done! So, who do you want to room with at Bullworth? There aren't many guys without roommates. Oh, and there's also this place called Harrington House but from the looks of it all the people there are Preps."
"Just put me in the regular dorms," Vallejo requested of him.
"Gotcha! Let's see, you have a few options: Hal Esposito, Melvin O'Connor, Jimmy Hopkins."
"Melvin O'Connor. My friend Connor knows him, I guess," Horatio replied.
"Melvin it is! Alright, you can move there any time, though you won't get a fancy tour by the principal's sexy secretary or anything," Logan informed Horatio.
"That's fine with me," the Mexican-American teen said. They heard doors opening in the distance. "Crap! They must have gotten in! Anyway, thanks for your help."
"No problem, big guy!"
"Let's get out of here as fast as we can," Rachelle exclaimed, grabbing ahold of his hand and taking him away.
"I hope you know what you're doing!" Horatio told her while they moved through the catacombs of the school.
"I explored these catacombs during my time here, Horatio!" she informed him as she ran with him. He was amazed at how he was somehow able to keep up with her. All that working out with Connor over the previous couple of years had paid off. Plus there were the times when they had to chase suspects for the safety patrol.
Eventually, they made it out of the catacombs and into an open field and there were no Mobsters in sight. After that, Rachelle led Horatio through the clearing. "Where are we?" the heavyset boy asked the brunette.
"We're in the woods just behind the football field," she responded, making her way up the hill. "I'm taking you to the train station."
Horatio followed her, though not without his caveats. The two of them continued moving until they were a ways from the school. So far, they hadn't seen any mobsters, although both the former Safety Patrol Chief and the brunette he was traveling with. After a while, he finally spoke. "So, why are you doing all this?" he inquired. "You've only known me for a week."
Rachelle didn't speak for a few seconds after he asked that. "What do you remember of your eighth-grade year?" she asked him.
The overweight boy looked at the girl as she led him along. Come to think of it, she does look kind of familiar. "You went to X?" he asked with suspicion.
The brunette nodded. "I went there for two years, seventh and eighth grade. You're a grade ahead of me, you know?"
"How'd we meet?" Horatio's curiosity was piqued.
"I was friends with Ingrid Third. Back then, you needed some help to bust a guy who was going to hack into the computer systems during this school dance and you asked me for it. That was what ultimately led me to joining the Safety Patrol for the rest of my time at X." The brunette glanced back at him as they walked up a hill and through someone's wooded property. "You really don't remember, do you?"
Horatio shook his head.
"I went to the hospital to see you after the last case when you got hit by that concussion, but it was too painful." A tear went down her cheek. "You see, I lost a close friend a long time ago in a car accident. It took me years to get over it. I guess seeing you in a coma reopened those wounds."
"Were we… romantically involved?" he asked her.
"I think we both liked each other, it's just that my parents didn't want me getting together with anyone and you had too many enemies that wanted to hurt you and would have hurt me to get to you," she responded as they reached the top of a hill that gave them a view of Houlton, Maine. "The Saint Bernard Bus Station shouldn't be too far from here, a mile or two, give or take."
Horatio was still digesting the revelation. Looking at Rachelle, he had brief flashbacks of her back then, at the dance in that red dress of hers, that time they faced the prettyboy enemy of the evening as he tried to alter everyone's grades, the various cases from later on that the two of them worked on. She was like another girl he once worked with named Malika, only not as corruptible.
It explained why she latched onto him so quickly when he arrived at the school.
They hurried on, hoping not to deal with any Mobsters along the way.
###
The bus finally arrived in Houlton. Now it was just the question of getting to Horatio and then getting back home. Jimmy Hopkins made his way off the bus, holding onto his phone as he did so.
"Well, see you kids around!" Edna called out through the window as she left.
"So, now we just got to find this guy and get out of here!" Bif exclaimed, ready to punch out any Mobsters that they came across.
Jimmy gave him a glare that shut him up. They were going to need to avoid arousing suspicion and somehow the King of the School expected these guys to ruin things.
He checked his phone, seeing that he had just received a new text.
"I'm here at the station."
"He's here. You know where to look for him?" Jimmy inquired of Connor.
That was when Connor saw a familiar boy. He waved his hand in the air and smiled. Jimmy was surprised at the hefty build of Horatio Vallejo, expecting, no hoping, for someone skinnier. He was starting to get peeved by the number of overweight kids around him.
"Hey, buddy, how's it going?" Connor greeted as Horatio walked towards him. That was about the time they noticed the brunette trailing behind him.
The two shook hands and exchanged a bear hug. "Not much! So, this is Jimmy Hopkins, huh?" Horatio went over and shook Jimmy's hand. "You're not related to the other Hopkins we know, right?"
"What other Hopkins?" Jimmy asked, raising an eyebrow.
"As far as I know, no," Connor explained. "Don't worry, Jimmy, we just know someone else with your last name at Van Buren, that's all. It's more than likely just a coincidence. You guys don't look that much alike at all, actually." He chuckled nervously.
"By the way, this is my friend Rachelle," Horatio explained, introducing the brunette.
"Nice to meet you guys. So, you're that Connor guy that Horatio talked about who helped him form the Van Buren Safety Patrol?" she asked with a smile.
"Yeah, it's good to meet you. Hey, you're not the Rachelle that Ingrid calls once a month, are you?" Connor inquired, a curious expression on his face.
"Uh huh," she said. "Well, I guess I better get out of here."
"Yeah, before those Mobsters find us," Horatio told her, genuinely concerned for her wellbeing.
Rachelle smiled at him sadly before giving him her valedictions. "See you later, Horatio Vallejo."
The Mexican-American boy blushed as she walked off.
"A week and you already got a girlfriend," Connor stated, shaking his head. "Wow, how come I can't have your luck?"
"What about Angie Ng?" Jimmy asked him.
"Well, that's kind of complicated," the heavier blond responded nervously.
###
What they didn't know was that a Mobster, this time the child of members of the local Russian Mafia, had seen them.
He then proceeded to make a call to the leader of the Mobsters using his cellphone. "I found Horatio Vallejo and it looks like Hopkins is here too," he said, smiling widely.
###