Chapter 2

As Johnny's relationship with Claudia got more serious, the more he blew off his friends just to be with her. He ditched them to be with Claudia more often than Lucas ditched everyone to be with Mia. They all started to resent Claudia, even the girls. Whenever Mia, Gina and Stacha invited Claudia to go to the mall with them or just to hang out at the park, Claudia declined. Johnny tuned his friends out when they told him that Claudia was snobby.

She got her attitude from her parents. They had emigrated to Montreal from Colombia to give their daughter a better life. Both parents worked hard to give Claudia what they never had when they were young. When Claudia's father's job relocated to Toronto, Mr. Valenzuela wasn't happy with the working class neighborhood he moved his family into even though it was what his and his wife's salary could afford. But at least they lived on the opposite side of the freight train tracks from The Rows.

The Rows got its name from the row houses that made up the neighborhood. All the houses were attached to each other in rows of six. They were characterized by their shoddy construction. Anyone unfamiliar with the area would probably call it the ghetto, even though it was about a step up.

Johnny and his clique lived in The Rows. They never had anything to bad to say about it because it was all they knew. It wasn't until they got to high school that they came to the realization that they lived on the wrong side of the tracks. Literally. This realization would occur to Johnny sooner than that.

It was on a typical afternoon and Johnny gave Claudia a ride home on his bike. When they got to Claudia's house, Johnny locked his bike up to the fence. As he did this, Claudia ran into the house and left the front door open. This was Johnny's cue to run into the house after her. Slamming the front door behind him, he ran into Claudia's bedroom. He tackled her onto her bed and they had a tickle fight. As always, the tickling gave way to kissing,

He became lost in her soft, wet lips and her sweet smell. He was in paradise. Suddenly, Johnny was brought out of his trance when Claudia screamed.

"Johnny! What are you doing?" She had a terrified look in her eyes. He looked down and saw that his hand was up her skirt. She backed away from him. Johnny felt terrible.

"I-I'm sorry Claudia," he stammered. Claudia stood up and straightened her clothes. Johnny did the same. He stood there as Claudia sat at her dressing table and fixed her hair.

"You should go now," she said without looking at him. Just then they heard her parents' car pull into the driveway.

"They're home!"she said, turning to look at Johnny. "If they ask, tell them we we doing homework and that you were just leaving." She got up from her chair, grabbed Johnny's hand and led him to the front door. When they reached the door, Mr. And Mrs. Valenzuela walked into the house.

"Papi, this is Johnny," Claudia told her father. She had told her father about Johnny and Johnny had called the house a few times, but this was the first time they had met in person.

"Nice to finally meet you," Mr. Valenzuela said, extending his hand to Johnny.

"Nice to meet you too, Sir" he replied nervously and started toward the door. "We were just doing homework, Sir. Okay, bye." He had his hand on the doorknob when Claudia's mother addressed him.

"Johnny, would you like to stay for dinner?" Mrs. Valenzuela asked. Johnny and Claudia both heaved a sigh of relief.

"Sure, thanks."

During dinner, Johnny had a nice conversation with the Valenzuelas. Claudia's parents seemed genuinely interested when Johnny told them about his family. Little did he know, they were silently judging him.

"So where is it you said you lived, Johnny?" asked Claudia's mom.

"Across the train tracks. It's called The Rows," he answered. Claudia's parents exchanged looks. Johnny picked up on this.

"And what do your parents do for a living?"Claudia's father asked.

"Well, my dad's a musician, he plays drums in a band. My mom's a waitress. They both work nights." Johnny's parents' jobs were never an issue with anyone. But they seemed to be an issue for Mr. and Mrs. Valenzuela. They exchanged looks again. Again, Johnny noticed. The tension in the room grew. Johnny decided to excuse himself.

"It's getting late, I better go." he said. "Thank you for the dinner, Ma'am. It was delicious." He ran outside, unlocked his bike and rode off. It was dark outside and Mr. Valenzuela had offered to dive Johnny home. But that was before dinner, before Johnny had unintentionally proven he wasn't good enough for his little girl. Johnny didn't want Mr. Valenzuela to drive him home now, even though it took him almost an hour to peddle home from their house.

When he got over the tracks and back in his neighborhood, he rode past a group of older guys standing on a street corner. They were the kind of guys Johnny and his friends would later become. They called after Johnny.

"Hey kid, nice bike! Can I have it? I'll fight ya for it."

When Johnny arrived at his house, the car was gone but a light was on inside the house. One of his parents was home. He came in the front door and saw his mom pacing back and forth in the living room. She had been crying. When she saw Johnny, she ran to him and threw her arms around him.

"Johnny! What happened?" she said. "When you didn't come home at the time you told me on the phone, I called over there. He said you had already left. I thought he was giving you a ride."

"His car wouldn't start," Johnny lied. He pulled away from his mother.

"I need to finish my home work and then I'm going to bed," he told her. He went upstairs to his room. Mrs. DiMarco wanted to ask her son what happened. When she called the Valenzuelas, Claudia's father told her Johnny was no longer welcome in their home. She didn't quite know how to bring up the subject, however.

Later that night, Johnny had awakened to go to the bathroom. He heard his mom downstairs in the kitchen talking on the phone. When he came out of the bathroom, he sat at the top of the stairs to eavesdrop.

"I'm sorry, I don't have that kind of money," he heard his mom say. Who was she talking to?

"Well, I guess he's just going to have to stay there because I can't pay that." she said into the phone. Her voice was shaky like she was going to cry. Johnny came downstairs just as she hung up the phone. She turned around, startled to see him standing there.

"Johnny," she said, her voice still shaky. "Your father is in jail."

The next morning, Johnny tried to act as though everything was normal. He and Claudia barely spoke and there was an awkwardness between them. After school, Johnny biked home with his friends and Claudia walked home alone.

When Johnny and Drake turned onto their street, they saw a bunch of cars in front of Johnny's house. Johnny noticed TV cameras.

"Dude, what's going on at your house?"Drake asked. "There's reporters out front."

A crowd of people stood on the front lawn and someone was ringing the doorbell. Just then, Johnny's mom pulled into the driveway. She had just come back from getting the car from the impound lot and visiting Johnny's dad.

When she got out of the car, the reporters descended on her like vultures. Magda Lempky, Drake's mom, came out of the house next door. She picked up a rock and hurled it toward the crowd.

"Get the hell out of here!" she screamed at them. "Leave these people alone! They have nothing to say to you!" The crowd dispersed and left. Magda told Drake to go inside and look after his brothers. She then walked over to Johnny's mom and hugged her. Johnny then followed them into his house.

He sat at the kitchen table doing his homework while his mom sat with Magda in the living room. She was crying and Magda was comforting her. Johnny heard the TV turn on. Someone was flipping the channels.

"Halina, no," he heard Magda say. "Don't torture yourself this way." She tried to get the remote away from Johnny's mom.

"I want to see what they're saying about Tony," his mom insisted, jerking her arm away. Johnny came into the room just in time to see a clip of a drug bust that had happened last night. A group of people were being led away in handcuffs. Johnny spotted his dad. When she saw that Johnny was in the room, his mom turned off the TV.

Halina was too much of a nervous wreck to cook dinner so Magda took two cans of chili and put a pot on the stove for Halina and Johnny. Johnny sat next to his mother at the table and put his arms around her. She kissed his forehead. Just as she was leaving, Magda gave them each a hug.

"If you need anything, call me girl," she told Halina. Johnny's mom nodded.

The following day at school was awkward. As Johnny walked down the hall, everyone looked at him.

Great, he thought, they all saw my dad on the news last night. He tried to maintain composure as he opened his locker. Lucas and Bruce came up to Johnny with looks of concern on their faces.

"Dude, we saw the news last night," said Lucas. "Drake just told us what happened."

"We got your back, Johnny" said Bruce. "If anyone messes with you just tell us."

"Thanks guys," said Johnny. He loved his friends so much right now. They really did have his back. He appreciated it when Stacha and Mia fussed over him, even though he and Mia didn't always get along.

Later that day, Johnny passed by the principal's office on his way to the cafeteria. He saw Claudia and her parents coming out. They had just signed Claudia out of school. Claudia and her mom looked straight ahead but her dad glared at Johnny. He watched them as they walked out the front door, got in their car and left.

Two days later, on Saturday, Johnny was sitting on the sofa eating cereal and watching cartoons when the doorbell rang. He set the bowl down on the coffee table and got up to answer it. Claudia stood on his door step holding a shoe box. Her parents' sat in their car which was parked out front.

"Hey, Claudia," said Johnny. Claudia looked like she had been crying.

"I can't stay," she told him. "I just came to give you this." She handed him the box. Johnny took the top off and looked inside. Inside the box were ticket stubs from the movies they went to, notes they had passed each other in class and a black velvet jewel box.

Johnny didn't need to open the jewel box , he knew what was inside. He had recycled a lot of bottles and cans to earn enough money to buy Claudia a heart and key pendant for her birthday last month. He would later give it to another girl, Alli.

"We're moving back to Montreal," she told him. Just then, Mr. Valenzuela got out of the car, ran up to Claudia, grabbed her arm and led her away.

"Goodbye Claudia," said Johnny.

"Don't talk to her!" said Claudia's father. Claudia looked back at Johnny.

"Claudia, mire adelante!" he yelled at her, telling her to look straight ahead and not at Johnny. They got in the car and drove off. Johnny went back inside. His mom stood at the top of the stairs in her bathrobe.

"Who was that, Johnny?" she asked.

"Nobody," he answered as he ran upstairs.

"What's in the box?" she asked.

"Nothing!" he shouted as he brushed past her. He wnt onto his room and slammed the door.

Soon, the gossip around school about Johnny's dad's arrest was quickly replaced with gossip about Johnny getting dumped by Claudia. A week later, everyone stopped talking about Johnny and focused their attention on Mia.

Mia had thrown up in class one morning and was sent to the nurse. After school that day, Johnny saw Mia and Stacha sitting on the front steps of the school. Mia was crying and Stacha had her arm around Mia.

"What's wrong?" he asked the girls. They looked up at him.

"Not now, Johnny!" Stacha snapped. Johnny shrugged and went to get his bike. Mia's mom signed her out of Holy Cross the next day. She transferred to Lakehurst Middle School.

That summer Mia gave birth to a baby girl and Lucas was a father at 14.

A school year that started out with so much promise ended on a bad note for Johnny DiMarco and his friends. Things would only get worse from there.

A/N: Sorry this chapter is so long. There's only one more chapter (a short one!) before the focus shifts to Johnny and Alli.