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"Wait, this is the girl that beat up Toad!?" White hair guy exclaimed. "Damn Toad you picked the tiniest girl in school to clober you."
Reese smirked. At Five foot five she wasn't very intimidating. She was definitely strong, her brothers and cousins knew better than to try anything. She had to be strong, she did sports and helped in her parents' vet clinic.
"She's strong yo. She had a grip like," the boy referred to as Toad. "What's that snake in the Amazon?"
Lance rolled his eyes, "Anaconda. Maybe you shouldn't pit pocket new kids before learning if they're stupid or not."
Reese chuckled. Lance seemed easy to like, then again she could be a pain in the ass. She ended up joining them for lunch. Toad, real name Todd, was kind of funny, and a good artist. Pietro was good to talk to, apparently he knew how to dance, Reese made him promise to show her. Freddy was sweet, Reese had to hand it to him, he knew quite about cuisine from around the world. Lance was, Lance was nice, and made her smile.
Lunch was unfortunately short. Her acquaintances offered to help her find her gym class. The coach handed her a uniform and when she was changed she joined the other girls. That was where she saw Kitty and another girl. The girl had long red hair, tall, and pale. She was the girl hanging out with her brother.
"Oh Reese, come meet Jean!" Kitty looked happy to see her. Happily bringing her closer to the older girl.
"Hi I'm Jean Grey," The girl smiled. Reese smiled back.
She held her hand out, "Reese Lopez-Vadlez, nice to meet you."
"Is your brother Rueben?" Reese nodded. "He's so sweet. I hope you two like it here."
"I think we will."
It was nice talking to her and Kitty. Then the activity started. Coach Smith had them stretch, then pick teams for dodgeball. Reese got on the opposite team of Jean and Kitty. She wasn't trying, she promised.
A girl named Maggie told her to aim for Jean and prove her loyalty. It was joking and Reese didn't throw that hard, but then the ball went whistling. The ball barely missed and hit the wall with a loud crack.
"Like it cracked the wall. What if that had hit someone," Reese was still in a bit of shock, that it cracked, that she didn't think to dodge the ball that smacked her right in the goddamn face. It was an accident but this red hot anger built up in her, it felt like she needed to lunge at whoever hit her, but it left as soon as it came.
She was a bit dizzy as she sat up, but nothing too bad. It kind of surprised her when Jean and Kitty came to help her up.
"Girls take Miss Lopez to the nurse, we'll clean up."
The halls were quiet, Reese could hear some faint drips, but then it stopped. No one spoke out of the three of them, but she heard someone talking, but couldn't place where. Smells were hitting her from every direction. It was making her dizzier.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Reese lied. Well it didn't stay a lie very long, just like the drip drop, the smell just left. They entered the nurse's office, where luckily Reese was okay to go to her next two classes, just maybe take it easy.
Her next class was Spanish. Reese had it with Kitty and Jean somehow. She really should have taken something she didn't know, but the other foreign language was French and she spoke that.
Kitty asked to help her get caught up. Reese really wanted to tell her she didn't have too, but then they might make her take something else. She was trying to get some easy A's her first year in the American education system.
She knows she didn't say that aloud, but Jean made a face as the thought crossed her mind. Something about Jean unnerved her, but she couldn't think of a good reason why. She wasn't trying to be mean, something just didn't sit right.
Last class was American History, that was where she rejoined Lance and Pietro. She happily chose to sit with them. The teacher gave her a side eye, clearly not liking her choice of table mates, but then again he was suffering head up the ass disease.
Her day was over sooner than she thought. They got out at 3, and they got home at 3:30. Ruben was telling her about his new friends, she mentioned Jean, and said she was cool. He also seemed to know Kitty. His classes were easy and he enjoyed school. Reese agreed she enjoyed it, but she missed Sicily.
"We were only there for three years. We were in Brazil longer."
"You were in Brazil for seven years, I was five when we left," Reese reminded.
"True, but you have to agree Brazil was the best."
With a shrug, "Spain and Cuba weren't too bad. France was nice too, but I miss our cousins."
Ruben didn't seem to be paying attention anymore. Reese rolled her shoulder, pain was radiating. It was hot, it hurt like hell. She was just going to assume that she threw it out, it was the only thing that made sense.
"Reese!" She smiled as her little sister ran out of the house. Rose was five, the current youngest. Her dark brown curls were a mess, her papa had done it in a cute little pony tail that morning. Even adding a pink bow that the little one had begged for that morning.
Despite the pain, Reese picked her up. Rose and Alejandro were her world. The younger two had rode a different bus to school, she wished she could have seen them right after school, but they got out earlier.
"We got to color and for lunch we had," She got puzzled for a second. "Sopa."
"I know she said that in English Rosie. Try again." Reese really didn't want to be that asshole. Rose needed to learn English though, she was almost fluent and that's all that mattered. She was going good, just a push helped sometimes.
They were walking in the house when their dad stopped them. He was all smiles as he took Rose from her and hugged her with the free arm.
"How was your first day? Did you enjoy it?" Her dad was always the nervous one. You'd think as a fighter, he'd be more confident, but outside of the Arena or the clinic he was a worrier. Reese remembered the month before they moved, her dad was pacing, constantly voicing whether or not they'd thrive.
"It was nice dad. I made some friends and I like my classes." The relief rolled off, it was like that was all he needed to relax. "How's the office doing?"
"Pretty good. We had a foal born today. Mom was in for an abscess, and now there's two."
She hung up her bag on the hook. She had gotten a cherry red hook. It kind of clashed with her papa's light gray wall, but he couldn't deny her or the others. This new house was pretty big.
The entryway had light gray walls, oak floors that basically covered the whole house. There were the hooks, everyone got a hook in their color. The first room you'd see is the living room with two large black sectionals, the TV on the black TV stand that doubled as book, DVD and Movie storage. There were pictures of her and her siblings, their relatives, even their pets, but the ones of her parents together were in storage. The large windows were covered by white linen curtains. A brown rug, it had to replace the white one since one of the Sammy cats got a dead rabbit on it. If you keep going you'll pass a locked closet under the upstairs with all of their winter and pet feed.
The kitchen was at the end, across from their abuelas' room. The kitchen was modern. A large island for breakfast, the cabinets were a darker gray. The table was old with scratches and dents from moving all these years.
Reese finished her homework quickly, having done some of it on the bus. She was about to go help her papa at the barn, but then her head rushed again. She could hear him, but it was far away, muffled. Her papa was loud, but not loud enough to be heard from the barn into the house.
She felt herself tripping, but she caught herself on the dining room chair. She stayed like that for a minute as the heat stopped and she let out the breath she didn't know she was holding. It went away as soon as it had come. Luckily no one had seen it. She was fine when her dad walked in, he ruffled her hair before passing through.
As planned she practically ran down the road to the barn. Her papa was grooming one of their horses, Saturno. Saturno was a dapple gray Lipizzaner that Ruben had fallen for when they lived in Spain. Papa had fallen for him too, Reese liked riding him when she got the chance.
Her papa was smiling, her papa had a warm smile. Unlike her dad her papa was softer. He had a bit of a belly, but he was also a bit taller than dad. His skin was the same shade as hers. Her papa kept his hair long enough to tie back while her dad liked his short. Her papa wasn't as anxious as her dad, but she knew he cared about them and would gladly die for them.
Her papa and her didn't speak much, an hour of silence. Reese had managed to grab another of their horses, a black spanish Mustang they had in training. It was peaceful as they worked until her papa asked, "How was your first day."
"It was okay. Nothing interesting really happened, but I think I made some friends."
"Good, hopefully you make tons of new friends."
"I hope so papa," She smiled as she worked.
"This is going to be good for us, I know it."
