The summer just after freshmen year was one of the hottest on record, he remembered temperatures spiking so high the melting asphalt would stick to his worn shoes. The beaches were crowded, the ice-cream shops had tables spilling out into the streets and the community centre had a waiting list for the pool. His grandmother was furious because this was the second time Chardo was in trouble with the Sheriffs office.

The first strike last year had been vandalism, his club had trashed a senior 09ers car. Royce Clairmont had disrespected Mariana Herrera after coaxing the impressionable sophomore onto a date, then bragged to anyone who would listen he'd sealed the deal, all but leasing a billboard and spreading rumours which had followed her back home. His cousin hadn't been alone, but he had been the only one positively identified in the line-up, but to some degree his grandmother had understood.

This time around, the tension had sent his cousin sleeping onto Uncle Angels couch for a few weeks. The judge had ruled Chardo be ordered to do 300 hours of community service for assaulting Jack Abbott, of Pam High.

During the school year, his cousin had attempted to catch an errant pass but was tackled violently, by the wide receiver and suffered a gruesome injury as his leg, which was essentially snapped in half, forcing his cousin to hang up his cleats. He blamed Abott after their grandmother's insurance refused to cover costs beyond basic physical therapy. The recovery had been a brutal few months, watching his cousin's NFL dream and hopes for college disappear like that and his grandmother's increasing disappointment with the social workers calling her about Chardo's grades.

Most kids in Neptune lower socio-economic classes knew they were never getting out, but it was harder to swallow when someone might have had a chance.

"Dulce muchacho, la gente como nosotros no lo logra." Clarita Navarro had told him when he was eleven, he'd been explaining to his mother's latest boyfriend how he wanted to design race cars. She'd laughed in his face. As if to prove her point, she'd gone missing a few days after his 12th birthday, her body was found a couple of weeks later. Her boyfriend was never questioned, he'd had taken off shortly after she'd had died from an overdose, barely even stopping long enough to leave an anonymous tip.

His best friend Felix had been filling him in on the salacious details of how Gabriella Ruiz, the former estate manager for the Kane's was fired for her supposed affair with a member of the household. Affairs weren't uncommon between the Elitest 09ers and their staff but Eli suspected the highly strung Celeste Kane would have fired someone out of sheer jealousy or to simply get attention from her Tech Mogul husband. The older woman had raged about the garden in her lilac sweater over an embroidered blouse and green chinos, she looking about as elegant as an Easter basket and eventually had her security make not-so discreet patrols of the grounds as the two of them worked with their neighbour Fernand Gutierrez cleaning out pools and landscaping, a summer gig his Uncle Angel insisted upon to keep the two of them out of trouble and his grandmother sane while his cousin cleaned up trash on the highway.

"Me vale madre lo que con su vida, no te metas en problemas." His Uncle had warned them when Eli complained it like being punished because of Chardo.

The most striking thing for him about the estate had been how big and empty it could be. Between Business trips for Kane Enterprises, the family's only son Duncan Kane spending the summer months in England at soccer camp and a series of Mother Daughter shopping trips to various European city breaks and a month long family trip to Italy, this was nothing like the crowded and cramped three bedroom place his grandmother rented for them down town. Even outside at 4am when the neighbours stresses and family drama's finally stopped making it out into the street, there was never that eerie quiet. It felt as inviting as one of those posh hotels, the kind who would have him arrested for even passing by on the street.

The only space that felt alive in entire place was the patio garden, bursting to life with colours and flowers. It was exactly there through the security hut window as he finished having his back pack inspected at the end of the day Eli Navarro ever noticed Lily Kane wearing a pair of oversize red bug-eye sunglasses and a black bikini, sipping what looked like a cocktail glass towards the sun lounger while her mother looked frustrated holding out a what looked like a sun shawl.

"Ella es una fresa." Felix warned, nudging his arm.

"Ni modo, hay mejores chicas en el mundo." He shrugged and took his bag from the security, and collected the smaller one housekeeping had kept for him.

"Al menos se saltaron el examen rectal." Fernando chided as the three of them climbed into the pickup. He switched the radio from the Fey casette tape to listen to a broadcast of some soccer update. "Deja de chingar!" he scolded when Eli swatted Felix back for taking up too much space on his seat.

"Quieres tomar unas chelas?" Chardo asked when he finally arrived home.

"Aguas!" his grandmother scolded as his niece Ofelia came chasing through the living room.

"Did you bring it?" she asked, smiling he handed over the small bag of partially used cosmetic, and half empty perfume bottles that the house keeper had kept for him during their organising of the Kane's bedrooms.

Some of the items hadn't even been used, they were just from last season. It was common for 09er housekeeping staff to salvage things like empty perfume bottles and packaging to use for re-filling and selling on. His niece would probably spend the weekend working on such a project with his sister Claudia restocking the high-end perfumes.

"Chico, será mejor que no te emborraches." Letty Navarro warned, narrowing her eyes at her eldest grandson. "Debrias ponerte algo mejor que esas chanclas para salir!" Chardo shrugged her off and ushered his cousin outside, wiping a hand over his forehead. "Esa camisa esta chafa." He complained, tugging on the neck of his imiation t-shirt. Eli bit his tongue, he hated when his cousin was in this mood. "Abuela Nunca gasta en cosas inncesarias." "Ni modo" Chardo snorted but Eli still knew he was bitter about the insurance, there had been a growing rift between the his cousin and grandmother since his return from the hospital. "I can't go far but there's a party at the end of the block for Narissa's quinceañera, if you haven't eaten." "Los chavos estan jugando al futbol." Mrs Rameriz told them as she handed over two small plates with tacos. Eli took it gratefully, nodding to the birthday girl glancing at him over her father's shoulder. It was no secret that Narissa had crushed on him since middle school, they'd been close but drifted apart after his mother died. "Huevon!" Hector sniped at his little brother who refused to get him another helping of chimichangas. "This heatwave is melting me." Felix complained as he approached pulling two bottles of orange soda.

"Jesús Malverde!" Chardo grinned, toasting with his can and looking over the pile of snacks a few of the others deposited on the table.

In Neptune, especially amongst his gang-members the Pacific Coast Highway, folklore legends like Jesus Malverde were revered like Gods. In a town without the middle class, Mexican Robin Hood who took from the rich and gave to the poor until he was killed by police in 1906 was a popular hero for many jóvenes traviesos who knew they weren't the highest point in the power balance, they knew they'd never be top of the food chain, but they could still leave those scales swinging. "Jesus Malverde!" Felix toasted. Hours later, when the sickly heat had finally cooled, Eli settled into his bed and listened to the soft pleas of the little girl next door, pleading to her parents to allow her to lighten her hair like popular girls in her class. He shut his eyes, and hoped Ofelia was sound asleep, he dreaded the day his niece ever looked at herself in the mirror and pulled apart her beautiful brown eyes and hair, cursing them for not being sun-kissed, blonde and effortlessly beautiful. Not like Lily Kane. "El oro no es para personas como nosotras." His mothers voice whispered, as he remembered a similar conversation his sister had years ago, when she wept after being humiliated at work by some 09er trophy wife and had wanted to bleach her hair. "Ve a dormir." Chardo snapped, kicking a boot into his bunk, and turning over.