4 – Two Extra Fists in a Fight
Over the following months Stephanie and Carlos became practically inseparable, much to the dismay of literally everyone in the entire neighbourhood. Helen Plum was furious with her daughter's decision to befriend the delinquent outsider and showed it frequently by refusing the boy entry to their home, constantly reminding her daughter of the many flaws the kid she'd never taken the time to get to know obviously had, and worst of all as far as Stephanie was concerned, pushing her to spend time with 'that nice Morelli boy'. Like Steph was even going to entertain the thought of that happening.
Frank was more open to accepting Carlos, allowing him to visit with Stephanie in the living room or kitchen when Helen was out (once he'd taken the boy aside for a stern warning, of course). Unfortunately, though, he wasn't often home when Helen wasn't, and as much as Steph was growing into her own and loved to rebel against her mother's wishes, she didn't want to push the envelope and be caught with Carlos in the house if Helen decided to come home early. Plus, Valerie was the world's biggest snitch.
Even Mary Lou only grudgingly accepted his addition to their table in the cafeteria at lunch time. Mary Lou who had been the one encouraging Steph to be herself and make her own decisions up until recently, who'd been one of her biggest supporters, had now switched camps and took every opportunity to remind Steph of what her mother would say and do whenever she made a decision that did not align with those wretched Burg Values. It had gotten to the point where Steph had had to draw a clear line down the centre of her life. On the one side was the Burg and all the things she shouldn't do or say, the strict rules of how to act and react, the oppression of individuality and dreams at the expense of her happiness.
And on the other side was Carlos.
Carlos represented her hopes, her personality, her wants and needs. She could be whoever she wanted to be when she was with Carlos. He didn't judge her; he didn't try to sway her to his own views of who she should be. He supported her, and inspired her, and was absolutely her biggest cheerleader in life.
"What's that grin for?" Carlos asked, nudging her with his elbow. They were sat side by side on a picnic table in the park just down the road from the school. Ostensibly, they were working on homework, but in reality, they were just enjoying the sunshine and delaying their inevitable parting of ways if they continued their walk home. Carlos was never allowed into the Plum residence, and he hadn't invited her back to hang out at his Tia's house, claiming it was always too full to warrant as a viable option.
"I was just thinking how you're my biggest cheerleader," Stephanie replied, her grin widening mischievously as she turned her head to capture him in the radiant beam of her gaze. "And then I was thinking about what you'd look like in a cheerleading outfit." A bark of laughter escaped Carlos as she jumped up from the bench to stand in front of him. "The crop top with the mid drift on display. The short skirt revealing those legs. You'd probably show off your ass when you bent over. Pretty sure you'd make all the other cheerleaders swoon."
"What about you?" Carlos asked, a dangerous sparkle in his eyes as he stood to join her.
"What do you mean, what about me?" she questioned, backing away from him. She could never be sure what he was thinking when he got that look about him. Should she run and hide? Should she brace herself for a tackle? Should she warn the authorities that there was about to be illegal activity in the area? "There's no way I'm gonna be a cheerleader. Baton twirling was enough of a compromise as it is."
His lips ticked up at the corners as he stalked after her. "Helen would be so pleased if you were a cheerleader."
Stephanie rolled her eyes so hard they almost got stuck in the back of her skull. "Helen would have a heart attack if I suddenly decided to be a cheerleader," she pointed out. "She couldn't handle the shock." She paused a second, stumbling backwards over a rock and almost falling over. "Besides," she added, hastening her steps when Carlos loomed closer, "I think I'm much better suited to being your two extra fists in a fight."
"Babe."
She stopped in her tracks at the sight of his raised eyebrow, and crossed her arms over her chest defiantly, holding her ground when he continued to approach. "It's how we met, isn't it?" she reminded him. "I helped you out in your tussle against Joe."
"You threw yourself in the middle of a fight and got yourself injured," Carlos countered, mirroring her stance.
"I could hold my own if I had to," Steph said, taking a step closer.
In response, Carlos grabbed her around the middle, restraining her arms and pulling her against his chest forcefully. "Where are those fists n- OOF!" His taunting question was cut off on a pained cry as Steph let her instincts take over and drove her knee into his groin. Carlos's arms unlocked from around her and he stumbled backwards, gasping for breath, but with an impressed expression on his face. "Forget two extra fists," he told her. "I'll take you killer knee as backup any day."
*o*
The cafeteria was already crowded when Carlos entered, but he had no trouble picking Stephanie out in the sea of teens. It was like he'd developed a radar sense especially for her. He always seemed to know exactly where she was, even if she was clear across campus. The slight smile that graced his lips every time he saw her and was reminded of how lucky he was to have her as a friend died when he caught sight of who was behind her in the line: Morelli. And he didn't appear to be minding his own business, either.
Carlos knew without a doubt that Stephanie could hold her own if he made a pass at her, but that didn't mean he was going to allow the creep to do so. People scrambled out of his way as Carlos strode across the hall, their gasps and comments sliding off his back unnoticed as his whole being was focused on closing the distance between himself and Morelli. Halfway across the room the thought entered his mind that he should let the guy do whatever it was he was going to do just to watch his eyes bug out when Steph's knee connected with his crown jewels, but he shook his head to clear it away. Steph dealt with enough ridicule and scorn just by being his friend, she didn't need a reputation as a ball-buster on top of that.
"It's not often I see you without your shadow these days," Morelli was saying as Carlos got within earshot. He was leaning over her shoulder while Stephanie's eyes were locked on the puddings in front of her. "Did Toto finally decide to jump out of Dorothy's basket?"
"Do you need English tutoring?" Steph quipped, not looking at him. "Because that was a terrible metaphor."
"I thought it was an accurate description of the lapdog Manoso is," Morelli countered, reaching across her to grab a vanilla pudding and drop it onto her tray. "Or is he more than that? Have you given him a taste of your donut? Is that why he trails after your like a lost puppy?"
Carlos had heard enough. It was obvious that Morelli hadn't learned how to respect women from the first time he'd given him a beating, so he'd have to give him a supplementary lesson. He was in between Steph and Morelli in the next heartbeat, hands reaching to drag the idiot outside for round two, when Steph's gentle hand on his back gave him pause.
"He's not worth it, Carlos," she said quietly, her voice strained.
He disagreed. Punching Morelli's lights out would absolutely be worth the suspension he'd earn from the action. He didn't know what kind of history Stephanie and Morelli had, having never pushed her to share about it when she resisted, but he did know that Helen Plum was adamant that Morelli was a better choice than Carlos, and that made him incredibly angry. Helen obviously had her head in the sand if she thought Joseph Morelli would treat her daughter right. He wanted to teach them both a lesson, but at the same time he knew that, although the progress they'd made over the course of the last year was great, Steph still worried about what other people thought about her. And, by extension, him. Her friendship with him caused her enough strife without him proving himself to be the bad-boy delinquent they'd all assumed he was when he arrived on the scene at the beginning of the school year.
Morelli was smirking at his inaction, and oh what he would have given to wipe that smirk off his face, but this was neither the time nor the place to do so. He could make concessions for appearances to ease Steph's suffering.
"Grab a couple slices of that cake and let's get out of here," he told Steph, turning his back on Joe and picking up her tray.
Steph looked relieved, but as her gaze slid to the cake he'd indicated her nose screwed up in disgust. "That's carrot cake, Carlos," she pointed out.
"Eating a vegetable isn't gonna kill you, Babe," he reminded her, shaking his head and grabbing two pieces of the cake off the bench. "Besides, we need cake to celebrate."
"Celebrate what?" her curiosity was piqued, but he just gave her a half smile, carrying her tray to the cash register to pay for her lunch. He knew he could always distract her by being vague and mysterious, she was like a dog with a bone when she wanted to know something. She continued to pester him all the way to their usual table in the back corner, but it wasn't until they'd settled into their seats that he finally explained.
"A little birdie told me," he said slowly, taking his slice of cake off her tray and setting it down in front of himself. "That you passed your math test."
Steph's lips formed a surprised 'O' as she stared at him, her first forkful of cake frozen in the space between the plate and her mouth. "How did you find that out?" she demanded. "I only just got the results at the end of last period!"
Carlos just smiled. "I have my ways."
She gave him the look. The one she sent him when she wanted him to tell her the mysteries of the universe but knew there was no chance he was going to reveal the inner workings of his life. Maybe one day he'd let her in on his secrets, but not today, not now. He didn't want to risk losing her. The first friend he'd had in his high school career. She was special. Important. She was his better half.
When she finally let out that frustrated growl he'd been waiting for and shoved the forkful of cake into her mouth he decided it was time to broach the topic that had been looming over his head since he visited his parents. He didn't want to, not when he knew it would cause that sad look in her eyes that he hated so much. But he had to. Steph had already started planning her summer break. Their summer break.
"I have some bad news," he started. He kept his head down, directed at his cake, but his eyes were trained on her expression out of the corner of his eye as she slowly licked the cream cheese icing off her fork: cautious, curious, guarded. "You know how I went to see my parents last weekend?"
She nodded. "You said they wanted to talk about how you've been getting on in Trenton," she recalled. "Did they say you could stay here next year?"
He wished the answer he had for her was simpler. "They did," he confirmed. "But-" He paused when her eyes narrowed at him, she hated buts. Buts were never fair. Her entire life had been run by buts.
"Carlos, is this celebration cake, or is it consolation cake?" she demanded stabbing her fork into her slice. "Because it's feeling a lot like consolation cake. For a start, it's hiding vegetables. I can't trust a cake that doesn't lay it all out there and own what it is."
"It's called carrot cake, Babe," Carlos tried to lighten the mood, but she wasn't listening.
"And then there this 'but' you're presenting me with," she went on. "You can stay at this school but what?"
"But I have to spend the summer at military school."
Steph slammed her fists down on the table, making everything on it clatter loudly and drawing the attention of the people nearby. She didn't appear to notice, though, as her eyes turned that perilous stormy colour he'd learned to be wary of. "They can't do that to you!" she told him earnestly, scraping her chair back to pace behind it. She'd never been very good at staying still, especially when she was agitated. "They can't go back on their word like that! You haven't been in detention for months, you're getting good grades, what more do they want from you?!"
A sigh wrenched itself from deep down inside Carlos. He was flattered that Steph was so incensed on his behalf, that she thought his parents were being unfair, but just like Stephanie couldn't truly break free of the Burg's hold on her, he couldn't deny the power his parents still wielded over him. If he refused to do as they said, they'd punish him for it. And at this point he knew exactly what the punishment would be. They'd take away the one thing that had made him feel normal, the one thing that gave him a chance in hell at being happy. They'd take him away from Steph.
"I have to go," he said, grabbing hold of her hand when she passed close enough and tugging her back down into her seat. "If I don't…"
All the steam left her at his words. She knew it was true just as well as he did. "Yeah."