Chapter Forty-Four

“You gonna stick by me?”

“Maybe…”

**

Halfway through October, I got a friend. Or a stalker - I’m not really sure which you’d call her.

“What do you want?” Mr. Garcia barked when the classroom door opened, halfway through third period English.

“I’m…uh…I’m new here,” a girl said, walking up to his desk and handing him something - probably her schedule.

“New?” Mr. Garcia grumbled to himself, as he grabbed the piece of paper. “The office didn’t tell me anything about a new student…bastards…”

Everyone in the class laughed as the girl just looked at Mr. Garcia, her mouth practically hanging open in shock. Well, almost everyone. I just went back to reading. Mr. Garcia had been teaching at Jefferson for nearly forty years, and he hated everyone in the office, from the principal down to the student TAs. I don’t think even he knew exactly why he hated them, it’d all started so long ago.

“Fine,” Mr. Garcia continued a minute later, looking over his seating chart. “You can sit…let’s see. How about…no, that won’t work… Okay. In the back, next to Leticia.”

I looked up again as the girl walked towards me, a little more interested in her now that I knew she was gonna be sitting next to me for a while. Almost immediately I decided that, if they were single, Dom wouldn’t fuck her, and Leon might. And Vince would fuck her whether he had a girlfriend or not. He’s never really gotten the concept of monogamy.

She sat down, and I went back to reading my magazine - “Engine Builder.” But I could feel her staring at me, leaning towards me like she was trying to read over my shoulder or something. I tried to ignore her, but eventually it just got too creepy. I finally looked up and she opened her mouth like she was going to say something. But I just glared at her, wondering how fucking stupid she was to not get the hint that I wasn’t interested in being her new best friend.

She finally looked away, right before the bell rang. I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy to get out of English… The girl was just weird, and I hoped she wasn’t gonna be in any of my other classes.

“Hey,” someone said as they slid into the seat next to me in Auto Shop later that day. I flicked my eyes over and groaned - it was her again. “I’m Jamie,” she continued. “You’re Leticia, right?”

I didn’t answer.

“Uhm… Hola, yo soy Jamie. Tu eres Leticia, verdad?”

“You’re wasting your time,” Miguel laughed as he walked up to the table. “Leticia no habla español.”

“Oh…I’m sorry,” Jamie stuttered. “She didn’t answer me before, so I thought maybe she didn’t understand me…”

“I am sitting right here, you know,” I finally said, rolling my eyes.

“Okay guys, we’re going to start our group projects today,” Mr. Lozano announced as the bell rang. “So get with your partners, and I’ll come around and tell you what your topic is going to be.”

“So, you into cars?” Miguel asked Jamie as we sat there waiting for Loz to get to us.

“No, not really,” she answered. “Actually, I don’t know anything about cars…”

“Nothing?” Loz asked as he walked up behind her. “Now, that’s just a shame… But you sure picked the right table to sit at… These two could probably teach the class without me.”

“Really?” Jamie asked, looking at Miguel and me like we’d just saved her life or something.

“Yep,” Loz replied. “You know…why don’t you work with Leticia and Miguel. That should get you up to speed quick enough. That good with you two?” he asked, looking at Miguel and then at me.

“Yeah, that’s cool,” Miguel answered. I just rolled my eyes. Just what I needed - having to work on a project with weird psycho girl.

“Okay then,” Loz said, “you guys are going to talk about the mechanical differences between older and newer cars. I want you to interview at least three mechanics and see which they prefer, and then draw a conclusion on what we should do to adapt to the new technology.”

“Oh God,” I thought to myself. “This has to be the dumbest thing Loz has ever asked us to do. I looked over at Miguel and I could tell he felt the same way.

“Well,” he said, looking back at me as Loz walked away, “at least it won’t be too hard to find mechanics to interview. Hector, Leon, and…”

“And Dom,” I finished.

“Dom?” Miguel asked, raising his eyebrows. “Really? You guys are cool? You won’t get upset or anything, talking to him?”

“Why would I get upset?” I asked.

“Well…you know…” he said slowly, looking down at the table. “All that shit that went down and all…”

“Damn, Miguel,” I laughed, trying to play it off. “You act like Dom was the love of my life or something. He’s just a guy. Besides, that was months ago. And, he’s a mechanic...a damn good one. So, unless you want to go hunting down someone else to interview…”

“Okay, okay, fine,” he said, looking back up at me. “Hector, Leon and Dom.”

“We can start today, if you two aren’t busy,” I said, wanting to get the stupid project over with as soon as possible.

“Yeah, that works for me,” Miguel answered. “How ‘bout you, Jamie?”

“Hey, I just moved here,” she laughed. “I have no plans. I just need to be home by six.”

“Okay, we’ll go harass Leon and Dom after school gets out, then.”

“Yeah…and I think Hector’s not too busy today, so maybe we can get this all over with now,” Miguel added.

“Sounds good,” I said, just as Loz started talking again at the front of the room.

“Okay,” he announced, “now I want to go over all the requirements for this project and make sure everyone understands what I want…”