My name is Perla. I'm a boring Mexican girl. I live with my mom and my two brothers, I’m not that special is what I’m trying to say. “Perla! Ayudame con los trastes”,

“ Ya voy!” I tell her as I throw the trash away.

We moved here to California a long time ago..and not a cute part either, we have the highest crime rate.

I try to stay out of the streets at night mostly because of the cholos around the neighborhood.

“Watcha doing Benny?” I enter the kitchen.

“Oh, I’m making a card for the most beautiful girl in our school Maggie Delgado!” he raises the card full of hearts.

“Oh” I turn around and look at him.” Umm…wow Benny, well I hope she appreciates your card.”

“Yeah! Anyways I’m going to head out and go to bed. I have a big day tomorrow!”

“Okay then I’m just going to finish this and eat some food” 

“Alright then”

“Mmm,” I pick up the container of leftover pasta. Mom’s pasta is so amazing I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I’m going to save some for tomorrow and eat it for lunch.

As I head up I pass my mom’s room..she’s already sleeping. In the corner of my eye, I see  Edwin’s room across the hall. I have to constantly check for his moving shadows to make sure that he’s still here. 

“Hey Perla” Benny looks up at me. “Yeah, Benny?” I roll over to face him.“Do you think that Maggie will like my card?”

“Of course, she will. Who wouldn’t? You put your heart and soul on this”

Benny cracks a smile “Yeah, that’s true”

“Go to sleep,” I say softly 

“Okay, goodnight” 

                                          ***

My alarm goes off, but getting up in the morning is so hard. I just want to stay in bed all day.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Benny tells me while wearing Mom’s robe and holding a cup of coffee. “Oh, Benny. I just wanna be a couch potato all day,” He takes a sip of coffee and looks at me. “Perla you're already one, now get up and eat some breakfast.”

I roll my eyes at him and groan. “Okay, mom”.

Although mom is gone most of the time, Benny learned how to cook. He even learned how to make mom’s famous pasta, with a little help from me.

“Hey, Benny when I get my own house I’m going to hire you as my chef”.

He looks up at me and laughs,” Well I guess that’s fine with me. It's not like somebody’s ever gonna marry you”. I choke a bit with my coffee, “Well you're right. I’m going to stay a single pringle and you’re going to live with me.”

“Yeah yeah, anyways we should get going. We have ten minutes” He starts packing up his lunch.

“Okay, I’ll go get my backpack”.

                                      ***

And here we are “ Ugh..” Willford Intermediate School Where we come to learn all about the new school fights and the drama between the popular kids. “Yippee”. The school is right down the street from our house, so we can get there right before the bell rings. It’s kindergarten to 8th grade, so we know everyone there. “Hey, Benny we meet at the garden. Then we can order some takeout afterward.”

“Yeah! Have a great day at school” He starts skipping his way to the elementary school rooms.

Oh, how I wish I was still in elementary school. It’s so much easier. We don’t have to worry about missing assignments, not only that, but we only have one teacher. But eventually, everyone has to grow up. I guess I wasn’t prepared to grow up, but it happens whether we like it or not.

Now I’m off to first period “Haha...science”. There is Claire. She's my best friend. We have been friends and neighbors ever since I moved here. She makes the class 100 times better. “Oh Claire, how was I blessed with such a cool friend like you.” She cracks a smile and looks at me.

“Oh, Perla, I am your guardian angel and I have come to bless your very depressing life.”

“Oh, Claire, how could I ever repay you?” She takes a second to respond.

“Treat me to takeout.” I look at her very seriously.” Fine, we meet by the garden”.

“Yes!” 

                                      ***

After school, we met in the garden. Benny is fond of Claire, so he’s naturally used to our weirdness. We walked to the nearby “Michoacana”. Their ice cream is the best. It’s quite expensive for a cup of ice cream, but it’s worth it. “Hey, Perla, how come Daniel isn’t here?”

Benny looks up at me. “ Oh, he was sick so he couldn’t come to school today. I'll check up on him later. Since his mom is on a trip.” Daniel is the last of our trio. We have been childhood friends for a long time. He’s a short chubby kid like me. We often get mistaken for siblings at times because we have similar features. “Hey, Perla, I think we should be getting home now”. 

“Yeah, I don’t want your mom getting mad at me like last time.” She looks at me and starts laughing. “ Yeah, I remember it like it was yesterday”. Now you might be wondering what happened last time. Let’s just say that it didn’t turn out well.

“Well it was fun hanging out, we can hang out tomorrow since it’s Saturday” she looks back at me while opening her door.

“Yeah we can, maybe at 12, I’ll go tell Daniel”

“Okay, then see you tomorrow”. She disappears into her house.

Our houses are next to each other so it’s nice how everyone gets along. I appreciate my friends for looking out for me and my family. They’ve done a lot to help us, mostly Dona Chana our moms have been friends ever since they came to the U.S. They met Daniel’s mom in one of their workplaces and they became friends ever since.

“Hey, Benny if mom comes tell her I’m at Daniel’s house, grandma is going to come in a few minutes with Edwin”.

He comes racing down the stairs. “Okay then, I’m the man of the house now”.

“Yup”. I close the door and race to Daniel’s house. There are some cholos that hang out at the neighborhood park, I don’t want to run into them. 

“Hey, Daniel open the door!” I’m completely out of breath.

“Perla, why are you here?” I look at him blankly, God he’s a mess. “ I came to check up on you since your mom isn’t here.” I start cleaning up the living room which is filled with dirty dishes. “ by the way do you want to hang out tomorrow with me and claire?”. He takes a long pause before responding. “You didn’t have to come, I’m doing just fine by myself,”. He ignored my question. He’s not fine it’s not the fact that he’s sick or looks unkempt but I can sense that something is bugging him. “ Hey, umm… are you okay?” -- “yeah”...

That night I couldn’t sleep. My mind was wandering about Daniel. I thought of all the worst possible scenarios. Lately, he hasn’t been himself he doesn’t walk home with us and he refuses to hang out. I feared that one day this would happen I’m not ready to let go.

                                             
                                            ***

Today I woke up extra late, both me and benny. Edwin is in his room as usual and mom already left for work. I go downstairs to start making Benny’s favorite chocolate chip pancakes. “Hmm…is that perhaps chocolate chip pancakes that you are making”? Benny slowly walks down the stairs wearing Mom’s robe and smelling like fresh roses. “Did you use my body wash again?”

“Yes, yes I did..it makes me smell good”. Yeah, I guess he does have a point.

“Here, these are done”.

“Thank you!” He stuffs his face with pancakes. 

“I’ll leave some for Edwin in a plate, I’m going to hang out with Claire.”

“Okay then make sure to be back before four and don’t be with any boys except Daniel”.

He continues stuffing his face with pancakes.

“Benny I think we both know that no one will like me.”

“Yeah, that’s true, anyway bye and buy me something!”

“Okay, then benny”. I close the door and meet Claire at her house.

                                     ***

“Hey, Perla how come Daniel isn’t here, did he not want to come?” I stop looking through the rack of clothes. “I asked him yesterday but he avoided my question, I feel like he’s been sort of distant these past few days.” She takes a deep breath before responding. “Yeah, I’ve noticed that too, I think maybe we should ask him that later.” 

“Yeah, let’s just hope it’s nothing serious.” 

“We should start getting home but I need to buy something for Benny”. She pauses before responding. “I have a great idea there’s this pasta place down in the food court next to the theater.” 

“Yeah, he’ll like it!” We go down in the elevator since it’s easier than taking the stairs. “Hey, claire is that Daniel?”. She takes a while to move through the swarm of people. 

“Yeah, that’s him I guess he decided to come.” The elevator finally comes to a stop and we somehow manage to survive out of there. “ Claire hurry up we so can catch up to him!”

“I’m coming!”. 

We’re almost there just a few more steps…before I could reach him he vanishes into a group of people.

After that, we bought benny food and walked back home. 

“I wonder why Daniel came to the mall if he wasn’t coming with us”. She puts her arm around me. “Perla, don’t worry about him he probably came with other friends, that’s probably why he didn’t want to come with us”. I sigh. “Yeah, I guess so”. 

“Hey, I think we should take a shortcut and go through the skate park”.

I shrug. “ sure why not”. 

As we approach the corner I recognize the light blue sweater. The same sweater I gave Claire and Daniel. I hear the rapid footsteps of people running. “Hey, Perla watch out!” I suddenly bump into another guy which makes me fall to the ground. He looks down at me, “Watch it b*tch!”. 

“What the f*ck?!”

“Are you expecting me to apologize when you were the one who bumped into me?!”

“Yeah I am look what you did with your dirty *ss face!” he points to his white sweater.

I see Daniel behind him as he tells him to calm down. And that dude is telling him how I dirtied his white sweater with my face. My heart is thumping so fast I’m still on the floor while he’s yelling at me everything seems so vague.  My mind is going through swirls but I manage to snap out of it when I hear Claire call my name.

“Perla let’s go”. 

I calm down and think for a second. “ Daniel next time you decide to ditch us make sure you don’t hang out with *ssholes like him.”

This morning felt extra cold, my eyes still feel swollen from crying. “Hey, Perla, mom had the day off today she’s making chocolate chip pancakes.” I rub my eyes which then gives off a burning sensation.

“Tell her I don’t want any”. He sighs.

“Alright then, and stop being sad.” I wish it were that easy but it’s not. 

                                      ***

The rest of the day I helped around the house and mostly made errands for my mom.

I eventually forgot about what happened but I still do feel bummed out about it. 

“Perla trae esto a la casa de Daniel.” she hands me a bag packed with food.

“Ma no quiro!”. She turns around and her stare was the only thing that made me do it. 

My heart thumps as I stand in front of his door.

I don’t want to face him. Okay if he doesn’t open the door I’ll leave.

Welp, he didn’t open the door. As I start walking away, I hear his door open. 

“Hey,” he says in a low quiet voice. “Umm..my mom wanted you to have this”. I give him the bag full of food. “Bye”.

“Wait”. 

Claire was already at his house so were all just sitting on his couch all awkwardly. 

“Hey,...I’m sorry about yesterday I didn’t mean to ditch you guys I’m sorry I’ve been distant these past few days.” I stop looking at the floor and examine his face. He has a bruise. “I’m not friends with him anymore I don’t think I ever was.” 

Claire gives off a sigh.“I understand you, you don’t have to worry about it”

“Yeah, it’s okay you probably have your reasons for hanging out with him.”

He gives a warming smile “yeah as long as I’m with you guys”. 

“Now, let’s go eat pizza it’s on me today!”

Claire cracks a smile, “Oh, Perla you and your pizza.”

Daniel laughs. “I miss hanging out with you guys.”

“Haha, yeah cause we’re the best.”

“Yeah, you guys really are.”