Gods and Monsters (Mafia Romance)

E I G H T

Alicia's P.O.V. 

"Nothing? What do you mean nothing?" Cheryl asked, not at all convinced with my news.

"N-o-t-h-i-n-g. Nothing! Nada. Nichts. Rien. Not anything." I rolled my eyes. 

She glared at me for a second, but her curiosity and need for more details were stronger than her annoyance with my sarcasm. "Liar!" She threw an eraser to me. It jumped off the desk and landed on the floor on the other side of the class.

Mr. Morales turned his head to glare at the class, trying to catch whoever was guilty for the sudden fuss. Cheryl and I pretended to be taking notes, until he turned back to the white-board and continued with whatever he was doing.

"Will you shut up?" I turned back to Cheryl. "I've been telling you the same thing for the last 15 minutes in the least. Where even were you yesterday? You weren't replying or picking the phone the whole day." 

"I was with Eric and when I got home it was late, so I figured we would talk today anyways. Now tell me-"

"Shhh!" Mr. Morales turned to glare at the class again, and we went back on staring at our books, and moving our hands, holding the pens, pretending we had been writing.

"My god, is he a pain in the ass!" She murmured when he turned his attention back to the equation on the board.

"He's right, stop talking and let me pay attention." I said, to which she snorted.

"You. Paying attention in math class. Right." She rolled her eyes. She was right, I couldn't care less about math. I had made peace with the fact that I hated them almost as much as they hated me. I was just trying to avoid my best friend's interrogation.

"Marshall! Lainez! I don't recall your grades from last year being good enough to allow you not to pay attention in class, especially with next week's exams. One more word from either of you two, and one of you sits on the first row!" 

My eyes immediately fell on the only available seat of the first row; next to smelly-Sam, every teacher's pet and every popular kid's victim. He seemed like a nice kid, who didn't deserve all that bullying, but let's be honest, you simply couldn't sit very close to him, unless your olfaction didn't work. And mine did, perfectly fine...

"But there's no seat available on the first row." Cheryl challenged, probably not having noticed the second seat on Sam's desk, being very empty. 

My eyes widened at what she had just done, and I poked her under the desk, trying to warn her, but Mr. Morales had just won this battle against Cheryl.

"Marshall, take your stuff and have a seat next to González. I warned you!" 

With that he turned his attention back on the board, leaving Cheryl wide eyed, as she stared at Sam, who momentarily turned to look at her, as some of our classmates either laughed or tried to express their condolences towards Cheryl. 

"Here, keep this near your nose, it smells of green apple." Amanda handed a baby wipe to Cheryl, who was now standing by the desk that we shared in the very back of the class, with her books on her hands and a terrified expression on her face, still staring at where she would have to spend the rest of the period. 

She gladly accepted the baby wipe and thanked Amanda, just before murmuring a "we're not done!" to me, and walking to the other side of the classroom. 

When the class was quiet again, I took off my uniform's jacket and placed it right in front of me on my desk, ready to take a little nap for the remaining 30 minutes of math class. Something that I didn't get to do, since soon, Sabina, who had been sitting with Amanda on the desk right in front of mine, turned back to let me know that Cheryl wanted me.

I sighed and sat up, looking in her direction, trying to read her lips and understand what she wanted. I eventually gave up and gestured to her to write it down to me. Immediately, she ripped off a small piece from the last page of her notebook and started writing something, before passing it to Marianna and telling her that it was for me. Sabina was about to give me the paper, while Cheryl was again trying to tell me something, when Mr. Morales started yelling again.

"Marshall! Lainez! This is your last warning! If I hear one of you even breathing one more time, you're both spending the rest of the period outside!" 

Cheryl quickly turned around to face the board and I looked down on my book. 

"Lainez, come solve the next equation." Mr. Morales said, making my eyes widen, as I could hear laugher and chatting from the class. "Shhh! Quiet!" Mr. Morales had started turning red. "Lainez we won't be waiting forever!"

"Fuck..." I murmured getting up from my seat and making my way to the front of the class.

I ignored the whispers that I heard passing by some of my classmates, and the fact that now every single guy in the room was suddenly paying attention –or more like waiting for me to turn around so that they could stare at my ass.  

"Hi Mr. Morales..." I gave him a cheeky grin as he handed me the marker. He ignored me.

"Hey, Pablo, what are we doing?" I found the opportunity to ask one of my classmates on the front row, when Mr. Morales turned his back on me and started walking to his desk.

"What did you just say Lainez?" He questioned, looking at me in disapproval. 

"Uh... nothing?" I smiled awkwardly.

He shook his head and tsked. "Page 47 excersize 16 equation c." He said dryly.

I quickly found the page in my book. "Right, yes off course. I- I knew that..." I smiled again, turning around and starting copying the equation from my book as slowly as I could, wishing for a miracle to happen so that I wouldn't have to solve it. 

"Why aren't you wearing the school's uniform by the way?" Mr. Morales questioned me again and I mentally cursed my existence. 

"I am..." I smiled as sweet as I could.

"Those are not the uniform's trousers. And they're too tight!"

I glared to a few people from my class, who found this way too funny.

"Yeah cause the actual uniform's pants don't fit me anymore... I put on some weight." I lied. I just didn't like the way the uniform's pants sat on my body. 

"And we can all see where that weight went, damnnnn!" Sergio yelled from the back of the class and I glared at him.

"You're such an asshole Sergio, Jesus, just stop talking!" Cheryl yelled back at him in my defense. 

"Bazan, go back to sleeping! Marshall, out of my class!" Mr. Morales turned to Sergio and Cheryl. 

"What? Why?" Cheryl quickly shot up from her seat.

"I told you that if I heard you again you would spend the rest of the class outside, you're lucky I'm not sending you to the principal." 

"Sergio literally sexually harassed Alicia and you told him to go back to sleep but you're kicking me out of the class for calling him out?!" 

"Mr. Morales, it's not Cheryl's fault-" I tried to reason with him, but he was pissed.  

"Lainez stop talking! Marshall, out!" 

"Unbelievable!" Cheryl laughed bitterly, before picking her stuff and rushing out of the class, banging the door behind her on her way out.

My blood started boiling, especially when Sergio started laughing at her. This was not fair!

"Lainez, see what happens when you don't follow the dress code? Besides, your uniform also contains of a skirt. Did that not fit you either?" Morales turned his attention back to me.

"The skirt fits, but it's very uncomfortable wearing it for 8 hours on a daily. Besides, I hear much worse remarks than this whenever I do wear the skirt." I answered bitterly. 

"Breaking news; Alicia Lainez doesn't like the attention!" Sergio joked and many of the guys in the class laughed, as some of the girls started yelling at him, taking my side. 

"Does your sister also like it, Serg?" I shot back at him and he immediately grew serious and glared daggers at me. 

"Silence!" Morales screamed and everyone stopped. 

"Lainez, continue with the equation, and during the break go to the reception and ask for a skirt to wear for the rest of the day!" He decided. "All this fuss because Mrs. Alicia wants attention..." He then murmured under his breath, but  being right next to him, I heard him.

I saw red from anger. I threw the marker on his desk and started walking towards the door, making sure to swing my hips a little bit more than necessary, just to piss him off some more.

"Lainez, where do you think you're going?" Mr. Morales shouted, making me stop, just by the door. 

"I'm leaving your class Mr. Morales! That's one hell of a way to get attention, isn't it?" I said sarcastically. "Oh, and I'm not going to wear a skirt today, but you should try it, and then please, let me know how comfortable it was!" I added, before opening the door and getting out of the class, with a satisfied smirk on my face, as my classmates started laughing and cheering on me.

I'm so getting suspended for this...

When I didn't see Cheryl anywhere near the class, I started walking outside in the school's grove. There, on a bench under a chestnut tree, sat my best friend, sipping on her latte with her AirPods on. 

"Hey..." I said, as she made room for me on the bench. 

"Kicked you out too?" She took off her AirPods.

"Nah, I left..."

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. I'm not usually one to mess with teachers, so I don't blame her.

"Why?"

I shrugged. "He was okay with Sergio being a jerk in front of the whole class, but my pants offended him and apparently I wore them to get attention." 

"They're literally just simple white pants, just not the school uniform's. Guys even wear jeans that aren't even white, like the uniform's, and no one has a problem with that!" She said frustrated. 

I grabbed her latte and took a sip. "Men." I rolled my eyes. 

"Misogynistic society." She rolled her eyes as well.

"They're gonna call me to the principal's office and I might get a suspension..." I murmured.

"I'll call mama." She said reassuringly. 

"She's in New York, how is she gonna help?" 

"She always finds a way." She shrugged and I smiled thinking of Rosie. I missed her. She was like a mother to my siblings and I.

"At least you didn't stay to solve the equation." She said after a few moments of silence. 

"I wouldn't solve it anyways." I chuckled.

"You won't tell me about Saturday?" She went back to what we had been talking about in class.

I sighed. "Nothing happened..." 

"You're lying. Why won't you tell me?" She insisted. "You texted me that you almost kissed."

"I had a panic attack, when he touched me unexpectedly, and he helped me. He let me have a sip from his wine, because my throat was dry, and he cleaned up a drop of wine from the corner of my lips. We were face to face and I really thought that he would kiss me, I even closed my eyes. And then he got up, said that we had to go back outside, and left. When I got back out to where we were, he wasn't there." I finally told her. 

"Oh wow... And why couldn't you just tell me that and instead gave me nothing's definition and translation in three other languages?" 

I laughed and lightly pushed her. "Cause you got on my nerves yesterday and on Saturday night. I had been calling you and texting you to rant on you and let it out of me, and you wouldn't pick up. b***h!" 

"Well I fell asleep on Saturday, and Eric came and picked me up early yesterday morning, and then I came back home late at night and you weren't online so I thought we would talk today. I was tired after all." 

The bell rang, indicating the end of the first period.

Cheryl groaned in annoyance, as I got up and waited for her to gather her stuff so that we would both go back to class. 

"What do we have now?" She asked me, when we were back inside the school building.

"Me, principal. You, either principal or history." I answered as we walked in our classroom. 

❦❦❦

"Sorry to interrupt, but Alicia Lainez and Cheryl Marshall were requested in the principal's office!" 

Not even five minutes after history class started had passed, and Mrs. Torres, the secretary, came to announce the principal's request. 

Cheryl and I got up from our seats and left the class, after I asked Raquel to take notes for me. My relationship with maths may not be the best, but history is a subject that I'm actually interested in.

Mrs. Torres accompanied us to her office, which was right outside of the principal's, and asked us to wait for a couple of minutes. 

"What did Rosie say?" I whispered to Cheryl, while we waited.

"That she will handle this. I don't know any details." 

"You can go in." Mrs. Torres said, putting the wired phone down. 

Cheryl and I looked at each other, before getting up and knocking on the principal's door. 

"Come in!"

Cheryl pushed the door open and got in first, with me following close behind her. 

"Morning Mr. Ortiz! How was your summer?" Cheryl said cheerfully as she made herself comfortable on one of the chairs in front of the big mahogany desk. 

I followed her lead and took the chair next to her, a bit more hesitantly however.

"Mrs. Marshall, I see you missed me. Second day of your senior year, and here we are already..." Mr. Ortiz shook his head in disapproval.

"Well, we would meet sooner or later, so I thought why not make it sooner?" Cheryl smiled angelically. 

I suppose that always being every teacher's antilogous and ending up in the principal's office at least once a month, had gained her that sort of confidence. 

"Marshall!" Mr. Ortiz hit his hand on his desk, making me flinch.

Cheryl however, didn't move a bit, and neither did her innocent smile. "Careful, this looked kinda painful." She motioned to his hand and I hardly managed to swallow down a laugh.

Mr. Ortiz glared at her for a few moments, before turning his attention to me. "Mrs. Lainez... It's your first time here, isn't it?"    

I nodded.

"Mr. Morales informed me on what happened. Do you care to explain?" 

I looked at Cheryl, who gestured at me to speak.

"I realized today morning that the school's trousers didn't fit me. So I wore another pair of trousers, which weren't of my outfit, like I've seen many guys do all the time. But as you can see, mine are even the same color. I didn't realize this would be such an issue." I said politely. 

"Mr. Morales also mentioned something about you disrespecting him in front of the whole class..."

I bit my bottom lip, looking down for a second. "Well, I did, but he was the one who did it first." I looked back up at him.

He raised an eyebrow in anticipation of what I was going to say.

"Some guy from my class made a stupid remark about me and the first time, Cheryl answered to him in my behalf and Mr. Morales kicked her out of the class, while he only told that guy to be quiet. Then the same guy made another remark and I replied to him. Mr. Morales told him to go back to sleep, while he told me that this was my fault for breaking the dress code and that I was only looking for attention. Well, I got mad and left his class."

"And why did Mr. Morales say that you told him to... wear a skirt?" 

I felt my cheeks heating up in embarrassment –even though I knew I wasn't really the one who should be embarrassed. Cheryl snickered, receiving a threatening glare from Mr. Ortiz.

"Uh, I told him that I wore those pants because my uniform's didn't fit me anymore, and then he said I should have worn the uniform's skirt, but I don't feel comfortable wearing the skirt. Then he said that during the break I would have to ask for a skirt to wear for the rest of the day and that's when he also claimed that I'm only seeking for attention. I told him to wear the skirt himself and let me know if he's comfortable in it for 8 hours..." I looked down at my hands.

Mr. Ortiz shook his head in disapproval and just when he was about to say something, the wired phone on his desk rang, and he picked it up. "Hello Mrs. Marshall! Yes, I'm here with your oldest daughter and Mrs. Lainez. No, Cheryl is surprisingly not in much trouble this time, but looks like Alicia is following her friend's tracks. No, but it looks like she's gonna have to go through the teacher's council. I'm sorry Mrs. Marshall, but I don't think I can do anything about- ... What? Are you sure you want- ... Okay, yes off course, I understand. Yes, Mrs. Marshall, no problem. Off course, off course, don't worry about it. Yes, I'll talk to the teacher. Goodbye Mrs. Marshall, have a good day!" 

He put down the phone and looked at Cheryl and I, sighing. "Cheryl, you're free to go! Lainez, I'll talk to Mr. Morales, do you want to be a part of this conversation?"

I shook my head no, without thinking twice. 

"Good, then you're free to go too. I expect that you're not going to break the dress code again." 

I nodded, getting up from that chair and thanking him, before leaving his office with Cheryl. 

❦❦❦

Our school day had just ended, and Cheryl, Kylie, Cindy and I were sitting at the coffee shop right across our school, along with Sabina, Amanda, Isabella, and a friend of Kylie's and Cindy's. 

"So are you guys coming on Saturday? Stacy gave me, Raquel and Mariana an invitation. It's like a huge event..." Isabella said, taking a sip from her iced-tea.

"Wait, what? Why did she not give Amanda and I invitations as well?" Sabina asked her surprised. 

"Oh, I probably shouldn't been telling you that, but she said that you two are two-faced bitches and that you're too deep in Cher and Ali's ass." Isabella answered to her, making both their eyes widen.

"Yeah, that has definitely nothing to do with the fact that Ali switched their places in the choreography with Sabi and Am." Kylie laughed and I rolled my eyes.

"I mean, if she has an issue with you guys being friends with us too, she should tell you, not Izzy. But then again it's Stacy we're talking about..." Cheryl turned to Amanda and Sabina. 

"But then we're the two-faced bitches. Ugh, looks like you guys were right about them all along..." Amanda scoffed.

"Well, Is, looks like you're gonna have to choose a side as well..." I sat back on my armchair, sipping on my orange juice.

"Uhm no! You guys don't get me in the middle of this. I'm friends with all of you and Stacy and Daria as well. I won't choose sides." Isabella said. 

Cheryl looked at me. I knew that look, we were both thinking the same thing. 

"Yeah, but you literally just told us what Stacy said about Amanda and Sabina." Cheryl turned back to Isabella. 

"Do you tell them whatever we say to you too?" I asked her with a raised eyebrow. 

"No, off course not. As I said, I stay out of this. Whenever they say something about you, I either change the subject or just not talk at all. It's none of my business. What Stace said of Am and Sabi, wasn't a secret." She replied defensively.

She had literally said that she "probably shouldn't been telling us that" so how was it not a secret?

I didn't say anything. Cheryl looked at me, then side-eyed Isabella, when she wasn't looking.

"Anyways, so what's even happening on Saturday?" Sabina changed the subject.

"You haven't heard? It's the opening of this new, big-ass club. 'The Island'. It's on the seaside. It's like very popular and it's very hard to find invitations for the opening. It's gonna be like the biggest club of the town." Isabella explained, excited.

I need to be there!

I looked at Cheryl, I'm sure she was thinking the same. She turned her phone on and soon after Sabina, Amanda and I got a notification. Isabella looked at us, but didn't say anything.

I discreetly opened my phone and read what Cheryl had sent to the 'secret' groupchat that we had with Amanda and Sabina, a groupchat, which didn't include Isabella, Raquel and Mariana, since they couldn't be very trusted.

Cheryl: let's not talk of Isabella now, point is that we need to be there on Saturday! All of you bitches look if you can find invitations, and Ali find a good excuse for Saturday, cause we're not missing that

"You ain't sleek..." I murmured to Cheryl, referring to the fact that Isabella now knew we had another groupchat, and Raquel, Mariana, Stacy and Daria would too, soon enough. 

"I wanna come too!" Cindy said suddenly, making us all to turn and look at her. 

"Cin, you're 15." I told her, furrowing my eyebrows.

"I'm turning 16 in three months, and also you were 13 when you first got drunk!" She shot back.

"Facts..." Cheryl laughed, and I glared at her.

"We'll talk about this later." I said to my little sister.

"Cin, Maria's birthday is on Saturday... Aren't you coming?" Ester, Kylie and Cindy's friend said.

"This Saturday? I thought it was next week!" Cindy asked, a little disappointed.

"No, it's this Saturday." Kylie told her.

"Ugh, fine, but next time, I'm coming too!" My sister announced.

"Guys, Hugo is here, we should go." Kylie exclaimed, getting up from her seat. "Ester, want a ride home?" 

"Sure! Thanks." Ester smiled, getting up as well.

Cheryl, Cindy and I followed their lead, and all five of us left the coffee shop, after paying for our drinks and hugging Amanda, Sabina and Isabella goodbye.