Chapter 33 - The Family Life of Alex Smith

Alex Smith is a guy who always finds himself in the middle of things. Whether it's being the frontrunner of some money-making scheme, a star player in a basketball game, or delivering some cake. Things just happen before he realizes that they are.

And as Alex walks home while carrying a pink tricycle, with his fellow club members joining him in his venture, he realizes that this is one of those moments.

"So how did this happen again?" Alex asks.

"You don't remember? We just talked about it," Elizabeth groans.

"Oh well, you see," Marcus begins to explain, "we were at our club meeting when Elizabeth asked if we should go get tamales at Burrito Bistro, then you declined by saying how your Abuela makes better tamales. Elizabeth got curious and asked if we could all go over and then you agreed."

"Oh...yeah that did happen," Alex realized.

"Well hey, I'm sure your parents would love having guests over," Ronnie suggests.

"That's the funny thing about my house," Alex begins to say as he reaches the front door of his house. 

The house is a wooden two-story home wedged next to a grocery store and a restaurant. 

Alex then sets the pink tricycle down before he opens the door and says, "my parents aren't the only family members of mine that live here."

As the door opens fully, the rest of the club members feel an overwhelming aura coming from the house. An aura that fills them with fear.

"You coming or what?" Alex asks as he enters his house.

Elizabeth scoffs before replying, "Yeah yeah, sounds good."

Aa Elizabeth enters, Ronnie shrugs before entering, Marcus follows Ronnie inside and after some hesitation, Cameron enters.

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As the group enters the house, they see that the front room to it has a staircase leading to the upstairs, and the kitchen is separated from the rest of the house via a beaded curtain. In the living room are two Hispanic adults who are watching the tv.

"I'm home and I brought some friends," Alex announces.

As soon as those words come out of his lips the two adults sitting on the couch stand up and speed walk over to them.

"Hi there, we're Alex's parents, I'm Juanita, that's Mateo- Would you like something to drink?- Dinner is almost ready and you're more than welcome to stay- how long have you known our little Chulo," Juanita Smith, Alex's mom, asks the group.

"MOM! I told you not to call me that anymore," Alex hisses while blushing.

"Hey, we're your parents, it's our job to embarrass you," Mateo Smith, Alex's father, states.

Juanita nods in agreement. Juanita's black hair is up in a bun and she is wearing a simple white sweater with blue jeans while Mateo has short black hair and is wearing a blue button-up with khakis.

Ronnie goes and extends his hand, "Hi we're Alex's friends from high school, thanks for letting us into your house."

"Oh don't sweat it, kid, we're always happy to have guests over," Mateo roars.

"You guys want to see some baby pictures of our Alex?" Juanita asks.

"Uhh sure," Elizabeth says mostly as a way to sit on the nice couch and to get some payback for when this happened to her.

Juanita and Elizabeth walk towards a couch as Alex tries to regain his composure after the embarrassment. However, the embarrassment soon increases when Mateo drags Marcus into the kitchen and says, "It looks like you need a beer."

"But-I'm-only-14-and-I've-never-had-alcohol-or-sparkling-water-in-my-life-before-and-" Marcus begins to awkwardly shout as he is taken into the kitchen.

Ronnie chuckles, "Your parents seem great!"

"Yeah they're nice," Cameron adds.

"Uh, thanks but those aren't the only people here," Alex says as he points into the kitchen to an elderly lady, "there's my Abuela, Yesenia Sanchez, making dinner. Aunt Lula & Uncle Luis are busy at work but their two kids are-"

"Above you!" one of Alex's cousins yells as they and their twin jump off the top of the stairs.

Alex quickly manages to catch one of the twin cousins with his right hand before grabbing the other with his left. As he lifts them by their shirts he scolds them, "How many times have I told you not to do that! It's dangerous!"

"But you always catch us!" One of Alex's cousins replies giggling.

"Yeah, yeah!" The other cousin laughs.

Alex groans as he sets his two cousins down before looking at Ronnie and saying, "These are Carmen & Liliana Sanchez, they're in 5th grade."

"Oh that's nice," Ronnie says as he looks at the twins and notices that both of them have blue pearl earrings, Carmen has one in her right ear, and Liliana has one in her left ear.

Carmen, spotting Ronnie looking at the earring, loudly states, "You think our earrings look great right?"

"Yeah, they kinda look like Alex's," Ronnie says.

"That's because they are!" Carmen explains, "He got em with us!"

"That's because you two were scared until I got them," Alex insists.

"We weren't scared," Lilliana comments, "We just wanted to see them on somebody first."

Ronnie looks at Alex a bit shocked.

"Pfft sure, besides I would've gotten earrings anyways," Alex stubbornly retorts, "It just felt like a good time."

"He always tries to pretend he's cool but you should see him when he plays 'Knights & Dragons' with us," Liliana says to Ronnie.

"What happens then?" Ronnie asks curiously.

Liliana stands on the first step of the stairway before leaning on her tippy-toes so she can whisper to Ronnie what happens when they play that game. Alex goes to shut Liliana up but it's too late and Ronnie looks at Alex with an amused look.

"D-don't tell anyone- alright?" Alex stammers blushing.

"No promises," Ronnie replies.

Alex groans as he realizes that his fate is sealed. As Cameron is standing by the front door, he notices the front door open as three people enter. A middle-aged Hispanic man with a white button-up shirt and gray pants, and a middle-aged Hispanic woman wearing a red floral dress and carrying a baby boy.

The man notices Cameron, hugs him, and says, "Hey you must be that Hamster boy my nephew talks about! Nice to meet you, I'm Jose."

"That's not him," Alex groans.

"Christopher?"

"You met Christopher."

"Oh, then who is this?" Jose asks his nephew.

Cameron answers by stammering out, "I'm Cameron, nice to meet you all."

"I see," Jose replies before glancing over at his wife and child, "over there is my wife Camila and our lil Juan."

"Your little one?" Cameron asks.

"No, it's Lil Juan."

"That's what I just said, little one."

"You aren't getting it, it's Lil Juan."

"That's what I'm saying though!"

As Cameron & Uncle Jose's misunderstanding begins to grow, Alex looks around the house to see Elizabeth looking at his baby pictures, Ronnie being told secrets by his two twin cousins, Marcus being pressured into drinking beer, & Cameron still arguing about the misunderstanding.

Luckily for him, however, his misery is put to rest by his grandmother screaming, "Dinner is ready!"

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With the family and club members all gathered around the table, at the head of the table is Alex's abuela, an elderly lady who cooked everything that's on the long table that can seat roughly 20 people. As people start to eat the food, everyone starts to talk amongst themselves. Elizabeth starts talking with Alex's parents about how they recognized her from being a member of the basket weaving club Alex was in during middle school, Cameron is the only one at the table not able to handle the spice so Uncle Jose gives him some water but it only makes it worse, Alex's abuela is asking him how come he didn't invite his old friend, Marcus is trying to figure out the recipe, and despite the amount of chaos surrounding the table, that only brings everyone closer together.

Once dinner comes to an end, each of the guests are given the leftovers as Alex walks them out.

"Come back anytime," Juanita yells.

"Definitely, and thank you for the food!" Ronnie yells back as he leaves.

Now at the front porch, Alex walks over to his fellow club members to say his farewells.

"Make sure you text me when you guys get home, otherwise my family will pester me about it nonstop," Alex admits.

"Yeah, you can be sure about that," Ronnie states.

As Alex sighs in relief, he goes to head back inside when Elizabeth stops him by asking, "Hey, your family seems really nice. I bet they're glad you aren't getting into fights."

"What are you talking about? We just fought a whole market," Alex states matter-of-factly, "and besides, I don't really tell them what I do at school."

"How come?"

"My dad's side of the family lives really far away from us so he hasn't been able to see them since I was little," Alex begins to explain, "Before I'm done with school, I'd like to be able to get enough money for us to visit them."

As the words leave Alex's lips, Ronnie looks a bit stunned.

"You alright?" Alex asks.

"Yeah, I just didn't expect that from you," Ronnie explains.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know," Ronnie begins to say, "you've always come off as someone pretty self-centered, I didn't think you'd be trying to do something so...generous."

"Hey!" Alex yells upset.

"I can see where he got that impression," Elizabeth admits.

"Look, they've been helping me all my life. I just wanted to help them for once," Alex embarrassingly admits.

"Well I hope you get to do that," Ronnie says as he starts to walk away, "and hey, thanks for having us over Alex. You're cooler than I thought."

"Th-thanks," Alex says as he waves goodbye.

As the club departs from Alex's house, Ronnie can't help but reflect on everything that's happened to them so far. He never would have expected to become friends with someone like Alex. It's a miracle that they've gotten along so well. Together the club has been able to bring some sort of joy to people and help them in their own special ways.

However, what none of them at the time would realize was that the club would soon find themselves in a situation that would be their first step into a new world. A new world of corruption, crime, and deceit. A step that would set them down a path of no return.

See You Next Chapter!~