9- Life in the Valencia Household.

Editing completed...

Chapter 9

"Dare tell me why you are following us to school?" Xavier asked Carlos who was seated at the back. Joaquin glanced at him from his rearview mirror. Xavier had slept over Joaquin's house for no peculiar reason, it was more like just because and just because he can.

The three men are going to their school, but it would not have been weird or a problem if Carlos wasn't randomly following them. Carlos hated school and believed it was a hoax and some sort of cult or something. So yes, it was unusual that Carlos was with them.

"What is it wrong? I just wanted to come to your school" He argued.

"For you yes… yes it is wrong and not only wrong, it is odd too" Xavier retorted. Shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.

"You guys said Santiago was acting weird, and he left school early, and also he didn't answer any of our calls last night {pause} so I am worried"

His worry was valid. Out of the four boys, Santiago was the calmer one, he hardly blew up or got angry at mostly anything. He would always carefully give his thoughts and opinions about things, but he hardly forced things down on people.

Interestingly, he was also the only one they didn't know too much about, his family. Most people who were a part of a mafia clan usually brought their family under protection. The family didn't need to be part of the clan, it's more or less like, this is my family I give you my strength and services, and you protect my family.

But Santiago didn't do that. He always said he had a sibling and family, but he never mentioned how many, their gender, their age, or anything. And it always seemed like Santiago kept everyone at arms reach.

They wouldn't be surprised if Santiago's family didn't know that he was part of a mafia clan. It's not like being in a mafia clan is as good as telling your parent you got an A+ in your report class, but still. And the people who join the mafia are either trying to pay off debts or trying to survive. There are rare people like Xavier who do it, although they are rich.

So seeing Santiago visibly riled up to the point he didn't even notice them, rang alarms in their head.

And truthfully there was a shovel and bleach in their booth just in case they were going to bury a dead body as it would be a surprise if there wasn't a dead body to bury.

Driving their car to their car in at their normal parking lot of the school they saw Santiago's bike sitting there at the front near the sidewalk, driving carefully Joaquin reversed and parked the car just behind the bike.

"At least we know he came to school today," Joaquin said, turning off the engine gears. There was something else that bugged him and it was Kehlani.

She had a plaster on her forehead, her face looked swollen from his point of view and the hand that Santiago had his grip on defiantly had bandages on it. 

So he was worried. Did she have an accident or something? Was he wrong for how persuading her some more to take his offer to drop her at home?

He was so deep in his thoughts that he didn't notice the girls that had gathered around him and his friends. Some of them whispered to themselves asking about the other guy with them since he was not from their school.

Joaquin, Xavier, and Santiago were labeled as the school's 'bad boys'. Not like they did anything to warrant the label. 

They just kept to themselves and hung out with girls they deemed nice or attractive. 

They also didn't play around with high school girls because the trio genuinely believed they were still little and kid-like with the way they acted.

But this just made the girls believe they were faithful boys that don't play around with girls. The boys were so respected that it became an unspoken rule to leave their parking spot for them.

Even the teachers also went along with it when one of them had their car tolled by one of the students, just because they had parked on their spot.

"Shouldn't we be going to Santiago's class?" Xavier asked Joaquin. Carlos just followed them as they led him through the school halls.

"There is someone I want to check on real quick, and also I don't want to walk around with a bag hanging on my shoulders," Quin answered, skipping the stairs by twos and making a left turn to get into his class.

Looking at his seat direction, the sight surprised him, but not just him, Xavier was also shocked. Carlos thought it was just some girl that Santi wanted to bang later on, but looking closely, he realized it was his street skater girl from the park.

"Nessa?"

"Kehlani?"

🌟

Santiago had followed Kehlani to her class and was still there. She naturally wouldn't have a problem with that, if only he wasn't grabbing attention from the girls present in class like some chick magnet.

"You are getting clingy now" she stated looking at him just a bit from the top part of her phone. She had raised her phone dangerously high to her face to keep the eyes away from her.

"I don't understand what you mean?" he questioned, not looking away from his phone. He had seen the missed call from his buds but didn't feel the need to respond as he was still going to see them at the end of school, so there was no need to call them.

"Why are you here?!" she whispered-yelled through her teeth, "Go back to your class" she quietly ordered.

"Why, what's wrong?" he asked, finally looking up from his phone.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'WHAT'S WRONG' They are digging a hole into my forehead" glaring at her brother. Santiago turned around the class to see who was staring at her, and it was just some girls in the class… not too special or anything. But Kehlani instantly whipped his head back in her direction, causing him to have a whiplash before he could look around.

"What was that for?!!" he exclaimed, rubbing the back of his neck slightly.

"Sorry!! But don't you know the unspoken rule… don't look at the person that you are talking about" she stated as a matter of fact. Her brother just stared at her like she had horns uprooting from her head or something.

"I mean look at how Juanita is glaring at me" she chided, Santiago turned to see the girl she was talking about, but his head got turned again as fast as it was. She glared at him, but he didn't seem to pay mind to it. "I am telling you if looks could kill, I would be six feet underneath"

"I thought she was your friend?"

Snorting a response, she let out a mocking laughter.

"Friend? What a disgusting word" she uttered with malice in her eyes, her brother gave her a pointed look. It was very odd because they were friends, or at least he had seen them together, being friendly and all. But her attitude clearly says otherwise.

As the siblings continued their little banter and dumb gossip, Joaquin, Xavier, and Carlos came around.

Joaquin pulled out a different chair because Santiago was sitting on his original chair.

"Hey man, what's up?" Santiago greeted once he saw Quin, but his eyes went wide when he saw both Carlos and Xavier. "What are you guys doing here?"

"NESSA!!! HOW ARE YOU?!" Carlos screamed in joy. This turned everyone's head.

"Who is Nessa?" They said in unison.

"Her!! My little street skater" he said with a giddy attitude as he ruffled her hair. Everyone was confused and looked at him to give more explanation.

"How did you forget me? We met like two days ago… Well two if you don't count today" he recalled trying to jog her memory. "Carlos? Come on now… remember!!"

And she did because she was suddenly laughing, she laughed so hard her rib wounds began hurting again. How could she forget the weird red-haired creep she met two days ago?

"You remember now?" Carlos asked with a smile on his face. Nodding her head, she continued laughing. The other three boys just stared at the happy duo.

Wiping the tears from her eyes, she held Carlos's hands with hers and looked at him. "My name is not Nessa, it is Kehlani" she corrected and blew up laughing again.

"Wait for real?" He asked, looking utterly surprised as he looked at the three other boys.

"Why did you think her name was Nessa?" Xavier asked as Kehlani laid her head on Joaquin's arm that was on the table. She slowly tried to get herself together, but she kept on cracking up because she didn't think she would see a person she had ever given up a fake name to again. Quin just played with her hair as they listened to his story.

"She told me herself" He yelled trying to defend himself as his friends thought he looked stupid. But this just made Lani laugh again. "Quit laughing… You told me your name is Nessa" he pouted, looking at her for justification.

"Picture this… A girl is at the park surrounded by gangsta, a drug addict, and possibly some mafia member, probably late evening and some stranger comes to ask her for her name. What girl in her right mind would give her real name out?" She asked logically. Carlos went quiet for a while till he spoke again.

"You lied to me?!" he shrieked, as if he was just figuring it out now.

"Anyway," Xavier said, flipping Carlos's hoodie cap over his head. "What happened to you yesterday" he asked, turning his attention to Santiago. His question got everyone quiet. Because, in truth, they were worried about him.

"*Sigh* I had a situation at home with my father and sister," he said dryly like it wasn't such a big deal.

"Sister? You have a sister?!" Carlos blurted out. They visibly palmed their faces at his dumb question and antis.

"She is right here, you idiot!" Xavier commented.

"Lani is your sister?! I thought you just wanted to get laid and was trying your luck?" Immediately those words flew out of his mouth he felt a hard kick on his thigh making him fall to one knee. Looking up at the person who kicked him, ready to yell at him, but he was met with Joaquin's menacing glare. Carlos gulped a little and looked away.

"They look alike, how did you not know?"

"My bad," he said apologetically.

*EDITED*