Title: Pieces of Blue - Chapter 5
By Ashley Delfín
Notes: After 3 or 4 rewrites, it's here. Hope you like it! I might come back a tweak a few details, but this is mainly how it's going to be.

---

Amaranth was gulping down his milk, knowing he was about to be late for the school bus. He looked out the window and the sight made him spit the milk back into the glass in a coughing fit. This made his sister look out the window. Her mouth flew open.

"The hell is she doing here?" she asked.

"Amaranta, language," her father admonished her, appearing from behind the newspaper. The albino man seemed way too thin for someone his age, but the way he spoke and carried himself made it seem like he possessed some weird sort of inner strength. "She's here to take you to school."

"What?" Amaranth asked, his eyes still fixed on the hot pink VW Beetle out in the parkway. "Why?"

"Stop acting like that," Mrs. Alegria said sitting at the table with a coffee cup in one hand and the coffee pot in the other. "I'll never understand why you don't get along with your cousin, she's so nice."

Sure, thought Amaranth, if by "nice" you meant a backstabbing, superficial cheerleader with an unhealthy need to control everything and everyone around her.

"She is evil!" Amis said in a low hiss.

"Amaranta, stop it," Mr. Alegria said. "Would you rather take the bus?"

"Thanks Dad, I knew you would understand," Amis said as she stood up, waved goodbye, and ran to her room before anyone could say anything.

"What's wrong with her?" Mr. Alegria asked Mrs. Alegria. "They used to be the best of friends." They both looked at Amaranth, who was trying to stealthily put his dishes in the sink so he then could bolt out the door.

"Amy, you better not be thinking what I think you're thinking because if you are thinking what I think you're thinking then your thinking has thoughts I disapprove of," Mrs. Alegria said crossing her arms.

"Umm..."

"I don't want to hear it, you go get your stuff and get into your cousin's car."

"But-"

"I don't see why you're so rude to poor Quinoa. She's always looking out for you."

"Mom-"

"Amy!" A high-pitched voice said. They all turned and saw a tall, tan, dark haired girl with looks that would not be out of place in the cover of Cosmopolitan. Quinoa, captain of the cheerleading team, had let herself in.

Amaranth winced and forced a smile. "Hi," he said.

"Where's Amis?" she said, looking around. Her head movements were a bit exaggerated and Amaranth supposed it was to show off her long, wavy, impossibly perfect hair.

"Here. Can't talk, gotta run. Love y'all. Bye," Amis said in the five seconds it took her to walk from the stairs to the front door and out.

"She's taking the bus," Amaranth explained when Quinoa looked at him, obviously confused.

"We're sorry, Quinoa," Mrs. Alegria said as she stood up and walked over to hug her. "We don't know what's gotten into her. Would you like to eat something?"

"Sorry, diet," she said, one of her flawless manicured hands pointing at her stomach.

"Anorexia, more like," Amaranth said, earning a glare from both his parents.

"Oh, Amy, you're so funny!" Quinoa said as she hugged him. It really bothered Amaranth that Quinoa was taller than him. It was only a couple of inches, but still...

"Anyway, we can't. Don't want to be late for school, right?" She looked at Amaranth.

Amaranth was beginning to consider missing school if going there meant having to go with Cheerleading Barbie. However, his parents' looks made it clear they would not have him reject the offer.

"I'll go get my stuff."

---

"So let me get this straight," Cee Cee said, while making an enormous effort not to dismember the orange her mother had packed for lunch. "Quinoa told you that Matt and I could not switch schedules because she and Amanda thought it was a bad idea. Then she tried to get you interested in Denise for the millionth time, and, failing at that, set you up in a date with Roberto after bad mouthing Leonard." Cee Cee took a deep breath. "Then you proceeded not to kill her."

Amaranth rolled his eyes and nodded.

"Why?"

"She was driving, and I haven't mastered the skill of murdering the person driving me at high speed without killing or at least greatly hurting myself," Amaranth explained, although he obviously regretted not having done just what Cee Cee told him to do. "And just for the record, that orange is not guilty for any of the things you mentioned."

Cee Cee looked down at the mush she was beginning to make out of the citric fruit in question.

"Well," she said. "I can't get to Quinoa's head, so just think of this orange as a casualty of war."

"I could get you Quinoa's head, if you asked nicely," Amis said, settling down besides Cee Cee.

"Amis, you are not allowed to behead or aid in the beheading of family members," Amaranth reminded her calmly.

"But she's not even direct family!" Amis protested. "She's the daughter of one of my dad's cousin. And let the record show that my dad doesn't even like Uncle Quentin that much, either."

"Yes, but you don't see dad going out to get him with a knife."

"Well, unless you count that time at Thanksgiving when dad threw a carving knife at him," Amis responded.

"Well, at least he made it look like an accident," Amaranth said, rolling his eyes.

Amis frowned and decided to change subjects. "So, did Leonard lend you that book or what?"

"Or what," responded Amaranth.

"You mean you've been in class for I don't know how many hours"

"Three point seventy two," said Esper, sitting right next to Amis on the table. Yes, on the table.

"You're ruining the atmosphere I'm carefully creating to reprimand my brother's lack of moving out of the lonely world of singles," Amis said.

"Hi!" said Esper.

Amis sighed and returned Esper's greeting. Cee Cee tried to hide the fact she was laughing by looking annoyed but didn't quite manage it. Amaranth silently thanked Esper for stopping her sister's lecture before it started.

"Seriously, Amaranth," Cee Cee said, "why haven't you talked to him?"

"I haven't talked to him? He hasn't talked to me," Amaranth said, while taking out his lunch out of the brown paper bag his mom had packed it in. Granted, the paper bag usually survived this, so the fact Amaranth had torn it while trying to take his juice bottle and leftover eggplant surprise made it sort of obvious he was more than a tad upset.

"Maybe he forgot the book?" Amis said.

"Didn't. Saw him reading it when I got to the classroom."

"Maybe he didn't see you come in?" Cee Cee said, although it was obvious she was not convinced herself.

"He did, I said ´hi´, he waved, went back to reading, and has been completely ignoring me since," Amaranth said, trying to control his annoyed tone so that he would seem at least mildly uninterested in the whole business.

"Maybe he wants brownies," Esper decided to join in on the fun.

"Well, if that's the case he should just ask," Amaranth said, still sounding thoroughly annoyed. He opened his juice bottle and took a long drink.

"Maybe he's pissed off you're Roberto's boyfriend all of a sudden," Matt said, setting his tray of nutritional goo and shake on the table before sitting down himself.

Amaranth shrugged, two seconds after that his brain registered what Matt had said and stopped in the middle of swallowing juice. This proved to be a bad decision for he had to spit it out, making a mess out of his eggplant surprise and his sister's, at the other side of the table. Apparently, this was just not a good day for Amaranth to be drinking stuff.

"What?" Cee Cee and Amis asked in unison, and Amaranth was grateful for this because he was too busy choking on apple juice to ask the question himself. Matt tried to help him by patting him on the back, and Amaranth could not explain to him that the patting was very close to making him smash his head with his mess of eggplant surprise.

"Dude said it himself first thing in the morning," Matt explained.

"Why?" Amaranth asked.

"How should I know, he's your boyfriend," Matt said, obviously pissed off.

"He is not my boyfriend," Amaranth said, defensively.

"Honestly, dude, I thought you had better taste in men," Matt said at the same time he gulped spoonful after spoonful of goo. The lack of complaining at its taste was proof of how pissed off the jock was.

"I do," Amaranth said, getting quite angry himself.

Matt let out a sarcastic laugh. "Really? I don't think so. How can you choose Roberto over Leonard? You should've seen the guy's face when he heard Roberto bragging this morning. And then you and your cousin Quinoa plot in her car so that Cee Cee and I cannot switch into the D schedule but Roberto can so you tutor him. Honestly, dude, after seeing how much you complain about Denise I can't believe you're going after her male counterpart. Do you even know how he talks about his dates?"

"Matt," Cee Cee interrupted Matt.

"What?" Matt turned to her, the glare made Amis and Esper move away to avoid any crossfire.

"Your food." Cee Cee pointed to Matt's tray. The plate was empty, so was the glass full of protein shake, and he was now chewing the health bar he hated so much.

"I didn't even taste it!" he said, ecstatic. "Thanks, man."

Amaranth half-smiled, confused, but Matt frowned at him. "Forget it, I'm still pissed off at you."

"Dude, get off it," Amaranth shot back, "I was not plotting anything with Quinoa, I'm not tutoring, much less dating, Roberto, and-"

Amaranth was silenced by a flying piece of pie, and a not very tasty cherry one at that, that slammed the left side of his face. Amaranth turned to see who was going home to find that most stuffed animals in his or her proximity had turned murderous.

"You hexed him!" The girl who had just thrown the pie at him yelled. She was standing a few meters away and her Caucasian face was red with fury.

"What?" Amaranth asked, too confused to bother to take out the cherries out of his hair.

"You cast some sort of weird spell on him, witch!" said another girl, menacingly holding a Jell-O cup.

"There's no other reason why our Roberto would go out with you," a third girl said. She was not holding any food, but she had other five girls who were holding food behind her.

"I didn't know Roberto had a fan club," Amis whispered.

"He started it himself," Matt said, flat.

"We want Roberto back," another girl yelled. "Un-hex him!" By this point all of the people near were staring at the scene. The nun in charge would've probably said something if she hadn't been a member Roberto fan club herself.

"Well have him! I don't want him!" Amaranth yelled back.

"Ladies, ladies," said a voice with a thick Latino accent. "What is going on in here?"

And so Roberto walked into the scene, seeing an angry Amaranth with cherry pie on his hair facing the whole of his fan club (well, at least those members in high school and enrolled at St. Marianne's), and, of course, read out of the scenario the best option to feed his ego.

"Ladies, there is no need to fight for me," he said, flashing a smile that made most girls swoon and at least one of them faint.

"Dude," Amaranth said, more than slightly annoyed, "I am not a lady."

That was the wrong thing to say, Amaranth found out afterwards, for just after he said it Roberto was two inches away from his face staring at him in a way it would shame quite a few soap opera actors.

"To Roberto, you are the most beautiful lady of them all."

"Okay, no, bye," Amaranth said, thoroughly creeped out, and stepped away. At the same time, an angry Roberto fan club member, who was also the pitcher for the girl's softball team, threw an apple at him, full force. Amaranth saw it coming, closed his eyes, prepared for impact, and felt nothing.

This was unexpected so he opened his eyes and found that Roberto had caught the apple a few inches from his face. He wanted to say thanks, but part of him wished the apple had hit him just so he would've been knocked out and carried to the infirmary.

"Are you hurt, my love?"

It took a moment for Amaranth to register that Roberto was talking to him.

"No, thanks, and don't call me that."

"We cannot keep our love a secret!" Roberto almost tore his shirt at those words. Two more girls fainted at this point, and Amaranth's four friends at the table were beginning to find they could not control their laughter.

"Our love is not a secret, it's non-existent," Amaranth explained in his best sarcastic tone.

"My love, what is it that keeps you from accepting it? Your family? Another man? Another woman? Yourself?" Roberto's dark tanned hands had managed to take hold of one of Amaranth's arms and the albino was now fighting to push him away.

"Dude, do not make me hurt you," Amaranth hissed.

At this Roberto pulled him into an embrace, making Amaranth curse his shortness again. "Your denial hurts me enough," Roberto said, actually managing to make his voice sound as if he was about to cry. This made some of his fans burst into tears while others yelled at Amaranth for treating the guy this way. Amaranth was about to knee Roberto so he could be free but then he saw Leonard's face.

Amaranth whispered the "F" word and tried to step back and run away, completely forgetting Roberto was holding him. So they both lost balance and fell. Amaranth fell on his butt and his condition was not improved when the lovesick soccer player fell on top of him.

"Lovely," Roberto said, a very preoccupying grin crossing his face, "this isn't the place or time."

Amaranth ignored him and pushed him away, finding the soccer player surprisingly light. He looked up and saw that it was Matt who was lifting Roberto. The tall jock pointed towards the school building. "Leonard went that way," he said.

"Thanks," Amaranth said, standing up. He began running in the direction Matt pointed but found at least ten girls standing in front of him, all of them holding food items, and obviously Roberto fan club members.

"Go back to your man!" One of them said, throwing an open jelly sandwich at him. Amaranth ducked just in time, and it missed.

The next words uttered by random boy surprised no one: "Food Fight!" Not a second after that, the whole courtyard was filled with students yelling and all kinds of food flying in all directions.

Somehow, Amaranth knew that every single girl in the Roberto fan club had a very definite target in mind, so he dashed for the nearest exit. A foot deliberately got in the way, however, and before he knew it was on the floor, again. This was good because he saw that a full plate of brown goo flew past his head and landed on the back of one of the cheerleaders, who squealed as if she had been sprayed acid.

"How nice of you to visit," Esper said. Amaranth turned to him and saw that it had been him who tripped him. How on Earth did Esper get to be under that table at that moment was a question Amaranth would ask himself later. At that moment, however, he had other things in mind.

"There he is!" a girl screamed. Amaranth did not know if she was a Roberto fan or even pointing at him, but he decided not to stay to find out. He stood up again and again was tripped by Esper. This time, a whole cafeteria tray, flew past him, spilling the remains of a meal onto three jocks.

"Esper," Amaranth said, turning to the boy under the table. "Thanks, lots, but can't you just warn me?"

Esper smiled. "Of course not, silly, it messes with the parsley principle of gastronomic aerodynamics."

Amaranth had panicked at seeing the three jocks stampede his way and before Esper could finish his sentence he was already under the table alongside him. He didn't stay there for long, since Matt and Cee Cee pulled him up. Amaranth could see that the courtyard was totally chaotic and food was flying everywhere. Even the nun in charge of keeping things in order was on top of a table and throwing any available food item at anyone who came close enough.

"I vote we leave," Amis said, her white hair stained with spaghetti and spaghetti sauce.

"I second that vote," Cee Cee declared, throwing a cup filled with what turned out to be cranberry juice at a boy who had managed to hit her before.

The five of them dashed to the door that led into the school. They walked in and saw Mother Superior alongside five other nuns and priests walking angrily towards them.

"Get out of the way," she said as she approached them. They all obeyed and soon she was outside and yelling her head off. The sudden silence made it obvious the food fight was over.

"How the hell did you ever manage to get out of there unstained?" Cee Cee asked Esper. Indeed, the boy's uniform had nothing but dust from being on the floor to trip Amaranth.

"I am black ground pepper," Esper replied.

"I guess that explains why you're so irritating," Cee Cee shot back. "You know, I saw Cecie throw stuff almost exclusively at me. I swear she will pay next time I see her."

"Dude, they threw a whole piece of cake at my butt," Matt said.

"Well, I have spaghetti on my hair and spaghetti sauce all over my blouse," Amis complained.

"I have, like, cherries in my hair," Amaranth said, picking one out. "And cookie crumb pie crust!" Amaranth ate some and winced. "Gods, no wonder they threw this at me."

---

Recess still had a good ten minutes before it was over so that gave them all enough time to sort of clean up and meet back at the twelfth graders' lockers for a quick meeting.

"So, what have we got?" Amaranth asked.

"Robbery at the Lua residence," Cee Cee responded.

"Which was one of the families who lent jewels to the exhibition," Amis added. "Also the ones who owned the stolen necklace."

"When is this?" Amaranth asked.

Cee Cee bit her lower lip. "Both Wednesday and Thursday."

Amaranth rubbed his forehead. "Anything else?"

"I got a few red flags. Five downtown and other two break-ins in the city, apparently."

"Any in which we can help?" Matt asked.

"At least two of the downtown muggings aren't that out of our schedule," Amis said, looking at Amaranth. "And both break-ins are at night so I don't see why not."

Amaranth sighed, "I need to think about it... thoroughly."

"Why don't you come over to my house later today?" Cee Cee asked. "That way we don't have to do this over the phone."

"Yeah, sounds good," Amaranth said. "We'll discuss it there."

They heard a few students walk in, which meant recess was almost officially over. Esper and Amis left for their classrooms, leaving the twelfth graders on their own. Just as Amaranth wondered what had happened to his eggplant surprise, some of Matt's teammates approached them. Amaranth wondered no more.

"Dude, that was one awesome food fight!" one of them said to Matt.

"Yeah," another one said, slapping Amaranth on the back. "Great dodging technique, by the way."

"Thanks," Amaranth responded, trying to pretend the backslapping did not hurt.

"Sorry for the detention, though," the first one said.

"What?" Amaranth asked.

"Well, Roberto'll tell you, but you need to be here Saturday to clean up the tables."

"At seven in the morning," the second one added.

"Under Mother Superior's supervision," the third one added.

"Just the two of us," Roberto whispered. Amaranth jumped three feet away from him. Not only because he hated him, but also because the tall soccer player was dripping with goo. "It will be perfect, my beautiful Amy."

With that, Roberto winked at Amaranth and walked away. One of Matt's teammates mentioned that Roberto was very creepy and the rest of them nodded.