| Chapter 19 Leon tired desperately to supress the irritated moan that tried to spring forth at the sight of the vice principal around to collect up the people for detention. He managed to get away with an annoyed snort instead. Hector and Vince didn't try quite as hard though, and both of their annoyed groans were quite audible. "Ah, Ms Cook. How can I help you?" Mr Epperson cracked a smile, knowing full and well why she was here. Leon sighed, putting down the dirty rag he was holding and wiping his oily hands on his jeans. No escaping it now. They were being taken out of Auto Shop five minutes before lunch, because they were half an hour late to first class. Leon wasn't exactly sure how it happened. It was a mixture of things, really. He'd made them all about five minutes late, because he'd slept in after quite an adventurous night. Then Jesse had announced that they had to wait for Letty, who made them a further ten minutes late because her big brother Emanuel had come down to see them. And then, while they were waiting on the footpath outside of Leon's house, the Shelby had pulled into Hector's driveway, and he'd run over there to see what was going on as he hadn't expected them home until tomorrow, which added about five minutes. Then they'd all spent a further five minutes marvelling over the massive trophy Chucho and his papi had brought home that announced the Shelby as the best pro-stock race car at the show. And then, even though they had practically run to school, the five of them were still half an hour late for first class. "Just doing the detention round-up" Ms Cook smiled, adjusting her glasses and lifting the list to about an inch from her nose so that she could read it, "Uh, Vincent Sandburg". Vince sighed and got up from where he was knelt on the floor by the engine block he and Dom had been working on. "Leon Corlone" she called, almost having to squint to read the list. Leon trudged over to stand in the hall with Vince, Letty and Jesse. Ms Cook seemed to take an extra long time to read over the last name on her list, "Hector...uh, G-Gi-" "Yeah, I'm comin'" Hector interrupted, tossing the wrench he had to Edwin as he got up, wiping his hands on his pants. Vince and Letty were laughing to themselves, and Jesse had one of those nervous little smiles on his face that meant he found the situation amusing. "Wot's so funny?" Leon asked, nudging Vince's shoulder as Hector followed the teacher out of the classroom. Vince couldn't control his giggles enough to speak, so Leon repeated the question to Hector, the only one who didn't seem amused. "My last name" Hector shrugged, digging his hands in his pockets as they followed Mr Cook down the hall, "I can't pronounce it, the teachers can't pronounce it, *no one* can pronounce it. That's why people jus' call me Hector. Coz there ain't no one who knows how to say my last name". "It's got like, fifteen letters in it!" Letty defended, squeezing in between Hector and Leon. "Twelve" Hector corrected, still not amused. "Well, how d'you say it?" Leon asked. Hector cocked an eyebrow and smirked as Letty errupted into fits of laughter. "That's the whole point, Leon. You *can't* say it. No one can say it" Hector told him as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. Leon felt his cheeks going pink when he realised what a stupid question that was. "Nah, I mean, I meant, like, how's it spelt or wotever" he shrugged, as though he didn't care that Letty was almost choking, she was laughing so hard at his dumb ass question. Hector smiled at Letty, then cast his gaze back to Leon, "G-i-a-n-g-r-e-g-o-r-i-o. An' don't even bother tryin' to say it. You'll jus' make yerself look like an even bigger nobhead". Leon made a face at him and dug his hands into his pockets. "We've got a little job for you five today" Ms Cook announced, stopping at a closed door, "The school has been collecting clothes to give to the needy. You're going to sort them and bag them". Vince groaned, scuffing his shoe against the floor. Well, this was just great. He got to spend his lunchtime sorting out other people's dirty old clothes that they didn't want any more, when he could've been outside playing basketball or doing something that atleast remotely resembled fun. They filed into the small, stuffy room and looked dismally at the mountains of old clothes that covered the tables. Vince let out a frustrated grunt this time. Maybe he could climb out the window or something? He'd done that before. As long as he was back by the end of lunch, it worked out fine. "I want them sorted into: pants, jackets, t-shirts, undergarments" she explained and Letty shivered, making a face, "And the such. I'm sure you're capable of that. Then fold them neatly and put them into the plastic bags that are on the far desk. I expect you to work quickly and quietly. You *are* on detention after all". With that, she left the room and shut the door behind herself. "Well, this is jus' fuckin' great" Vince growled, trudging over to a table piled high with unwanted clothes. Leon followed Jesse to the next table, and Letty and Hector took the last. Leon watched as the two Mexicans shoved all the clothes on their table onto the floor, then sat on either side of the pile and started folding. "Man, this blows" Jesse sighed, casting his eyes over the stained, torn, smelly, dusty old clothes that no one in their right mind would ever think of wearing no matter how needy they were, "No one's gonna wear this shit". Leon shrugged and kept folding. He'd heard that clothes that were deemed 'unwearable' were cut up into rags and things like that, for cleaning and shit. He came across a pair of underwear with a hole in the crotch and wrinkled his nose. "Oh! Check this out!" Letty stood, holding something with black, blue, green and pink splotches on it. Leon watched as she pulled it over her head and wriggled into it. Turned out it was a dress, and the blue, green and pink splotches were flowers. Hector grinned and tossed her a sunhat with a massive brim and a big pink ribbon on it. Letty smiled and placed it on top of her head, tilting it forwards Michael-Jackson-Style. "Aren't you a little old for dress-ups, Let?" Vince asked, still sour about having to spend his lunchtime surrounded by stinky old clothes. Letty gave him the finger, picking up an old shawl that had a million and one moth-eaten holes in it. She draped it over her shoulders and leaned down again, grabbing a dirty old gardening glove and yanking that on. "Oh, Letty dear, that's luurrvvley" Hector grinned as she strutted around the classroom. The funniest part of the entire outfit was probably her big black platformed combat boots that stuck out from under the dress. Letty picked up a red and purple striped tie and walked over to Vince, draping it around his neck. He was trying to appear unamused, but the corners of his mouth were beginning to quirk up into a smile. Jesse pulled on a stained blue shirt that had sleeves so long that they hung floppy over his hands, and a cream and gray checked woollen waistcoat. Letty handed him a red beanie with a red and yellow pom-pom on top, and he pulled that on, rummaging through the clothes for something else to wear. "That's gross, you guys. Someone else wore those, y'know. An' yer gonna stink like old clothes" Vince protested, but he was smiling. Letty shrugged, helping Jesse into some massive old green cordaroy pants. He almost tripped over because they were about sixty sizes too big for his scrawny little body. Letty ran over to Hector and started dressing him in the most mismatching clothes she could find while Vince somewhat reluctantly began pulling on a truly disgusting pink and purple angora vest. "C'mon, Leon! No one's gonna laugh atchoo!" Letty grinned at him. Leon sighed, smiled, and reached for the worst looking sweater he had ever seen. * * * "Your little brother is so cute!!" Letty smiled, looking across at Leon, "God, I wish Lex woz that little again". Leon smiled and shrugged. He'd just spent nearly all afternoon with Letty and Jesse, watching cartoons in the lounge while Jason ran around with his toy cars and every few minutes, sat down to watch TV with them before getting up again to play. "Lex is cool" Jesse put in. Letty's little brother Lex was only a year younger than he was, and he wasn't half bad, in Jesse's opinion. That's where they were going now. To pick up Lex from training with Hector's old man. Leon was interested to see how Black Rage acted when there were other people around. "Lex is a pain in the ass!" Letty answered, turning to a set of cement stairs that led downwards. Jesse followed her down, so Leon caught the line and did the same. He hadn't been looking or paying any attention to the buildings they'd been passing, so he just guessed that this was the place. He wasn't sure what it was, but all gyms, especially where people were boxing, always seemed to be dark. It probably had something to do with this place being below ground level, but still, in the movies, it always seemed dark. Leon didn't recognise half the people in there. He could tell Lex, who was doing combinations while Fredo held up pads for him to punch into. And Pedro was getting the tapes taken off his hands by an older Mexican guy. Hector was just climbing into the ring with a white boy Leon recognised from his English class. His name was Max something-or-rather. Leon didn't pay a whole lot of attention to him. He was an attention seeker, and never shut the hell up. Leon had known him for about a week, if that, and he stil hated the annoying little shit. "Ay Lex" Letty called, walking towards her brother. Jesse and Leon headed in the general direction she had gone in. Leon watched the fight in the ring being started as he walked. Both were wearing gloves, but neither had headgear on. A trainer started them off, and the white guy instantly backed up as Hector threw a few punches at his head. "That's it, Hector. Back him up, homes" the trainer was standing just outside of the ropes, watching as Max was backed up, trying to throw wild punches that were leaving him open for attack. Once against the ropes, Hector went for the body shots, both fists. Max managed to grab one of Hector's gloves under his arm, which he pressed tight against his body so that Hector couldn't use that arm. "Watch the holding! Let him go, Max!" the trainer warned, but Max held tight as Hector used his spare arm to throw heavy punches at his head, now, trying to make him let go. Max lifted his own spare arm and scraped the laces of his glove against Hector's right eye. Hector turned his head, trying to get away from it, only serving to further the effect. He threw a hard right, that caught Max in the jaw. A split second later, before Leon could even work out what was happening, Max jolted his head forwards, headbutting Hector. "Max!" the trained reprimanded as soon as the move had been made. Hector got his arm free, pissed off something fierce, and smashed Max across the face with the meanest backhand Leon had ever seen. Max stumbled sideways and dropped to his knees, clinging to the ropes. Hector pulled out his mouth gaurd and threw it on the floor. "Motherfucker!" Hector yelled, backing away from the white boy as the trainer got between them before Hector could do any real damage. Hector spouted a heavy stream of Spanish and English profanities, psyched up and angry as hell, attracting the attention of everyone in the gym. The whole area around his right eye was red and a bit swollen from the laces of Max's glove, and he was bleeding from just above his eyebrow from the headbutt. It ran down the side of his face in a bright red streak. Pedro and Fredo hurried over and climbed through the ropes. "Wot happened?" Fredo demanded as the trainer helped Max up. Leon watched wide eyed, waiting to see how Black Rage would react to this situation. "Motherfucker laced me, man!" Hector raised his hand so that the inside of his wrist was about an inch from his eye, mimicking the action, obviously less than pleased, "Little bitch laced me, then he headbutted me!". Max was bleeding from the lip from Hector's blow to his face. "That wot happened?" Fredo looked over at the trainer who had been watching them as Pedro tried to look at his brother's injuries. Hector kept ducking his head and squriming away, not wanting people to poke and prod at him, just wanting to kick the shit out of Max for fighting dirty. "Yeah. Hector got him up against the ropes. Max held his left arm an' laced him. Tol' him to let go an' he headbutted 'im" the trainer nodded. "He's bigger than me! I woz just tryin' to get off the ropes!" Max defended. Fredo glared over at him, "He ain't bigger than you, you're in the same fucking weight division. An' if you wanna get off the ropes, you stop and duck out. Why do I even bother teaching you? Have you even listened to a word I've said all year? You fight dirty like that again, or you even *think* about lacin' someone in a fight, I'll kick you outta here so fast, boy". Leon recognised this as the way he'd expected Fredo was. Hard ass and mean as hell. "Let me see" Fredo turned to look at Hector. Pedro almost had to hold his little brother still, because he kept trying to duck away, insisting he was fine. Fredo placed one hand on his son's shoulder and took his jaw fairly gently in the other, turning his head so that he could assess the extent of the injury. "I'm fine, Papi" Hector insisted, but Leon didn't sense any fear or tenseness in his friend at being so close to Fredo. He was a bit confused by the way that Hector had been so withdrawn and submissive when they'd been caught out in the garage, when here he was acting like he normally did. Perhaps it was because there were other people around? "Let me look, Hector" Fredo instructed, but the edge was gone from his tone. He wasn't angry, he actually seemed genuinely concerned. Hector stopped squirming and let his papi look at his injuries as the other trainer told Max to go shower because he was finished for today. "Have to put some ice on that eye or it'll swell right up" Fredo stated, letting Hector go, "You aright, boy?". Hector looked up at his papi and nodded, "Si, Papi". Fredo mirrored his nod, then looked across at Pedro. He instructed him to go collect an icepack from the freezer in the office, then turned and unlaced Hector's gloves while giving he encouraging reassuances as to his skill as a fighter and how well he would do in the upcoming competition. Once the gloves were off, he told Hector to go sit down and cool off while Pedro got him the icepack. Hector took his gloves and his papi smiled reassuringly at him as he climbed out of the ring, confusing Leon further. Hector noticed Leon, Jesse and Letty as he climbed through the ropes, and offered a tired smile, "Ay. Got my own fan club up in here, eh?". Leon smiled, watching Hector gingerly touch his eye, which was red and almost swollen shut. Inside, he was confused as hell. How come Fredo was being so caring and kind? Why wasn't he being the cold, hard nosed prick he was the other day? Where did that guy go? And who was this caring, supportive father? That wasn't how he was supposed to be, dammit! He was meant to be a cold hearted asshole so that Leon had reason to hate him. "C'mon. Let's go" Letty pulled on Lon's arm, then glanced over her shoulder, "See ya, Hector". Hector smiled and nodded, sitting down on one of the benches to collect himself enough so that he wouldn't pound Max's head in as soon as he came within punching range. More To Come... |