
“No, no, no! You’ll never get me alive! No stop chasing me! No, no, noooooooooo!” “Jessie, Jessie, wake up.” “Huh?” “You have to go to school.” My mom said. I opened my eyes and looked at the clock next to me. It was 7:00. I must have had a bad dream because of that lovely movie I saw last night, Scream. I looked at my mom. She was already in her purple blouse and purple skirt. I sat up and reached for my glasses and my Backstreet Boys watch. I stumbled out of bed trying to put on my watch. Then, as I was walking towards the bathroom, I bumped into my grandmother. “Sorry Abuela.” I said not even looking at her. “Is okay, mi vida.” She said back. See in my family, we speak a mixture of Spanish and English. We call it Spanglish. I went inside the bathroom and when I came out I was a different person. I had woken up, put on my contacts and was almost ready for the first stressful day of the week, Monday. I walked into my room again and looked inside my closet. I hated wearing a uniform but I had to. I was an eighth grader at Sts. Peter and Paul. I would graduate in May. As soon as I got my uniform on, I walked to the kitchen. I could tell my brother was up cause I could hear Pokemon on the TV. I took a glass and filled it with ice and water and sat down at the table. My grandmother was busy making breakfast for me. I had to leave for school at 7:25. As I ate my breakfast I thought about the day that lay ahead of me. Oh great today we have Mass. I remembered. It’s not that I didn’t like going to Mass, but it wasn’t exactly the best thing in the world. “Hurry up Jess.” My mom said as she says every morning. I finished my breakfast and ran to the bathroom to brush my teeth. As I pass my seven-year-old brother, I saw that he had his uniform on too because he was in second grade in my same school. He seemed to be mesmerized be the little cartoons on the TV. “Pica, pica, pica, chuuuuu!” He shouted. “Okay. Nice to see you too.” “Hey Tata. That’s what he calls me. “You know that Charmander has fire on his tail and that he was running away from the water holding his tail.” He was so into those cartoons. Personally I was more into Backstreet Boys, but we’ll get to that later. I hurried up to brush my teeth and comb my hair. Once I finished, I walked into my room, picked up my bag and said goodbye to my millions of Backstreet posters and my fish (Littlefoot). I climbed into the front-seat of my mini-van and put on my headphones to listen to my BSB CD, which I listen to every morning on the way to school. “Everybody groove to the music, everybody jam!” I sang crazily! My mom thinks I’m nuts but hey what can I say? I love the song! Once we turned the corner of my school, I saw children playing happily in the yard and the basketball courts! I remembered a time when I too had enough time and energy to play b-ball in the morning! Now I was too busy being a patrol and screaming to the kids so they don’t run and fall and kill themselves!CHAPTER 1
Chapter 2
As I got out of the car, I put my headphones in my bag and walked to my morning spot. I saw some girls running by. One of them was Alexa, my friend’s little sister. I got to my post and saw two of my best friends, as I see them every morning.
“Hey wuz up buddy?” Lauren asked with a little wave.
“Hey, are you guys as tired as me?” I asked.
“Yeah maybe more.” Milany said. “I don’t like Mondays at all.”
“Yeah me neither.” We conversed for a while until we had to go to class. Milany and I were in one-eighth grade class and Lauren V, Lauren A, and Cristina were in the other. One thing’s for sure; we were all major, tremendous, huge, enormous Backstreet Boy’s fans.
As we headed up the stairs, we heard Ms. Mazpule (Our religion teacher) call to one of the other teachers reassuring that we indeed had Mass this morning.
“Oh great! Now we probably have to take the little pesky Kinder-gardeners.” I said with a sigh. Just then we saw the music teacher which was also the head of the choir.
“Would you girls like to be in the choir today?” She asked in her Cuban accent.
“Umm okay I guess.” I said as if we had no other choice.
“Umm 12?” Milany said as she always said when she didn’t know what to say. So we dropped our books in our classroom and told our teacher (Mrs. Zeno, who was also the Vice- principle of the school) that we were picked for choir and we had to go. As we headed for the door, we heard a voice call out to us.
“Hey guys could I come too?” Andrea (one of our classmates) said from behind us.
“Yeah sure come on.” I said as we all walked out the door.
Once we got there, we sat on chairs that were there for the choir. I wasn’t nervous cause I’d done this many times before. Milany as well had been in choir quite a few times. So now we were waiting for the rest of the school to get there.
“I wish something interesting would happen. I mean we’re up here bored out if our minds and nothing cool or different happens.” I told Milany.
“Well what do you expect the Backstreet Boys to walk in and serenade us all?”
“Although that would be cool, I’m sure the Backstreet Boys have better things to do than go church hoping around Miami.”
“Yeah you’re probably right. They’re probably humping their girlfriends or something.”
“Yeah you’re probably right, WHAT?!?!”
“Just kiddin’. Don’t have a heart attack.”
“Okay.” Just as I said this, Stephanie stood up to the podium and said “Please stand. The entrance song will be ‘Joyful, joyful’.” Everyone stood up as the music began to play and the priest came down the aisle with the altar servers. We sang the song as everyone else sang along with us. The Mass continued just as it always does. Then it was time for the Homily. The Homily is the time when the priest talks about the Gospel or the Word of God. Everyone was sitting and quiet. Milany and I looked at each other as if it was time for a long nap. The priest began to talk. Since no one really pays attention to him, they all just go off to their little world and daydream. I was looking out into the audience and saw this little boy run outside. He might have gone to throw up. Hey it happens! During this time I was thinking of how great it would be to go on tour with the Backstreet Boys and not have to be here right now. Just then I heard the doors open. It’s probably that little kid again. Poor soul! I stretched out a little cause it was a bit uncomfortable sitting there for about 10 years. I looked over at Milany and gave a quick smile but the look on her face was somewhat strange. It was as if she’d seen a ghost or something.
“What’s wrong buddy?” I whispered.
“Umm, Jess?”
“What, what is it?”
“Nick has blond hair, right?”
“Umm yeah.”
“And Brian has brown hair, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Well Jess, look at the entrance of the church. Maybe it’s just me but I think that they’re here.”
“Who’s here?”
“Umm Jess look.” I looked at the entrance of the church as Milany had said and almost had a spaz. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The Backstreet Boys were at our church. I saw Cristina, Lauren, and Lauren and motioned then to look back. Once they did so they almost flipped out. It was so crazy that I could barley sing but I thought if we sang well then they’d give us record deal and take us on tour. Once mass had ended Milany and I ran to where they sat but they left. It was a big disappointment. We strolled outside to wait for the rest of the choir and there they were.
“Were you girls in the choir?” Brian asked with a grin. I was so mesmerized by his eyes that I almost forgot to answer.
“Umm yeah we were.” I was dying inside.
“Well y’all did a great job.”
“Yeah you did.” Agreed Nick. I could tell Milany was dying for Nick too.
“What are you girls names?” Nick asked.
“Jessie.” I think I said.
“Milany.” She said barley.
“Hey Brian could I possibly have your phone number to maybe call ya sometime, please.”
“Sure!” He grabbed my hand and wrote a number on it. I couldn’t even see the number cause I kept looking at him but I knew it was there.
“Here you go and may I have yours.”
“Umm yeah sure.” I stopped for a moment. What’s my phone number again? I managed to remember it and wrote it down. Milany was doing the same to Nick.
“Sorry girls but we gotta go.” Brian said. “Keep singing and call me sometime.” He came closer to me and gave me a soft kiss on the cheek. “See ya Beautiful.”
“Bye Milany, call me, page me, beep me, love ya, see ya.” He hugged her tight and kissed her on her cheek. Then they both left waving bye to us who could barley move. I realized I was standing in the same spot that I stopped at. I looked at Milany and she looked at me and we both screamed at the top of our lungs! There was nothing we could but walk back to our next class, which happens to be Spanish! All I knew was that I couldn’t wait till I got home!