Hometown Visit
Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2011 8:56 pm
I only had a few hours, tops, of freedom before I’d have to go back to “holiday family time”. Luckily, I didn’t have far to go. Couple blocks over and down the street, in the back alley, and there everyone was. A big crowd. The music was booming, but nobody in the neighborhood ever cared, from young couples to abuelitos and abuelitas. It may have been a suburb of Miami, but this was still a barrio; everyone was latino, and music in the street for dancing as natural as yautía with butter or warm weather.
Having found my destination, I took a running start, then jumped high and long, my body making a perfect arc through the air as I did a front flip and landed on top of the stucco wall between one house and another. Sucking in air, I belted out “RRRRRRRRATATAAA!” at the top of my voice, letting my tongue roll with the r.
I was rewarded with plenty of startles, a few replies of “Ratata!” and a few of “Viva!”, and not a small number of higher pitched squeals, which made me grin; hadn’t even been very long, but it’d been too long since I’d gotten that reaction. Before I could turn my attention to that, though, I also caught more than a few curses and some rumbling in the crowd. I crossed my arms and waited to see how it would go down. I hoped I had enough crew, enough rep, and outside evidence of my being meta now that it would die down after some trash talk. Too bad we don’t always get what we hope for.
A tall kid in the back pushed his way forward, his crew forming like human wake around him as he moved . He pushed some of the crowd out of his way unnecessarily, a naked challenge for someone to try and stop him. Nobody did. In fact, some kids got pushed again and again as the tall kid’s followers came behind and got their licks in. Finally, he stood directly in front of me, nobody else in the way. Thanks to my spot on the wall I had height to look down at him from, which I quickly could tell he hadn’t thought about first and wasn’t used to. I’m pretty sure it made him madder.
He was also pretty clearly a gang-banger; him and all his crew were wearing colors, and a couple even had tattoos with known designs out where everyone could see. I grit my teeth as I recognized what they were. Their gang was pretty big, much bigger than the little clump I was looking at, and did “own” the general area. If my crew had any area, and we didn’t because the whole point was we were trying to avoid the whole gang thing, but if we did, it was down by the beach. We were normally enough of a tough cookie and played the game well enough that we could be who we be without having to watch our back all the time, but obviously this kid either thought I wasn’t with my crew anymore or thought I was making a play for territory with my stunt. Or maybe he didn’t like metas.
“Que ‘ tu problema?” he asked me, up-nodding.
I looked around, counted my friends, counted his, tried to count how many didn’t look to want to be involved and how many were looking to jump in on one side or another. Good ol’ fashioned street math, and I didn’t like the answer I was getting. “Na’. Ain’t no problem. Just lookin’ for some kicks.”
“Kick it somewhere else.”
“I’m in this barrio, yo.”
He crossed his arms. “Not no more. Now you just visitin’, and I ain’t give you no visitor pass.”
So. I mean, I knew the gang bangers didn’t like me, any of my crew, really, but they were looking to turn me into an outsider with a quickness. “You buggin’, kid. My house is over there. My boys be right here,” that with an up-nod at the small knot of three from my crew that happened to be there, “and I’m still down.”
“Nice front, but ain’t you goin’ to some to some foo-foo lil’ school up north? How you tryin’ to show street you goin’ to some gringo private school?”
I grit my teeth. That one hit home, not just with me but with the crowd. “I still kick your ass, bien facil. How you gonna say I’m soft when I could prolly take you and your boys?” I started to tense; I didn’t want to pop my spines if it wasn’t going to go all the way, but I didn’t want to be late with them if things got ugly.
But he just smiled. “You a freak now, but your lil’ bro isn’t, estranjero. And you goin’ back to your ‘special school’ soon, right? We ain’t.”
Damn damn damn damn. He wasn't as dumb as he looked, or this had been planned out. My crew would probably try and look after my little brother, but they’d only be able to do so much, and they’d catch a lot of hell. Being a crew too tough to be worth bothering wouldn’t mean anything if push came to shove over something like this.
I wasn’t gonna win this. Time to play the game.
I hopped down off the wall. Everyone tensed, but I just smiled and shrugged. “What, it’s like that? I just be tryin’ get my dance on, yo. I mean, I know you kinda clumsy and me and my crew be to’ eso on the floor, but you dunn gotta be getting’ that jealous.”
It was as far as I could back down without tucking my tail completely, which I definitely couldn’t do. If I did, then I forfeited any right to defend myself, making my little brother fair game anyway. Hopefully, though, the kid was just trying to make a point, and now that I’d backed off he could call it good and we could all get back to chillin’.
“Ain’t no anglo music here.”
“Pshh, I got more salsa en la sangre than all you anormales. Lemme show you what I got. You may as well be lookin’, all the gallinitas always do.” I grinned; the talk was big, to show I wasn’t a chump they could push around like the kids in the crowd they’d picked on when they were walking up, but at the same time I was desperately wiling him to relax, to let me back down to just a kid looking for a dance in the alley. Always have to play the game, teetering on the edge.
“Yeah, whatever. Just don’t be forgettin’ where you be, board school boy.”
I kept myself from sighing in relief as I could feel the tension melt out of the crowd. There were more than a few disappointed faces, some because they were looking forward to a fight, some probably hoping I would get taken down, and a few because I backed down as much as I did. I tried not to think about those last ones. The price was more than I felt like paying if things had gone bad.
It was going to take a bite out of my game with the girls, though, even if my jumping and agility would help me blow everyone else’s dancing out of the water. Oh well; probably wouldn’t have scored more than a quick make-out anyway, depending on the girl, even if things had managed to go perfect. I had better prospects than that waiting back at school, at least long-term.
‘Hmm,’ I thought to myself as the music got turned back up and I felt the beat thrum. ‘Gonna have to tweak this story when I get back to school.’
Having found my destination, I took a running start, then jumped high and long, my body making a perfect arc through the air as I did a front flip and landed on top of the stucco wall between one house and another. Sucking in air, I belted out “RRRRRRRRATATAAA!” at the top of my voice, letting my tongue roll with the r.
I was rewarded with plenty of startles, a few replies of “Ratata!” and a few of “Viva!”, and not a small number of higher pitched squeals, which made me grin; hadn’t even been very long, but it’d been too long since I’d gotten that reaction. Before I could turn my attention to that, though, I also caught more than a few curses and some rumbling in the crowd. I crossed my arms and waited to see how it would go down. I hoped I had enough crew, enough rep, and outside evidence of my being meta now that it would die down after some trash talk. Too bad we don’t always get what we hope for.
A tall kid in the back pushed his way forward, his crew forming like human wake around him as he moved . He pushed some of the crowd out of his way unnecessarily, a naked challenge for someone to try and stop him. Nobody did. In fact, some kids got pushed again and again as the tall kid’s followers came behind and got their licks in. Finally, he stood directly in front of me, nobody else in the way. Thanks to my spot on the wall I had height to look down at him from, which I quickly could tell he hadn’t thought about first and wasn’t used to. I’m pretty sure it made him madder.
He was also pretty clearly a gang-banger; him and all his crew were wearing colors, and a couple even had tattoos with known designs out where everyone could see. I grit my teeth as I recognized what they were. Their gang was pretty big, much bigger than the little clump I was looking at, and did “own” the general area. If my crew had any area, and we didn’t because the whole point was we were trying to avoid the whole gang thing, but if we did, it was down by the beach. We were normally enough of a tough cookie and played the game well enough that we could be who we be without having to watch our back all the time, but obviously this kid either thought I wasn’t with my crew anymore or thought I was making a play for territory with my stunt. Or maybe he didn’t like metas.
“Que ‘ tu problema?” he asked me, up-nodding.
I looked around, counted my friends, counted his, tried to count how many didn’t look to want to be involved and how many were looking to jump in on one side or another. Good ol’ fashioned street math, and I didn’t like the answer I was getting. “Na’. Ain’t no problem. Just lookin’ for some kicks.”
“Kick it somewhere else.”
“I’m in this barrio, yo.”
He crossed his arms. “Not no more. Now you just visitin’, and I ain’t give you no visitor pass.”
So. I mean, I knew the gang bangers didn’t like me, any of my crew, really, but they were looking to turn me into an outsider with a quickness. “You buggin’, kid. My house is over there. My boys be right here,” that with an up-nod at the small knot of three from my crew that happened to be there, “and I’m still down.”
“Nice front, but ain’t you goin’ to some to some foo-foo lil’ school up north? How you tryin’ to show street you goin’ to some gringo private school?”
I grit my teeth. That one hit home, not just with me but with the crowd. “I still kick your ass, bien facil. How you gonna say I’m soft when I could prolly take you and your boys?” I started to tense; I didn’t want to pop my spines if it wasn’t going to go all the way, but I didn’t want to be late with them if things got ugly.
But he just smiled. “You a freak now, but your lil’ bro isn’t, estranjero. And you goin’ back to your ‘special school’ soon, right? We ain’t.”
Damn damn damn damn. He wasn't as dumb as he looked, or this had been planned out. My crew would probably try and look after my little brother, but they’d only be able to do so much, and they’d catch a lot of hell. Being a crew too tough to be worth bothering wouldn’t mean anything if push came to shove over something like this.
I wasn’t gonna win this. Time to play the game.
I hopped down off the wall. Everyone tensed, but I just smiled and shrugged. “What, it’s like that? I just be tryin’ get my dance on, yo. I mean, I know you kinda clumsy and me and my crew be to’ eso on the floor, but you dunn gotta be getting’ that jealous.”
It was as far as I could back down without tucking my tail completely, which I definitely couldn’t do. If I did, then I forfeited any right to defend myself, making my little brother fair game anyway. Hopefully, though, the kid was just trying to make a point, and now that I’d backed off he could call it good and we could all get back to chillin’.
“Ain’t no anglo music here.”
“Pshh, I got more salsa en la sangre than all you anormales. Lemme show you what I got. You may as well be lookin’, all the gallinitas always do.” I grinned; the talk was big, to show I wasn’t a chump they could push around like the kids in the crowd they’d picked on when they were walking up, but at the same time I was desperately wiling him to relax, to let me back down to just a kid looking for a dance in the alley. Always have to play the game, teetering on the edge.
“Yeah, whatever. Just don’t be forgettin’ where you be, board school boy.”
I kept myself from sighing in relief as I could feel the tension melt out of the crowd. There were more than a few disappointed faces, some because they were looking forward to a fight, some probably hoping I would get taken down, and a few because I backed down as much as I did. I tried not to think about those last ones. The price was more than I felt like paying if things had gone bad.
It was going to take a bite out of my game with the girls, though, even if my jumping and agility would help me blow everyone else’s dancing out of the water. Oh well; probably wouldn’t have scored more than a quick make-out anyway, depending on the girl, even if things had managed to go perfect. I had better prospects than that waiting back at school, at least long-term.
‘Hmm,’ I thought to myself as the music got turned back up and I felt the beat thrum. ‘Gonna have to tweak this story when I get back to school.’