I yawn. “Broke up with you because you wouldn’t have sex, huh?”

Delia and Tonya stare at me with wide eyes. “Isabel!”

Mary Kelly lowers her eyebrows. “I broke up with him! What made you say that anyway?”

“I don’t know. He’s eighteen. Older boys want more than most girls your age will give out.”

Mary Kelly pushes my knee away from her reach. “Most girls my age? I’m your age. You act like you’re so grown-up, like you’re my mother. And I don’t need another mother. I don’t even want the one I have.”

Everything happens so fast. Suddenly, I’m in front of Sister Rachel again. This time, I’m trying to explain the red mark on Mary Kelly’s cheek.

Nice Girls

“What happened to you?” Tata asks me. “You used to be such a nice girl.”

Nice girls don’t smack their friend’s face.

Nice girls don’t get disapproving looks from their aunties.

Nice girls don’t have to clean the school’s toilets after class.

Swimming

Olivia wants to go swimming. So at five o’clock, I close the store, change into my swimsuit, and take her to the village pool. Wearing his mirrored sunglasses, the unofficial lifeguard, Benny, sits in a lawn chair. He’s the official janitor for the mayor’s office. Since the pool is next to the mayor’s office, the mayor asked if, between mopping floors and cleaning toilets, Benny could keep an eye on the swimmers. I don’t even know if Benny can swim. I’ve never seen him in the pool.

Mrs. Cruz sits under a big umbrella, watching John Wayne jump up and down in the water.

I stand with my legs apart in the pool and Olivia swims between them. She’s able to do that three times before coming up for air. The water feels good, not too cold, not too hot. I remember the other night when I dived off the high board at the base pool. I loved that feeling of freedom when my body met the water, the cool sensation, and the hollow sound beneath the surface. Underwater, my worries disappear. I don’t think about Mary Kelly or Frank.

John Wayne comes over to us. “Can I play, too?” he asks.

“Sure,” I say. I wouldn’t want just any thirteen-year-old guy to swim between my legs, but John Wayne isn’t like any thirteen-year-old guy.

“Isabel,” Mrs. Cruz calls out, “I’m still waiting for you to come by.”

“I know. I will … soon,” I lie.

Before we leave, I tell Benny, “You need to get the mayor to add a diving board to the pool.”

“It’s too shallow,” he says. “You’d crack your head open and then you’d be an idiot.”

I try hard not to look at Mrs. Cruz, but out of the corner of my eye, I notice her flinch.

Preparations

The fiesta is this coming weekend. Olivia and I pass the preparations as we walk back home from the pool.

Tata is helping some of the other men set up the big white tents for bingo, cockfights, and other games. The food concession stands are already lined up on the side of the road, empty and waiting for action. A blue crepe paper skirt surrounds the pageant stage. Tomorrow the kiddy rides will arrive and Malesso will look like the circus has come to town.